Terms of Reference

Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC Nepal)

Terms of Reference

Title of Assignment: Provide Service to Preparation of Panchase Forest Protection Area Management Plan

1. Introduction

RECOFTC believes in a future where people live equitably and sustainably in and beside healthy, resilient forests. It takes a long-term, landscape-based and inclusive approach to supporting local communities to secure their resource rights, stop deforestation, find alternative livelihoods and foster gender equity. With offices and teams in seven countries, RECOFTC is considered a key development partner contributing to national community forestry program in those countries through strong partnerships with national and landscape-level governments, local civil society organizations and communities. Promoting community forestry and sustainable forest management, RECOFTC has been working in Nepal for almost three decades. While RECOFTC’s engagement in Nepal has been increasing, RECOFTC registered at national level in Nepal as Center for People and Forests (RECOFTC Nepal) in 2020 at the Company Registrar Office in Kathmandu as non-profit distributing company and affiliated with Social Welfare Council. Center for People and Forests is a sister organization of RECOFTC which holds a unique and important place in the world of forestry that specializes in capacity development for community forestry and devolved forest management.

In Nepal, the Center has been engaged to build the capacity of forest government and community forestry stakeholders to improve landscape collaboration in forest and other resource management, enterprise development, climate action, and promoting gender equality. RECOFTC Nepal has been successful in supporting policy formulation, governance strengthening of federal and sub-national forest government and developing local communities and associated stakeholders’ capacity through projects such as sustainable forest management, grass root capacity building on REDD+, climate change adaptation, and trees and bees and other similar projects. RECOFTC Nepal initiated Scaling-up Equitable Governance in Area-based Conservation (SEGA) project (2024 - 2028), in partnership with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). This four-year project aims to advance equity and governance in protected, conserved, and biodiversity-rich forest areas in Nepal and also contributes to Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework 30x30 target to conserve 30% of land and oceans by 2030. It uses the Site-Level Assessment on Governance and Equity (SAGE) tool to enable site-level actors to assess the governance and equity of conservation practices and to plan and implement actions for improvement. It puts an emphasis on equitable governances focusing particularly on Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

2. Context

Panchase Forest Protection Area (PFPA) is one of the key demonstration sites of SEGA project. Declared as a protected forest in 2012, PFPA is a vital ecological hotspot spanning across the mid-hills of Kaski, Syangja, and Parbat districts of Nepal. It supports diverse sub-tropical to temperate mixed evergreen forest types including Hill Sal, Schima-Castanopsis, Alder, Oak-Laurel and Oak-Rhododendron forests. The area is renowned for its exceptional biodiversity, especially for its 143 orchid species (two of which are nationally threatened), and provides habitat for various endangered wild species, birds, flowering and medicinal plants. PFPA also provides critical ecosystem services such as watershed protection for Phewa Lake and surrounding areas, contributing to water security and soil conservation. 

Today, Panchase faces mounting challenges, including climate change-induced vulnerabilities like erratic rainfall and temperature pattern, forest resource overexploitation, increased forest fire risks, human-wildlife conflicts, unsustainable agriculture practices, and emerging threats from tourism and development. During SAGE assessment at PFPA, these issues were found to be rooted to different dimensions of policy regulation, forest management and equitable governance issues including equitable benefit sharing, forest tenure rights, inclusive decision making and active engagement of indigenous people and local communities and recognition of community-led institution such as council. These challenges have threatened the role of PFPA as a biodiversity hotspot and cultural heritage site. Therefore, acomprehensive and integrated management plan for PFPA is essential to address these challenges, develop actionable strategies, and foster collaborative governance involving federal, provincial, and local governments. This plan will prioritize community-based conservation, zoning for sustainable natural resource management, and create synergy across sectors to enhance resilience for both nature and local livelihoods. 

3. Objectives

The objective of this assessment is to develop an integrated, inclusive, comprehensive Management Plan of Panchase Forest Protection Area addressing existing and emerging threats and proposing sustainable, inclusive, transparent and adaptive strategies.

Specifically, the consultant expert team will be responsible to:

• Assess the current status of forest and biodiversity along with socio-economic and livelihood while exploring key threats and challenges in conservation
• Develop, review and align management strategies with the Forest Act 2019, Forest Regulation, 2020 along with province forest act and regulations of Gandaki province and other relevant legal documents that engages stakeholders at all levels in development, inclusive institutional arrangements, and actionable interventions balancing conservation with sustainable livelihoods,
• Develop a forward-looking plan that incorporates revision, monitoring and evaluation of plans and strategies including adaptive management, in compliance with regulatory thresholds. 

4. Team Composition and Expertise 

The proposed team will be composed of multidisciplinary team of experts (minimum 3) with strong knowledge, experience and academic qualification as follows. Specifically, the team should consist minimum of:

1. Team Leader (1): An expert holding at least master’s degree in forestry, natural resource management, conservation, environmental science, management or related field,
2. Specialist (1): An expert holding at least master’s degree in agroeconomics or resource economics
3. Specialist (1): An expert holding at least master’s degree sociology, Gender studies, rural development, other development studies, or related field,
4. Strong knowledge of forest management, stewardship principles, inventory, conservation governance and institutional development, social and environmental justice,
5. Experience in coordinating and facilitating multi-stakeholder platforms including federal and provincial level consultation meetings, focus group discussions in communities and KIIs. 
6. Experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection, data management, statistics, and data analysis software.
7. Excellent communication, coordination, analytical and writing skills. 

5. Proposal Submission 

Interested VAT registered organizations or individual in Nepal are requested to submit technical and financial proposals providing a detailed breakdown of total budget in Nepali rupees, electronically to nepal-recruitment@recoftc.org. 

Please mention “Proposal: Panchase FPA Management Plan” as an email subject and submit the proposal by 5 p.m. Nepal Standard Time, October 31, 2025. 

Proposal must include the following:

1. Signed cover letter specifying the value of the proposal (maximum of 1 page)
2. Technical Proposal (maximum of 5 pages) 
3. CVs of experts
4. Organization profile with relevant experience (maximum of 2 pages) 
5. Financial proposal (see Annex 2 for template) 
6. Organization registration and renewal certificates 
7. VAT registration certificate 
8. Latest tax clearance and Audit report

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