Review of people's participation in watershed management in the western development region

For the first time, in 1979, the Phewatal Watershed Project established a Panchyat (Village) Conservation Committee (PCC) to address the issues of people's participation.

In 1978, the Tinau Watershed Project developed a watershed management plan which aimed at providing opportunities for attracting people's participation. This project documented that the integrated conservation approach can only succeed if the people in the target area participate in planning, implementing and evaluating project activities.

Similarly, the Resource Conservation and Utilization Project (RCUP) in 1980 observed that an integrated program results in meaningful output only when the beneficiaries participate in planning and implementation of project activities. For this reason, the RCUP established a Catchment Conservation Committee (CCC) similar to the PCCs in the Phewatal watershed area. The CCCs, however, could not be effective because the area they served was too large to coordinate.

The BTRT Watershed Management (WM) Project which was initiated in 1985 with the support of me Dutch Government through CARE International in Nepal, adopted the users' group approach by capitalizing the Decentralization Act to form users' group committees. This project has been considered as one of the most successful projects in ensuring people's participation. A sister project of the BTRT has also been initiated in the Upper Andhi Khola watershed of Syangja in 1992 with a similar approach to people's participation. By now, the Upper Andhi Khola WM Project has become well known for applying the Participatory Community Problem Analysis (PCPA) approach to map village resources and plan grassroots level activities.

HMG/N started a District Soil Conservation Program in the Parbat and Tanahun districts in 1990. Although it institutionalized the subsidy policy, the mechanism for ensuring people's participation was left open to accommodate various approaches.

The Inter-Regional Project for Participatory Upland Conservation and Development (PUCD) in Bhusunde Khola watershed area in Gorkha District has been operational since 1992, with the assistance of the Italian Government and the FAO. In seeking participation of the local people during the assessment and the planning phases, the PUCD has taken a unique step in the participatory approach. It focused on the socio-economic aspects of the participating community by incorporating gender analyses and participatory assessments from the very initial stages.