Two days National level expert Consultation workshop of the mainstreaming Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services into Community Forestry in Nepal was held in Kathmandu on 3rd and 4th March 2016. The workshop was jointly organized by Department of Forest (DoF), Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN) and Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN) under the technical and financial support of Birdlife International and Darwin Initiative.

The main objectives of two days’ workshop were to develop outline of the biodiversity supplement for the production of an official biodiversity supplement to national community forest management guidelines, and to agree and design content of training materials, tools and guidelines; and develop approach for integration of biodiversity and ecosystem services training modules into curricula and content of existing training courses of DoF and FECOFUN simultaneously.

Dr. Rajendra KC from Department of Forest Research and Survey presented the case study and B. K. Sharma presented an in-depth desk review of integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services into community forestry management in Nepal. Similarly, Prakash Lamsal, Under Secretary, DoF, highlighted the policies and practices on integrating biodiversity into community forestry in Nepal. Billy Fairburn, BirdLife International introduced a framework for mainstreaming biodiversity into community forestry and an outline of biodiversity supplement was developed through group discussion.

4th March – The objective of second day's workshop was to develop training outline linked to biodiversity supplement. The overall presentations were more focused on capacity development for integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services into community forestry. Under Secretary from CFTEC Mr. Nabin Prasad Upadhyaya and Mr. Bodh Raj Subedi presented on Issues and Challenges, and New Forestry Policy and Strategy Process, on capacity development for Integrating Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services into Community Forestry in Nepal, respectively.

After group activities and careful discussion, participants from BirdLife International, Billy Fairburn and Jenny Merriman introduced the framework and its additional considerations for preparing outline of the training material.