Kathmandu, June 2

The government has come up with a relatively flexible procedure regarding the use of forest land while implementing developmental projects of national priority.

The government on May 22 had endorsed the work procedure regarding the use of national forest area for national priority projects. The procedure allows the projects to pay the government in cash in case of its inability to provide compensation in the form of land for the used forest land.

With the endorsement of the work procedure, projects can use forest land by paying certain amount to the government. The land will, however, automatically go under government’s ownership after the expiry of the agreement.

As per the previous provision, any project that uses forest land was required to provide the government with another piece of land in compensation, equivalent to the used land near the project site.

According to Spokesperson at the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation Dhananjay Poudel, the new procedure is expected to contribute to forest conservation. The work procedure is applicable to projects of national priority, government infrastructure projects to be built by the private sector under public-private partnership model, projects relating to goods or services for public use like roads, drinking water and electrification projects.

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