Opportunity Costs of Forest Conservation in Nepal (original) (raw)

Socio-economic factors and management regimes as drivers of tree cover change in Nepal

PeerJ

Despite the local and global importance of forests, deforestation is driven by various socio-economic and biophysical factors continues in many countries. In Nepal, in response to massive deforestation, the community forestry program has been implemented to reduce deforestation and support livelihoods. After four decades of its inception, the effectiveness of this program on forest cover change remains mostly unknown. This study analyses the spatial and temporal patterns of tree cover change along with a few socio-economic drivers of tree cover change to examine the effectiveness of the community forestry program for conserving forests or in reducing deforestation. We also investigate the socio-economic factors and policy responses as manifested through the community forestry program responsible for the tree cover change at the district level. The total tree cover area in the year 2000 in Nepal was ∼4,746,000 hectares, and our analysis reveals that between 2001 and 2016, Nepal has l...

The Efficiency of Community Forests: Successful and Unsuccessful Examples From Nepal

Virginia Tech, 2000

This study suggests that transfer of State forests to the local communities is the least cost policy option to improve prevailing deforestation problem in Nepal. However, there are few problems at operational, institutional, and policy levels, which are restricting community forest (CF) transformation. Based on the result of six representative case studies, this work identifies following important issue viz. low marginal flexibility, incomplete and uncertain property rights transfer, equity problem, specific demand adjustment problem, and inconsistent forest policy. This work recommends for amendment of modern CF policy guidelines to reduce CF transformation costs, increase present value of future returns, and reduce present value of enforcement costs. These amendments will be effective to improve prevailing CF work situation in Nepal.

Opportunity Cost of REDD+ in Community Forests in the Mid-Hills of Nepal : A Case Study of Thangsa Deurali Community Forest, Dolakha

2016

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) was reformulated to cover deforestation and forest degradation, which, until recently, were overlooked in climate change mitigation initiatives. However, whether REDD+ will benefit countries like Nepal, which has a relatively low deforestation rate, less forest cover, and a population predominantly comprising farmers who are heavily dependent on forests, is being debated. To address this issue, the opportunity cost (OC) of REDD+ need to be analyzed. This study analyzes the OC of REDD+ against high-value and mid-value crops in the Thangsa Deurali Community Forest (TDCF) of Dolakha district in the midhills of Nepal. This community forest has been participating in the REDD+ pilot program since 2009. In the study, household survey, focused group discussions, and key informant interviews were used to collect data on community forest management, including forest harvesting and agricultural practices. To estimate the OC, ...