Community forestry in Nepal (1978 to 2010): Forest policy

The forests are in mosaic with the farm lands throughout the Hills and the Terai (southern plain areas) of Nepal.

The human population and the natural resources remained balanced up to the early 1950's. Although deforestation started since the 1700's, the process accelerated from the 1950's when the population boomed. Most of the forest lands of the hills were deforested continuously, in patches without proper plan whereas an official land distribution program was launched in a large scale in the Terai and the inner Terai areas. Later on, this was followed by uncontrolled massive illegal encroachment. The forests became national property since 1957 but the users, more than 90 percent of the population, continued a process of using the resources as open access converting the lands into degraded barren lands, bushy lands or low value resources.

In some areas communities used to manage forest and pasture lands locally. However, most of the local indigenous practices are also disturbed by those pressures. The government did some planting in the barren and degraded hills. The government also prepared some management plans for the Terai forests. However, they are not effective because the users were not involved in the planning process.