Municipalities in Nepal’s mid-hill district of Sindhupalchok have adapted, adopted and scaled up an approach for improving rural livelihoods. RECOFTC’s Trees and Bees agroforestry model was first implemented in 2015 in Sarlahi, a district in the country’s Terai plains. In 2022, we modified the approach to fit the context of Sindhupalchok district’s Indrawati rural municipality by replacing beekeeping with goat farming. Three community groups with leasehold rights to use local forests participated, with RECOFTC Nepal providing 45 goats to 22 of the most vulnerable and marginalized households.
The project’s positive impacts on livelihoods in Indrawati led us to replicate the model in the nearby Chautara Sangachowkgadhi municipality. In June 2023, the municipality agreed to adopt and scale up the updated model to enhance the livelihoods of marginalized communities and women utilizing community forests. The local government’s ownership of the initiative is essential to sustainability.
“Goat farming can be lucrative, allowing farmers to potentially achieve profits of USD 200–350 every three months,” says Ram Prasad Gautam, chair of ward-13, Chautara Sanghachokgadi municipality. This is significant as about 27 percent of the district’s population, including women and the historically oppressed and excluded Dalit community, live in extreme poverty.
The costs of the goats are shared, with RECOFTC Nepal covering 15 percent, the Chautara Sanghachokgadhi municipality, ward-13 office providing 35 percent and the participating households contributing 50 percent. What started as a crowdfunding program to support the livelihoods of marginalized people has been scaled up and is now owned by local government.