A government Forestry Officer uses a flip chart to explain aspects of the FAO-assisted Community Forestry Development Project to villagers near Kathmandu. - - Wood for Energy Programme. FAO is involved in helping the government overcome critical problems of deforestation and fuel wood shortage through a nation-wide project of reforestation. Indiscriminate cutting of trees for fuel wood has led to such environmental disasters as erosion and landslides on the Himalayan slopes, threatening lives and destroying arable and grazing lands. It is estimated that Nepal has lost a quarter of its forests in the past decade alone. An FAO project aims to establish 900 000 trees on private land and, in all, 11 000 hectares will be planted in the next few years with the participation of villagers themselves. Through its Wood for Energy Programme, FAO aims to ensure future sources of fuel wood through the planting of tree species, which, in addition to energy, will provide fruit, fodder and building poles. The government's FAO-assisted Community Forestry Development Project is also concerned with soil and water conservation.