Review of the Project document from Social Impact Assessment Perspective The proposed project on Sustainable Management in the Churia Range, Nepal

The report reviews a proposed three-year sustainable land management project in four districts of Nepal's Churia Range. While technically sound, the assessment finds a critical lack of social context and gender-inclusive planning. It highlights that the project's design process was dominated by male technical teams and institutional stakeholders, largely excluding women, Dalits, and indigenous people. The report argues that without specific GESI (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion) strategies, the project risks reinforcing elite capture in community forestry and failing to address the specific vulnerabilities of the poorest populations, who are most dependent on forest resources and most affected by climate change.

• The project design is heavily skewed toward technical concerns and lacks a social context analysis, failing to provide background on the socio-cultural aspects of the people in the Churia range.
• Stakeholder consultations were conducted primarily at the institutional and Community Based Organization (CBO) levels, resulting in a lack of direct involvement from women, poor, Dalit, and indigenous community members.
• The project's threat rating and stakeholder analysis were conducted by an all-male technical team, leading to a gender-neutral analysis that ignores the specific impacts of threats on women and marginalized groups.
• Climate change and biodiversity degradation disproportionately affect women and children in the region, increasing their workload for collecting forest resources and reducing their nutritional intake.
• Community forestry models in the Churia range are prone to 'elite capture,' often excluding the poorest and landless settlers who lack land titles.
• The project fails to reference the national Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) policy, despite being implemented by ministries that have their own GESI strategies.
• The project's monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework lacks qualitative GESI indicators and does not clearly define how the 200 disadvantaged households to be monitored will be identified.

APA

Singh, K. (n.d.). Review of the Project document from Social Impact Assessment Perspective The proposed project on Sustainable Management in the Churia Range, Nepal. WWF International. https://files.worldwildlife.org/wwfcmsprod/files/Publication/file/2d8zh91l3n_SIA_Intial_Report_GEF_LD_Nepal_15062013.pdf?_ga=2.80583007.953394998.1654529745-938408607.1653319523&_gac=1.247463286.1654016287.Cj0KCQjw-daUBhCIARIsALbkjSb-JRPL-s6JZu0N2spk_50hfDA_H8sesSXf0sVH8CuBkghecyFvnCIaAnFMEALw_wcB

Chicago

Singh, Kanta. Review of the Project document from Social Impact Assessment Perspective The proposed project on Sustainable Management in the Churia Range, Nepal. WWF International, n.d. https://files.worldwildlife.org/wwfcmsprod/files/Publication/file/2d8zh91l3n_SIA_Intial_Report_GEF_LD_Nepal_15062013.pdf?_ga=2.80583007.953394998.1654529745-938408607.1653319523&_gac=1.247463286.1654016287.Cj0KCQjw-daUBhCIARIsALbkjSb-JRPL-s6JZu0N2spk_50hfDA_H8sesSXf0sVH8CuBkghecyFvnCIaAnFMEALw_wcB.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Singh |first1=Kanta |title=Review of the Project document from Social Impact Assessment Perspective The proposed project on Sustainable Management in the Churia Range, Nepal |publisher=WWF International |url=https://files.worldwildlife.org/wwfcmsprod/files/Publication/file/2d8zh91l3n_SIA_Intial_Report_GEF_LD_Nepal_15062013.pdf?_ga=2.80583007.953394998.1654529745-938408607.1653319523&_gac=1.247463286.1654016287.Cj0KCQjw-daUBhCIARIsALbkjSb-JRPL-s6JZu0N2spk_50hfDA_H8sesSXf0sVH8CuBkghecyFvnCIaAnFMEALw_wcB |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{singhndreview, author = {Singh, Kanta}, title = {{Review of the Project document from Social Impact Assessment Perspective The proposed project on Sustainable Management in the Churia Range, Nepal}}, institution = {WWF International}, url = {https://files.worldwildlife.org/wwfcmsprod/files/Publication/file/2d8zh91l3n_SIA_Intial_Report_GEF_LD_Nepal_15062013.pdf?_ga=2.80583007.953394998.1654529745-938408607.1653319523&_gac=1.247463286.1654016287.Cj0KCQjw-daUBhCIARIsALbkjSb-JRPL-s6JZu0N2spk_50hfDA_H8sesSXf0sVH8CuBkghecyFvnCIaAnFMEALw_wcB}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }