Evaluating Forest Management in Nepal: Views across Space and Time

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This research follows the manner in which State-driven, upwardly accountable, forest decentralization programs play out on the ground, and evaluates their impact on forests and local institutions, a topic of much current concern and debate. In a landscape in Nepal's Terai plains, we conducted a census of 23 co-managed community and buffer-zone forest user groups-two predominant approaches to involving communities in forest-management activities in Nepal's Terai plains-to draw statistically relevant conclusions about the relative impact of these two programs at a landscape scale. We use a multidate Landsat TM® image classification to develop a land-cover change classification, and use this to generate objective, quantitative, biophysical indicators that enable us to assess the extent of clearing and regeneration in the forest areas controlled and managed by each of these communities. In-depth field interviews with the communities provide us with information about the impact of these initiatives on local institutions. Finally, we link these two kinds of information sets to interpret the satellite information on forest-cover change with reference to the socioeconomic processes and management rules that influence forest-cover change in these regions. Satellite image analysis shows the regeneration of several patches of forest that are managed within the purview of the Royal Chitwan National Park's buffer-zone program. This can be related to high levels of investment in plantation and forest-management activities by external agencies. The substantial revenue that these communities derive from ecotourism also helps, allowing them to hire forest guards, and afford better monitoring capabilities. In contrast, the less wealthy, communityforestry user groups have to make do with volunteer patrols, and do not have the same level of external technical and financial support to invest in plantation activities. Buffer-zone users, however, have to deal with rather strict controls on export of forest products, which were put in place by park authorities, and which the users do not have the power to modify. Downward accountability is limited, and communities do not have a high degree of effective control over forest-management policies. Thus, local communities currently function under a situation of constraint, where they have been delegated responsibilities, but lack the devolution of property rights and decision-making power. This has significant and potentially negative implications for the future of the program.

Drivers of reforestation in human-dominated forests

“…Tenure regime was also significantly associated with social conflict. In line with earlier reports (45,46), leasehold forest groups reported the highest number of disruptive conflicts. Tenure regime was not significantly associated with any other attributes of the governance system, indicating that these variables represent independent additional factors that need to be considered separately.…”

“…However, at intermediate group sizes (5-15 individuals per hectare of forest area), forest regeneration is maximum. Similar relationships have been demonstrated in previous studies in South Asia (18,35,54,55). When the number of users is too few relative to the total forest area, forest planting, maintenance, monitoring, and other critical tasks cannot be carried out effectively.…”

“…Based on several years of research in Nepal (18,37,44,45), this set of variables was narrowed down to a subset of 17 variables that were identified as potentially impacting the success of forest management initiatives in Nepal (Table 1). The variables were grouped into five sets: (i) attributes of the resource system, (ii) attributes of the user group, (iii) attributes of the governance system, (iv) attributes relating to interactions between the user group and resource, and (v) attributes relating to interactions between the governance system and the resource.…”

“…This small mountain country provides an excellent context in which to examine trajectories of forest change, with extensive evidence of forest clearing in some regions and large-scale regrowth in others (18,20). The range of biophysical and ecological contexts, diversity of tenure arrangements, and number of user groups provide us with sufficient variation to be able to examine a range of contexts.…”

“…Whereas the driving forces associated with forest transitions have been well documented in economically developed countries in the temperate world, such as Scotland, France, and the United States (13), drivers of reforestation in tropical developing countries are less studied. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence of large-scale forest regrowth in the tropical and subtropical forests of Brazil (14), Costa Rica (15), India (16), Mexico (17), Nepal (18), Puerto Rico (12), and Tanzania (19). Developing a more comprehensive understanding of the range of proximate and underlying factors that can help promote reforestation in human-dominated forests is essential if we are to develop useful policy interventions.…”