Deforestation in the Food/Fuel Context: Historical and Political Perspectives from Nepal

Bajracharya, Deepak

doi:10.2307/3673017

Cited by 94 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…1) and data for the forest and cultivated soils overlapped. Possible reasons for inconsistency in the SOC concentration in forest soils include a long history of exploitive extraction of the terai forest resource (Bajracharya, 1983), intensified use of remaining forest for fuel wood and grazing as the terai population grew rapidly from the 1950's onwards, and soil erosion which may be exacerbated by human disturbance. All of these processes would have the greatest effect on the surface soil layer.…”

Section: Soc and Tn Relationships With Soil Texturementioning

confidence: 98%

Influence of soil texture and cultivation on carbon and nitrogen levels in soils of the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains

2009

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Section: Soc and Tn Relationships With Soil Texturementioning

confidence: 98%

Influence of soil texture and cultivation on carbon and nitrogen levels in soils of the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains

2009

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“…6). Since government oversight and management has always been largely ineffective in many of Nepal's inaccessible areas, the Forest Nationalization Act 1957 appears to have had lasting effects for decades (Bajracharya, 1983;Bhattarai et al, 2002;Gilmour and Fisher, 1991;Sen et al, 1997).…”

Section: Temperate Middle-hills Regions (1200-2399 M)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of deforestation in Nepal's Central Development Region

Bhattarai

Conway

Yousef

2009

Journal of Environmental Management

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The process of deforestation in the Central Development Region (CDR) of Nepal is diverse in space and time, with rapid deforestation still occurring in areas outside the national parks and wildlife reserves. This paper identifies the spatial driving forces (SDFs) of deforestation in the CDR for 1975-2000 using satellite data of 1975 (MSS), 1990 (TM), and 2000 (ETM+) along with socio-demographic and socioeconomic variables. Radiometrically calibrated satellite images are individually classified into seven distinct classes and merged together to cover the entire CDR. Classification accuracies are also assessed. Areas of land use and cover within the areas of each Village Development Committee (VDC) and municipality represented by GIS polygons are calculated from the classified images by overlaying vector files of 1845 polygons representing sections of VDCs and municipalities in 30-1199 m, 1200-2399 m, 2400-4999 m and >5000 m elevation levels. These elevation levels were estimated from the DEM compiled from 24 ASTER scenes taken on different dates. Only the first three elevation levels are used in the analysis because area >5000 m is under permanent snow cover where human related forestry activities are almost negligible. A transition matrix is generated for 1975-1990 using classified images of 1975 and 1990 and then this product is used to further develop another transition matrix for 1990-2000 with the classified ETM+ 2000 images as the final stage. The GIS polygon layer is overlaid on the transition matrices to calculate deforestation areas for 1975-1990 and 1990-2000. Biophysical and socioeconomic information collected from various sources is then brought into a GIS platform for statistical analyses. Six linear regression models are estimated using SAS; in effect, two models for each elevation range representing the 1975-1990 and 1990-2000 periods of change to identify SDF influences on deforestation. These regression analyses reveal that deforestation in the CDR is related to multiple factors, such as farming population, genders of various ages, migration, elevation, road, distance from road to forest, meandering and erosion of river, and most importantly the conversion of forestland into farmland.

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“…According to the theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation, high population growth rate, economic activities based on natural resources and poverty have caused mass forest degradation and have had an adverse effect on the environment (Ives and Messerli 1989); this relates directly to LUCC issues in Nepal. There are a number of studies on the causes, pathways and pace of LUCC, as regards cropland, forest, grassland, snow/glacier cover and urban land in various areas of Nepal (Bajracharya 1983;Mahat 1985;Mahat et al 1986;Virgo and Subba 1994;Shrestha and Brown 1995;Khanal 2002;Sharma 2003;Khanal and Watanabe 2006;Bajracharya et al 2014;Uddin et al 2015). Forms of land use such as grazing, shifting cultivation, deforestation, urbanization and land degradation have also been major players in LUCC in the past.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%