Forest Resource Development
Implementing Forest Management Principles

By Khilendra Basnyat

THE forest area has been adequately degraded in Nepal. Valleys, which were covered with forests some decades ago, have been cleared in many areas.

In fact, decrease in forests means less firewood, fodder and timber. It means the loss of soil fertility, increased soil erosion and the degradation of fragile land. It also means changes in the water supply for agriculture and energy as well as increased flooding caused by rapid runoff.

Tropical moist forests represent one of the densest terrestrial ecosystems of Nepal. Only a small segment of these where human activity has had little impact on the ecosystem remains intact. In most tropical moist deciduous forests, human interference including logging and agriculture, has resulted in great damage.

Increasing population and a scarcity of agricultural land has increased the pressure to convert forestland to agricultural settlements.

The malaria eradication of malaria in the tarai has resulted in an ever-increasing number of migrants from the Middle Mountain to the tarai.

In the middle mountains, considerable forests were earlier converted to grazing land and then to farmland. However, in the tarai, government resettlement schemes, as well as migrants from the Middle Mountains converted land directly from forests to farmland.

Additional increases in farmland during the past four decades have taken place in marginal middle mountain land. Such increases in farmland are likely to come from the conversation of the remaining tarai forests to agriculture. If the present trend persists, it is likely to all of the tarai forest will be converted to farmland in order to feed the runaway population.

Overgrazing by livestock has resulted in the continuing degradation of forest resources by eating seeds and tree seedling and trampling both the seeds and seedlings.

While fodder consumption does not directly reduce the forest area, the destruction of the shrubs and grass layer may be the chief reason for forest degradation leading to increased soil erosion as a result of the depleted ground cover and compacted soil.

Actually, population growth and a growing demand for fodder, firewood and land clearing, as well as institutional factors have caused deforestation.

The rate of decline of the forest cover in the tarai still continues to remain high, largely due to population boom across the country in general and tarai region in particular. Since more trees were declared up for human settlement or cultivation, during the second half of this century, Charkose Jhadi preserved during the Rana regime as a filter zone, began to deplete.

Likewise, forests in Chure hills in the eastern parts have nearly been cleared up. In the western parts, although the forests are still surviving there, they are under threat. Incidents of logging and other forms of destruction are increasing.

There have been more incidents of floods in eastern tarai, if not in the entire Gangetic plains. The river bed levels of these rivers have risen adequately due to soil erosion in the Chure hills. Apart from this, there has been sedimentation in the downstream.

Repercussions of such destruction have already seen in forests, wetland and grassland of ecosystem. Population of some wildlife is continuing to dwindle, whereas the endangered and threatened ones are on the brink of extinction.

In the last few decades, Nepal has witnessed fast depletion of its precious forest resources. Consequently, there has been adequate environmental degradation, which has raised public concern.

In reality, forest management can play a meaningful role for forest resource development. However, forest management in Nepal has been influenced by economic, social and political factors, Management systems differ as one moves from west to east and from north to south through different ecological and cultural settings.

Management of forestry and creation of private and village woodlots help to supplement the need of firewood, fodder and timber for the local people apart from maintaining the soil fertility. This will also help protect the national forests.

In fact, the objective of the forest management concept should be to arrest the rapid forest depletion rate in time.

Actually, the long-term development of forest resources will depend on the implementation of the principles of forest management. This is possible only when local user groups are better understood by the forest Department Officials and others, and necessary processes are created to recognise them and formally integrate them into the national management system.

Controversy & Transparency

By PNK

Talk of anything and there’s that comment that turns up without and that’s "mired in controversy". The same happens on ans off without fail. The only thing that a person doesn’t understand is where that controversy began and what the ins and outs are. Of course, no one’s coming out frankly on any such matter. It’s the trick that keeps the ball rolling.

When one came up with a report on the 4th Motion Picture Award that was supposed to be ‘mired in controversy’, it was a sad blow to a film lover to almost believe that all those concerned with the making and release of films are in some way related to marring the image of a sector that is wholeheartedly entertaining the audience. It just goes on to show that all that glitters is not gold. The same seems to be true with the film world. Call it Kollywood, Bollywood or Hollywood, the amount of deception that is there, in a way exceeds all expectations. It’s all glamour and show business yet the human frailties and all other associated weaknesses are there for everyone to behold.

Who knows the writers might have their own leanings—left, right, this actor or that actress and so on can go the list. Yet, what’s lacking is plain and that is transparency. Now to talk of transparency in human dealings to the last detail is next to impossible. This is true when it comes to human relationships. Mind you, even a bit of something to deal with an actor or actress makes headlines on those glossy and over-priced film mags. It wouldn’t have been otherwise if there hadn’t been buyers. There are buyers and enough of them to keep the clock ticking.

There might be agencies with the tag ‘transparency’ on their titles but what are they up to, no one possibly knows. They might be searching for the ins and outs of politicians or ministers or government officials or even ordinary citizens but when it comes to making transparent as to what they are doing or pretending to do there’s just no answer. It seems like trying to look through them would be as if gazing at the sun, an impossible thing. Yet, they are there and trying to prove their worth. Lauda or Chase Air comes and goes, there’s no transparency but the rhetoric continues.

One just wonders where their funds come from. After all, as a citizen of Nepal, I’ve never realised that I’ve emptied my wallet a little for their sake. So, how do they run. May be, perpetual energy theory may be at work.

One just wonders what are the areas for such transparency agencies to work in. no specifications are available yet all are working as the news reports say. A window in Baluwatar is repaired then there is much talk of the under-the-table dealing. When the name of the film award winner is announced the same allegations crop up. The various angles through which one looks at an issue is the problem. It might be one thing from the north but from the south it might reveal something on the contrary.

It’s a topsy-turvy world that we’re living in at present. Not everyone is satisfied with the same thing. That may be called democracy in the real sense. That’s why when Niruta loses out in the Best Actress award race or something like that, there’s always the talk of foul play and when someone else wins the same thing begins from some other quarter. It’s like the same old story of a father and son going to market but only one donkey with them. Do whatever you will, the transparency will always be there to find faults. After all it is for
this same reason that the majority comes into play while the minority can but make a lot of noise demanding ‘justice’.