Nepal Forest Sector Strategy

Nepal Forest Sector Strategy – Opportunities for Integration of Community Forestry and Carbon Financing

CHALLENGE

Nepal's diverse landscape is divided into three main regions: the Upper Hills, the Middle Hills and the Terai, each presenting different forestry management challenges. Overall, the country has experienced significant losses in forest cover, with forest conversion to shrub land at 5.6% on aveagre oer year. While community forestry programs have had a successful impact on forest cover inthe Middle Hills, higher altitude terrain has been difficult to manage and monitor. In Nepal's lowlands (the Terai region), demographic pressure, uneven distribution of high-value forest resources, easy road access and a porous border with India have created a challenging  environment where innaprorpriate timber extraction, illegal encorachment and logging and poor management of protected areas and watersheds are constraining the potential of forestry to improve livelihoods, conservation and sustainable economic growth.  

Achieving sustainable forest management in this region, where the major proportion of Nepal's forest loss is occurring, is a major and urgent challenge that needs to be addressed if national level REDD processes are to yield any benefits for Nepal.

APPROACH

PROFOR is lending its support to the World Bank’s South Asia region to prepare an overview of Nepal’s forest sector that will guide development over the next 5-10 years and inform both government and externally aided programs.  The study will focus primarily on community forestry, examine emerging commercial opportunities and livelihood potential including carbon financing, and identify institutional strengths and weaknesses.

The work will place a special focus on the Terai region where progress to advance community forestry in Nepal has been slow, and deforestation and degradation are major issues, provide an objective overview of forestry—focusing on opportunities to advance community forestry and improve forest productivity, commercial production, and rural livelihoods.

The study will also examine how existing institutions, particularly government agencies responsible for forestry, may need to be reformed to better serve the evolving forest sector in the country. Finally, the study will explore how communities can benefit from emerging carbon markets as the country develops national capabilities through the Bank supported Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) .

RESULTS

This activity is ongoing. Results will be shared on this page when they become available. You can also follow us on twitter (www.twitter.com/forestideas) or subscribe to our mailing list for regular updates.