Chepangs inhabit the Mahabharat mountain range in central Nepal. They are among the poorest ethnic minorities of this Himalayan kingdom of 23 million people, and half of the Chepangs live below the poverty line. The plight of other Chepangs in the area is no different. But that is slowly changing, thanks to a unique government initiative that is handing over plots of degraded land areas in the hills and plains to the poor, changing their lives.

Today, the 10-year-old Leasehold Forestry and Forage Development - a programme begun with the twin objectives of fighting poverty and improving degraded forests - has been introduced in 30 districts around the country. Degraded lands have been over-farmed or damaged by floods or fire.

The programme is also beginning to yield benefits, picking up lessons from other leasehold programmes like the one that the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supports in Nepal's western uplands.

The changes that the IFAD programme has brought about were in fact highlighted at the end-of-May conference called 'Scaling Up Poverty Reduction: A Global Learning Process' in Shanghai, China, where international experts met to discuss innovative ways of reducing poverty around the world.

For instance, in Maya's village, dozens of otherwise illiterate women and women can read and write now, using the income they earn to get education.

''Our life has changed for the better, women in our community are more active today than men,'' Maya said at a recent seminar in Kathmandu. ''We are raising goats, sheep and cows and earning cash. We have been able to speak before groups, and read and write.''

Most importantly, they are nurturing little patches of forests in the degraded land in their surroundings, and raising their own cattle and earning hard cash to support the family.

Introduced with two pilot projects in the early 1990s, the programme has now been expanded to all geographical regions of Nepal. The most recent districts it has reached are Achham, Bajhang, Bajura and Darchula in far-western Nepal.

The programme has helped 11,000 families reclaim 7,000 hectares of degraded patches of land. It involves leasing out degraded patches of forests to the poorest or most disadvantaged groups in the community for 40 years. After the forest plantations grow, the little forests become a resource base for the poor households' exclusive use.

Today, well over 1,600 leasehold forestry groups that are nurturing forests in the otherwise ''hopeless slopes and ravines'' have been formed. More are in the process of being formed, says Jamuna Krishna Tamrakar, director general at the Department of Forest. ''This is a very good programme, and the impressive outcomes of the last decade have encouraged the government to go on,'' he said. He added that the ministry now supports leasehold forestry groups in 26 districts around the country.

In the remaining four districts of the far west, the Ministry of Local Development has a separate leasehold forestry programme under the Western Upland Poverty Reduction Programme, which is supported by IFAD, the government's long-time leasehold forestry development partner.

Recent studies have shown that the leasehold forestry programme has contributed considerably to improving the livelihoods of the poor, empowering women - while also improving the condition of degraded forests.

Consider it. On the ecological front, vegetative cover on degraded land in new sites increased from 32 to 90 percent over a seven-year period. On food security, the average period of food self-sufficiency increased from 7.8 to 8.4 months over three years.

Likewise, there has been a 16 percent increment in person-months of food self-sufficiency over three years.

Studies have also shown that the family income of leasehold household members earning cash has increased by 24 percent over three years, from the sales of goats, milk and fodder.

Also, the time women require to collect forest-based fodder decreased by 2.5 hours per day over a five-year-period.

Dr. Mohan Man Sainju, former vice chairman of the National Planning Commission, agrees that the leasehold programme have become a boon for the poorest of the poor in Nepal.

Since the programme has contributed to reducing poverty, he says that the donor community should continue to support it -- besides IFAD, the Netherlands government has supported leasehold forestry development.

''Now it's time more donors came in and help poor people improve their living conditions and help create a better ecology,'' Sainju said. The government's Tenth Five Year Plan 2003-2008 has also prioritised poverty reduction through the extension of leasehold forestry programmes.

Promoters of the leasehold forestry programme argue that it has rectified the errors of other development programmes like the one on community forestry, which has been introduced today in all 75 districts of the country.

Meanwhile, the government is also working to lease out degraded and deforested lands to private entrepreneurs so that they can nurture forests and develop ecotourism programmes and make some money, according to Tamrakar.

''We've already prepared the guidelines for that,'' he said, adding that the new offshoot of the leasehold forestry programme is set to take off any time soon. ''The more degraded land areas we can convert into lush green forests, the better.''

However, there are critics who are calling for greater transparency while implementing both types of leasehold forestry programmes -- one that is for the poor and the disadvantaged groups, and another for private entrepreneurs.

''The government should learn from the past, draw lessons from its mistakes,'' said Subodh Gautam, an environmental journalist with the Nepali-language 'Kantipur' newspaper. ''Not everything we've been hearing about the programme is positive or good. The government and the donors alike must work to ensure accountability and greater transparency while implementing such projects.''