Forest Extraction Research Paper
1. Introduction
Nepal has more villages than cities and towns. More than 80% of the people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Nepal is rich in forests. % of the total land is covered with forest. Majority of the rural households are subsistence farmers and rely heavily on forest products to meet their daily requirements. Fuel wood is used for cooking and heating purposes, fodder and grass for livestock, leaf litter for manure, and timber for constructing houses and for making agricultural implements. Poor people are more benefitted from forests products as they are not able to afford for alternative source of energy for fuel, timber etc. But studies also show that forest resources are equally consumed by other groups of people as well. Total land covered by forest has been declining rapidly from the last decade. Therefore forest resource management has been important. In Nepal, as in other developing countries, the development of community-based resource management has led to the decentralization of forest management — from centralized government control to local Forest User Groups (FUG).
2. Forest resources and institutional change
Nepal is a prominent example of institutional change in forest resources management in South Asia. The history of forest policy in Nepal begins with a move from privatization to nationalization and, then, a return to a decentralization of forest management. Subsequently, growing recognition of the benefits of forest management by local communities led, in the 1990s, to the re-introduction of community participation in forest management (Gautam, 1991,
Shrestha, 1996, Brown, et al., 2002). Thus, forest management policies in Nepal have gone through a variety of transformations, including the establishment of large protected area networks, and the initiation of community forestry, leasehold forestry, and park buffer zone management programs in the mid-1990s. Decentralization of forest management in Nepal helped to
Nepal has more villages than cities and towns. More than 80% of the people are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Nepal is rich in forests. % of the total land is covered with forest. Majority of the rural households are subsistence farmers and rely heavily on forest products to meet their daily requirements. Fuel wood is used for cooking and heating purposes, fodder and grass for livestock, leaf litter for manure, and timber for constructing houses and for making agricultural implements. Poor people are more benefitted from forests products as they are not able to afford for alternative source of energy for fuel, timber etc. But studies also show that forest resources are equally consumed by other groups of people as well. Total land covered by forest has been declining rapidly from the last decade. Therefore forest resource management has been important. In Nepal, as in other developing countries, the development of community-based resource management has led to the decentralization of forest management — from centralized government control to local Forest User Groups (FUG).
2. Forest resources and institutional change
Nepal is a prominent example of institutional change in forest resources management in South Asia. The history of forest policy in Nepal begins with a move from privatization to nationalization and, then, a return to a decentralization of forest management. Subsequently, growing recognition of the benefits of forest management by local communities led, in the 1990s, to the re-introduction of community participation in forest management (Gautam, 1991,
Shrestha, 1996, Brown, et al., 2002). Thus, forest management policies in Nepal have gone through a variety of transformations, including the establishment of large protected area networks, and the initiation of community forestry, leasehold forestry, and park buffer zone management programs in the mid-1990s. Decentralization of forest management in Nepal helped to
References: SANDEE Working Paper No. 16-06, www.google.com