The vacillating evolution of forestry policy in Nepal: Historically manipulated, internally mismanaged
01 Sep 2002-International Development Planning Review (Liverpool University Press)-Vol. 24, Iss: 3, pp 315-338
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine Nepal's forestry policies and use practices during the pre-unification period (pre-1769), the Rana regime (1846-1950), planned development (the 1950s), the Panchayat regime (1960-90) and post-democracy (1990 to the present).
Abstract: The history of Nepalese forestry reveals that very little progress has been made in effectively integrating people's needs with forest management objectives through forestry policy mandates and practices. This paper critically examines Nepal's forestry policies and use practices during the pre-unification period (pre-1769), the Rana regime (1846–1950), planned development (the 1950s), the Panchayat regime (1960–90) and post-democracy (1990 to the present). This historical critique finds that political posturing, rhetoric and personal profiteering have taken precedence over public duty, regardless of whether autocratic or pseudo-democratic regimes were in power. Thus far, forest policy studies have focused on the hill zone of Nepal. This paper focuses on Tarai forestry, and exposes the geopolitical and political economic forces in play. It concludes that a lack of fiscal transparency and accountability on the part of the government, and the monopolistic control of the sale of forest produce by the Timber C...
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, the issue of how gender is conceptualised in relation to the environment has been raised, and it has been argued that gender itself has been undeceived in the context of environmental issues.
Abstract: Gender has long been recognised as important within environmental issues, but there has been considerable debate over how to conceptualise the gender–environment nexus. As feminist theorising around women and gender has changed, so have conceptualisations about gender and environment, leading to a key debate within ecofeminism and related literatures about whether there is an essential or a contingent relationship between women and natural environments. Within geography, most political ecologists work with the assumption that the gender–environment nexus is a contingent relationship, and thus investigate how gender relations are salient in the symbolic and material construction of environmental issues. In this paper I seek to build from this work and again raise the issue of how gender is conceptualised in relation to environment. I begin by briefly reviewing some of the work that has been done on gender and environment and then draw from poststructural feminism to suggest that gender itself has been unde...
386 citations
Cites background from "The vacillating evolution of forest..."
...Forest management in Nepal has taken a variety of forms historically and some of these regimes persist or continue to influence present management (Bhattarai et al, 2002; Nightingale, 2003)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the extent to which different community members embrace notions of professional forestry materially and symbolically, and argue that the promotion of expert knowledge and professional practices in Community Forestry is often used as a somewhat contradictory vehicle for educated elites to retain control over forest management.
Abstract: Environmentalist concerns over the state of Nepal's “fragile forests” resulted in the establishment of Community Forestry projects These community-based projects are partnerships between the state and community user groups that invest user groups with a great deal of control over their forests Project implementation, however, begins with the assumption that users have little prior knowledge of forest management and need to be taught modern silviculture I examine the extent to which different community members embrace notions of professional forestry materially and symbolically The development of written management plans, the need for careful accounting records and the promotion of silviculturally based management strategies by District Forest Officers serve to (re)inscribe differences between users based on education and literacy Which users embrace these discourses and practices and for what purposes lends insight into the workings of neoliberalism and how it is implicated in the reconfiguring of social and power relations within localities and, in this case, the consequences of this for ecological change It is argued that the promotion of expert knowledge and professional practices in Community Forestry is often used as a somewhat contradictory vehicle for educated elites to retain control over forest management, thus undermining some of the key objectives of the program
157 citations
Cites background from "The vacillating evolution of forest..."
...The establishment of District Forest Offices was one of the first steps in the process of professionalisation in the forestry sector of Nepal (Bhattarai et al., 2002)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors bring together two bodies of thought, feminist theories of power and subjectivity and Bourdieu's ideas of symbolic violence, in order to explore how power and authority are reproduced and entrenched.
Abstract: Recent work on authority, power and the state has opened up important avenues of inquiry into the practices and contexts through which power is exercised. Why certain forms of authority emerge as more durable and legitimate than others remains a challenge, however. In this article we bring together two bodies of thought to engage this issue, feminist theories of power and subjectivity and Bourdieu's ideas of symbolic violence, in order to explore how power and authority are reproduced and entrenched. Our purpose is to advance theorizing on power and authority in the context of contentious political situations and institutional emergence. This unusual theoretical synergy allows us to illustrate how power is exercised in relation to natural resource management and the ways in which the conflict/post-conflict context creates institutional forms and spaces which simultaneously challenge and reinforce antecedent forms of authority. To animate our theoretical concerns, we draw on work in community-based forestry in Nepal, with a focus on some of the conflicts that have arisen in relation to the valuable Sal forests of the Terai, or lowland plains.
97 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated how forest authority is produced or reproduced in the course of forest policy change, by drawing on the past four decades of participatory forest policy reform in Nepal.
51 citations
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this article, the spatial driving forces of deforestation in the Central Development Region (CDR) of Nepal were identified using satellite data of 1975, 1990, and 2000 along with socio-demographic and socioeconomic variables.
Abstract: 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 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 Committees (VDCs) and municipalities are calculated
from the classified images by overlaying vector files of 1,250 VDCs. 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 VDC’s vector layer of land use and cover areas is overlaid on the
transition matrices to calculate deforestation areas by VDCs for 1975-1990 and 1990-2000. A
digital elevation model (DEM) compiled from 35 ASTER scenes taken on different dates is used to
examine areas at different elevation levels: 30- 1,199 m, 1,200 – 2,399 m, 2,400- 4,999 m, and
>5,000 m. Only the first three elevation levels are used in the analysis because area >
5,000 m is under permanent snow cover where human related forestry activities are almost
negligible. Biophysical and socioeconomic information collected from various sources is then
brought into a geographic information systems (GIS) platform for statistical analyses. Six
linear regression models are estimated using SAS; in effect, two models for each elevation range
representing 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.
44 citations
References
More filters
Book•
10 Oct 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the suggested courses of action are inappropriate, in that they lead to results which are not necessarily, or even usually, desirable, and therefore, it is recommended to exclude the factory from residential districts (and presumably from other areas in which the emission of smoke would have harmful effects on others).
Abstract: This paper is concerned with those actions of business firms which have harmful effects on others. The standard example is that of a factory the smoke from which has harmful effects on those occupying neighbouring properties. The economic analysis of such a situation has usually proceeded in terms of a divergence between the private and social product of the factory, in which economists have largely followed the treatment of Pigou in The Economics of Welfare. The conclusions to which this kind of analysis seems to have led most economists is that it would be desirable to make the owner of the factory liable for the damage caused to those injured by the smoke, or alternatively, to place a tax on the factory owner varying with the amount of smoke produced and equivalent in money terms to the damage it would cause, or finally, to exclude the factory from residential districts (and presumably from other areas in which the emission of smoke would have harmful effects on others). It is my contention that the suggested courses of action are inappropriate, in that they lead to results which are not necessarily, or even usually, desirable.
11,448 citations
TL;DR: The tragedy of the commons as a food basket is averted by private property, or something formally like it as mentioned in this paper, which is why the commons, if justifiable at all, is justifiable only under conditions of low-population density.
Abstract: The tragedy of the commons as a food basket is averted by private property, or something formally like it. The pollution problem is a consequence of population. Analysis of the pollution problem as a function of population density uncovers a not generally recognized principle of morality, namely: the morality of an act is a function of the state of the system at the time it is performed. Those who have more children will produce a larger fraction of the next generation than those with more susceptible consciences. Perhaps the simplest summary of the analysis of man’s population problems is this: the commons, if justifiable at all, is justifiable only under conditions of low-population density. As the human population has increased, the commons has had to be abandoned in one aspect after another. The man who takes money from a bank acts as if the bank were a commons.
7,119 citations
TL;DR: The 2012 edition of the 2012 edition vii Preface xlv as discussed by the authors is a collection of essays about development and the anthropology of modernity, with a focus on post-development.
Abstract: Preface to the 2012 Edition vii Preface xlv CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Development and the Anthropology of Modernity 3 CHAPTER 2: The Problematization of Poverty: The Tale of Three Worlds and Development 21 CHAPTER 3: Economics and the Space of Development: Tales of Growth and Capital 55 CHAPTER 4: The Dispersion of Power: Tales of Food and Hunger 102 CHAPTER 5: Power and Visibility: Tales of Peasants, Women, and the Environment 154 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion: Imagining a Postdevelopment Era 212 Notes 227 References 249 Index 275
4,882 citations
Book•
14 Nov 1994TL;DR: The 2012 edition of the 2012 edition vii Preface xlv as discussed by the authors is a collection of essays about development and the anthropology of modernity, with a focus on post-development.
Abstract: Preface to the 2012 Edition vii Preface xlv CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Development and the Anthropology of Modernity 3 CHAPTER 2: The Problematization of Poverty: The Tale of Three Worlds and Development 21 CHAPTER 3: Economics and the Space of Development: Tales of Growth and Capital 55 CHAPTER 4: The Dispersion of Power: Tales of Food and Hunger 102 CHAPTER 5: Power and Visibility: Tales of Peasants, Women, and the Environment 154 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion: Imagining a Postdevelopment Era 212 Notes 227 References 249 Index 275
2,094 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1987
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a method of analyzing the problems of management and degradation, focusing particularly on the decision making environment of the land users and managers themselves, its great variety through space and time, and the inability of single theories to provide satisfactory explanations.
Abstract: Acknowledges that the reasons why land management can fail are extremely varied, and must include a thorough understanding of the changing natural resource base itself, the human response to this, and broader changes in society, of which land managers are a part. Four chapters provide a method of analyzing the problems of management and degradation. They focus particularly on the decision making environment of the land users and managers themselves, its great variety through space and time, and on the inability of single theories to provide satisfactory explanations. Case studies cover Nepal, North America, Indonesia, the Pacific, China, India and historical erosion in Europe, and in modern capitalist, socialist, and developing countries.
2,047 citations