Community forestry in Nepal: a critical review

Abstract

Community forestry praxis has a long history in Nepal. The country is often considered an exemplar in promoting community forestry for environment and development. In this paper, we provide a critical review of Nepali community forestry scholarship to offer internationally relevant lessons and to identify areas of future research. Our review shows that community forestry outcomes have been mixed. Despite playing a role in improving social and environmental outcomes, its provision of economic benefits are modest, not always clear and unevenly distributed. The impacts of community forestry have been heavily influenced by government intervention, with the government controlling valuable forests. We conclude that: 1) more rigorous and consistent methodologies are needed to evaluate community forestry outcomes; 2) the notion of community needs to critically be questioned to understand the dynamics of internal migration patterns, and; 3) a deeper understanding of the politicization of community forestry needs to be developed.