FAO Forestry country profiles - forest management
Practices
Silvicultural management in Nepal has moved through distinct phases during the past 50 years, evolving from passive community/subsistence management, through a period of government control with a particular emphasis on lowland forest exploitation. More recently, the focus has shifted back to community participation. While there is naturally considerable variation in silvicultural treatments applied by several thousand independent Forest User Groups, studies indicate that considerable silvicultural interventions are being implemented. Where appropriate, Forest User Groups are undertaking selective felling, planting, thinning, and pruning operations known as Ban Godne silviculture. Activities are generally geared towards providing products and services to meet users¿ current needs. For example, pruning and thinning activities are primarily carried out to supply fuelwood, with the silvicultural benefits being, in some respects, a positive externality.
The vast majority of Nepal¿s forests, however, remain under government jurisdiction, and most of these receive inadequate scientific silvicultural management. The exceptions are valuable lowland production forests, particularly in the Terai. These forests, comprising high proportions of sal (Shorea robusta), tend to have been managed under scientific ¿coppice with standards¿ regimes, although encroachment by migrants have regularly compromised management efforts.
Forest conservation measures
Forest conservation in Nepal was implemented as early as the Licchavi period (300-800 A.D.). During the Shah and Rana periods, royal directives regulating harvesting of forest products and forest conservation were issued. Nepal has a relatively short history of institutionalized forest conservation, although traditional forest management practices certainly incorporated conservation aspects. A large-scale focus on forest conservation only gained momentum in the early 1970s when many of Nepal¿s parks and reserves were established. Nepal currently has more than 2.7 million hectares of National Parks and Reserves (18.4 percent of the country), much of which is under forest. The Terai and High Mountain zones are well represented in Nepal's protected area system, however, the Middle Mountain zone is not adequately covered.
Nepal¿s expanses of steep, mountainous terrain means that soil and water conservation are essential forestry objectives. Massive erosion in the Himalaya has significant effects on adjacent lowlands, though much of this erosion is due to steepness of slopes and vulnerability of landscapes and is independent of vegetation cover. Nonetheless, forests in Nepal can play some role in mitigating erosion, and these linkages are encapsulated in the merging of the forestry and soil conservation administrations in a single Government Ministry. Encouragement of rehabilitative activities in degraded forests, as well as development and dissemination of soil conservation and watershed management techniques, comprise important aspects of Nepal¿s soil and water conservation strategies. A separate department under the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (the Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management) has been entrusted with this important function.
Forest protection measures
Fire is a significant problem in the forests of Nepal, particularly in the lowland sal forests of the Terai. An estimated 90 percent of the region¿s forest lands have been affected by surface fires. The Forest Act of 1993 specifies that starting or causing a fire in a national forest is prohibited. Nonetheless, around 65 percent of fires are believed to be deliberately set - primarily to clear grazing lands for cattle. The vast majority of the remainder are accidentally caused by people. Nepal has no national fire control plan, though the District Forest Offices of the Terai have annual (though generally insufficient) fire control programmes in place.
The Government of Nepal is in the process of establishing a National Steering Committee for the effective launching of an Integrated Pest Management Programme. Regional Plant Protection Laboratories have been established in five different development regions, though their focus is mainly on agricultural crops. The laboratories also lack skilled human resources, equipment and infrastructure support. The Department of Forest Research and Survey has recently completed the survey of the Dalbergia sissoo dieback problem and has come up with recommendations for how to address this problem.