This book presents a comprehensive review of new research and practice-based insights from Nepals four decades of community forestry development, delving into when and how community-based management can lead to forest landscape restoration and equitable livelihoods.
With over four decades of formal program history, Nepals community forestry is a rare case from the Global South showcasing the trajectories and outcomes of a community-based environmental management initiative. It offers historically proven lessons of what it takes to restore degraded forests in a way that empowers local communities to make decisions. The book showcases research and experiential insights of those who became part of Nepals community forestry movement from the early years to the current stage. Tracing stories of change from the era of Himalayan degradation in the 1970s to the globally hailed success of community forestry in the 2000s, the book demonstrates how the policy, political economy, and changing community dynamics have shaped the everyday practice of community forestry and its contribution to livelihoods and forest restoration. It reveals how small-scale work in the early years evolved into a complex system of community forestry, exposing the challenges associated with social exclusion, resource management, and policy environment. As such, it makes an important contribution to the global knowledge on community driven forest landscape restoration in the Global South where forest ecosystems are inseparable from the everyday life and livelihoods of local communities.
This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners working on forest restoration and conservation, community development, environmental policy and planning, and sustainable development more widely.
Introduction
1. Nepal's Community Forestry Journey: Themes, Challenges,
and Contributions
2. Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Evolution of Community
Forestry Policy and Practice in Nepal Theme 1: Resource Tenure and Governance
3. The Politics of Policy Evolution: Community Forestry Governance and
Regulatory Shifts in Nepal
4. Contested Tenure: Legal Rights, Administrative
Barriers, and the Everyday Negotiations for Community Forest Access
5.
Cross-Scale Governance: Technocracy and Local Resistance in Community
Forestry in Nepal Theme 2: Community Dynamics, Local Institutions, and
Planning
6. Crumbling Commons? The Transformation of Forest-Dependent
Societies in Changing Contexts
7. Institutions at Crossroads: The Evolution
of Collective Action in Community Forestry
8. Unveiling the Elite Nexus: The
Political Economy of Progress and Stagnation in Nepals Community Forestry
9.
Reframing Community Forestry: Critiquing Planning Practices and Charting a
Path for Revitalization in Nepal Theme 3: Forest Ecology and Management
10.
Community Forestry Ecologies: Forest Dynamics, Biodiversity, and Emerging
Challenges
11. Rethinking Forest Management: Silviculture, Technology, and
the Future of Community Forestry
12. Restoring Forest Ecosystems? Impact of
Community Forestry on Biodiversity, Restoration, and Ecosystem Services
13.
Forest-Farm Interface: Integrating Private and Community Forestry for
Landscape-Level Management Theme 4: Climate Change
14. Restoring Systems
Thinking: Climate Risks, Autonomous Adaptation, and Enabling Policy in
Community Forestry
15. The Carbon Promise: Climate Change Mitigation
Potential of Community-Managed Forestry in Nepal Theme 5: Livelihoods,
gender, and equity
16. Beyond Natural Capital: Leveraging Community Forestry
for Livelihoods and Local Economies
17. Beyond Tokenism: Women's Leadership
and the Struggle for Inclusive Participation in Community Forestry
18. The
Business Potential of Community Forestry: Regulatory Barriers, Market
Uncertainty, and Community Struggles Conclusion
19. Reimagining Forest
Communities: Key Insights from Nepals Community Forestry
Hemant Ojha is an Associate Professor at Australian National University and the Principal Advisor of Global Development at the Institute for Study and Development Worldwide (IFSD), Australia.
Krishna K. Shrestha is Professor of Global Development at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Naya S Paudel is a Senior Researcher and former Executive Coordinator at ForestAction Nepal.
Rahul Karki is an Executive Coordinator at ForestAction Nepal, a Kathmandu based forestry research institution.
Dil Khatri is an Executive Director and Senior Researcher at the Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS), a Kathmandu based policy research organization.
Sony Baral is Associate Professor at Tribhuwan University, Nepal and Executive Director of The Resource Nepal, a non-profit organization dedicated to building a sustainable future for Nepal and its citizens.
Mani Ram Banjade is a researcher at ForestAction Nepal. He holds a PhD in environmental governance and development studies from the Australian National University.
Ian Nuberg is Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is also the leader of the ten year EnLiFT project researching the improvement of livelihoods through agroforestry and community forestry in Nepal.
