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Hindu Kush Himalaya is home to many cultural and religious sites
. The literature on the valuation of cultural sites in the mountain terrains is thin. Hence, their development and sustainability are often ignored. Using primary survey data from three different sites in the Kailash Sacred Landscape of India and Nepal, the cultural value of religious sites to the visitors and households living in the surrounding areas was estimated using a modified travel cost method. As visitors travel by foot and offer donations at the religious sites, the estimations account for these aspects in travel cost calculations. For the sample sites, the per year average use value of cultural services was estimated to be USD 2.9 million. Excluding the use value to the outside visitors, the annual estimated use value of cultural services to the approximately 200,000 households of the entire KSL area, which covers 31,252 km2, is over USD 22.6 million, which is over 7% and 15% of the per capita income of Indian and Nepali households, respectively, indicating the importance of the natural-cultural environments in rural livelihoods. The estimated values will help planners manage these cultural sites sustainably for improving the livelihoods of the people living in the area
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In the remote Himalayan districts of Pithoragarh, India and Baitadi, Nepal, households are dependent on agriculture and forests for their livelihood
. In this paper, we examine poverty–forest linkages by examining data from a survey of 652 households from these districts, who live on either side of the Mahakali River. Per capita income in Nepal is half of that in India. Yet, in the Himalayas, where households live in a similar geographic terrain, we find that households in Nepal are much better off in terms of assets and income relative to their Indian counterparts. Per capita, Nepalese also collect less than half the fuelwood collected by Indians. Remittances, economic diversification and better water and sanitation infrastructure may contribute to improved livelihood outcomes in Nepal. Forests are intrinsic to life in both districts, and institutional or technological differences may be responsible for disparities in forest use
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The Government of Nepal has been providing subsidies to promote biogas technology since the 1970s and Solar Home Systems (SHS) since the 1990s
. This study uses nationally representative survey data to examine the extent to which these subsidies benefitted the rural poor. We find that only 5% of households who are eligible for a biogas subsidy have adopted biogas; and only 2% of biogas adopters are below the poverty line, as compared to a poverty rate of 19% in the country. For SHS, 27% of the households eligible for subsidy have adopted the technology, and 25% of the adopters are below the poverty line. The SHS subsidy program is much more accessible to the poor as compared to the biogas subsidy program for two main reasons. First, Solar Home Systems are much cheaper than biogas plants, and so are more accessible to the poor after the subsidy, and second, the SHS subsidy is geographically targeted toward poor areas, while the biogas subsidy is not
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In the remote Himalayan districts of Pithoragarh, India and Baitadi, Nepal, households are dependent on agriculture and forests for their livelihood
. In this paper, we examine poverty–forest linkages by examining data from a survey of 652 households from these districts, who live on either side of the Mahakali River. Per capita income in Nepal is half of that in India. Yet, in the Himalayas, where households live in a similar geographic terrain, we find that households in Nepal are much better off in terms of assets and income relative to their Indian counterparts. Per capita, Nepalese also collect less than half the fuelwood collected by Indians. Remittances, economic diversification and better water and sanitation infrastructure may contribute to improved livelihood outcomes in Nepal. Forests are intrinsic to life in both districts, and institutional or technological differences may be responsible for disparities in forest use
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Using behavioral economic theory and statistical methods, this study estimates the use value of ecosystem services that the households living in the three watersheds and visitors to the Patal Bhuwaneshwar Cave Temple of the Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) area derive from the sites under consideration
. The selected watersheds (Hat-Kalika and Chandak-Aunla Ghat of India and Gwallek Kedar of Nepal) are the pilot sites of the Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI) of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Nepal and India. The present study mainly focuses on estimating the value of the cultural services and the water provisioning services of the forest ecosystem along with assessing a possibility of designing an incentive payment for an ecosystem services (IPES) scheme for provisioning drinking water to one of the pilot sites. We interviewed a total of 1,418 respondents for the study, making it inclusive where women’s share is about 50% of the respondents
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This study was carried out to design an incentive payment for an ecosystem services (IPES) scheme in the Baitadi Town Water Supply and Sanitation Project of Nepal
. The main intention behind the designing of the scheme was to develop strategy for equitable use of water resources and involve communities, watershed and water user, in the sustainable management of water resources. We administered household survey in both the watershed community and water users to elicit their preferences regarding water source management and drinking water supply. A discrete choice experiment was employed in the case of water users which showed that, for them, water quality and quantity are the most important attributes. The estimated annual willingness-to-pay of water users for doubling water availability is NPR 482,076 (USD 4,505) and for doubling the water quantity and the supply of clean water that can be drunk directly from the tap is NPR 1.18 million (USD 10,988). The results of consultations with stakeholders indicate that the construction of public toilets, the regularization of grazing, off-season vegetable farming and drinking water distribution in the upstream area may contribute to maintaining the quality of water while keeping the watershed community satisfied with regard to water-sharing. These activities require NPR 1.17 million (USD 10,987) in the first year and NPR 425,640 (USD 3,978) annually from the second year on. The estimated willingness-to-pay and cost of the watershed activities indicate that implementing IPES in the Baitadi Town Water Supply Project is financially feasible and socially acceptable. Our study recommends the integration of the IPES design into the project design phase in future drinking water scheme, the best option being its integration into the initial environmental examination at the time of project design
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We examine the role of subnational institutions in carbon sequestration and assess whether community forest user groups can meet both existing forest needs and international carbon demand
. By conducting a qualitative evaluation of a pilot program in Nepal that made carbon payments to forest user groups, we examine if community forestry institutions can be effective, efficient, and equitable in implementing Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)+. Our evaluation relies on focus group discussions, meetings, and community and program documents of forestry user groups that participated in the REDD+ pilot and matched groups that did not. Compared to control groups, REDD+ user groups appear to be more effective in carbon sequestration, perhaps because of increased prevention of forest fires and grazing, nursery establishment, and other forest management. REDD+ user groups report a larger number of forest conservation, forest utilization, and community development activities relative to control groups. Participating communities bear transaction costs of US$4.5/hectare and implementation costs of US$2.5/hectare on average (or NPR 50,000 (US$600) per year). The mean REDD+ rent per ton of additional carbon sequestered was US$1.3. Targeting of benefits improves partly because some marginalized groups, particularly women, participate more in the planning and management. In terms of equity, microcredit and capacity development activities were skewed to the poorest households, whereas alternate fuel and carbon monitoring were more advantageous to middle or high income households. Overall, our analyses suggest that REDD+ activities can be successfully executed, if communities receive technical and capacity building support for institutional strengthening, in addition to carbon payments
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In 2010, forests accounted for 40 percent (5
.96 million ha) and other types of woodland made up 4 percent (0.65 million ha ) of the land area of Nepal (DFRS 2015c). Of the total forest area, 38 percent was in the mid-hills, 32 percent in the high mountains, 23 percent in the Siwaliks, and 7 percent in the Terai. The Terai comprises the plains of Nepal and the Siwaliks are a low range of hills between the Terai and the mid-hills. The Terai and the Siwaliks have witnessed steady deforestation with the gradual conversion of forest to agricultural land and the growth of infrastructure development. In the mid-hills and high mountains, however, forest cover has been increasing since 1995 (DFRS, 2014a, 2014b, 2015a, 2015b). The annual deforestation rate is 0.44 percent (1,648 ha/yr.) in the Terai and 0.18 percent (2,537 ha/yr.) in the Siwaliks. The average carbon stock in Nepal’s forests is 177 tC/ha, with the lowest amount (117 tC/ha) in the Siwaliks and the highest amount (272 tC/ha) in the mountains (DFRS, 2014a, 2015a, 2015c)
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Paying communities to preserve and manage their local forest resources using the internationally recognized REDD+ approach can be a practical and effective way to combat climate change
. A ‘before-and-after’ and ‘with-and-without’ evaluation of a pilot program in Nepal indicates that REDD+ can contribute to carbon sequestration and improve forest management without hurting local livelihoods. Thus, policy makers should begin the process of scaling up REDD+ with a strong emphasis on supporting communities to shift to bio-gas as an alternative to fuelwood
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This study estimates the economic value of ecosystem services generated from the management of community forests at sub-watershed level
. A total 300 households were surveyed in Jhikhu khola watershed of Kavrepalanchok district. We used discrete choice experiment method to estimate the value of ecosystem services generated from ecosystem management at watershed level. Random parameter logit model was used to analyze choice responses. Three data sets were generated to analyze the data including pool, upstream and downstream. The results indicate that drinking water, irrigation water, forest litter and fuelwood are the locally important ecosystem services. Forest users are keen to contribute to management activities through their community forest user groups. On average, forest users are willing to pay NPR 29 per year for one additional liter of drinking water per household per day during the dry season. They are willing to pay more than NPR 1,444 per year for an additional month of irrigation. Respondents are willing to pay approximately NPR 1,300 for an additional 30 baskets of leaf litter per month or NPR 43 per basket. This reflects the value of leaf litter as a substitute for chemical fertilizers. Respondents are willing to pay approximately NPR. 117 per bhari or head load fuelwood. The estimated average annual household willingness-to-pay is NPR. 3,136 for the specific community forest management scenario. In addition, up-stream community member are willing-to-pay 1.37 times more for watershed services relative to downstream members. In addition, drinking water demand, irrigated land holding size and sex of respondents are main demographic characteristics to determine willingness-to-pay of forest users. The study suggests that choice experiment is useful tools to mainstream biodiversity into community forest management
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