Taking a deliberative democracy perspective, the authors analyse the case of forest governance in Nepal with a view to understanding the extent and processes of citizen-state deliberations in forest policy making in relation to Nepal's specific historical and social contexts. They analyse 15 policy decisions which range from parliament-endorsed laws to executive decisions of the government that were made over the period 1998-2004. Their findings indicate that despite the functioning of a multiparty political system, most forest policy decisions made during the studied period involved limited democratic deliberation. Two reasons for this are identified as: a) continued dominance of the role of forest science and state forestry administration in forest policy making; and b) weak links between civil society and elected political leaders in the legislature and the government. Finally, they draw lessons for approaches to analysing environmental governance.
