State of forest degradation and rehabilitation needs

111 5. Implications of forest restoration and rehabilitation initiatives

5.1 History of initiatives, strategies and techniques

National-level degradation control – history of policy measures: Until 1951, forest resources were used as one of the main sources of government revenue. After 1951, the government gradually enacted several policies and legislations with regard to forest resource development. The most prominent policies and legislations include: the Forest Nationalization Act 1957, the Wildlife Protection Act 1958, the Forest Act 1961, the Forest Protection Act 1967, the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1973, the National Forestry Plan of 1976, the Panchayat Rules and Panchayat Forest Rules 1978, the Soil Conservation and Watershed Act 1982, the National Conservation Strategy 1988, the Master Plan for the Forestry Sector 1989, the Forest Act 1993, the Nepal Environment Policy and Action Plan 1993, the Environment Protection Act 1996, the Forestry Sector Policy 2000, the Nepal Biodiversity Strategy 2002 and the Leasehold Forestry Policy 2002. The Master Plan for the Forestry Sector 1989 and other conservation policies have developed many strategies and programmes to cope with deforestation and forest degradation. Of these programmes the community forestry and leasehold forestry programme is an effective intervention to halt and reverse degradation and deforestation. At the moment, the government has handed over a total of about 1.7 million ha of state-owned forests to 18 133 CFUGs for development, conservation, management and sustainable use DoF 2013. The government, with the financial assistance of the International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD and technical support from FAO, has been implementing the pro-poor leasehold forestry programme that has been effective in reversing environmental degradation. The Terai Arc Landscape TAL Strategic Plan MoFSC 2006 aims to restore and conserve forest resources outside protected areas to maintain ecological integrity and support sustainable livelihoods. The plan envisages the restoration of 70 percent of degraded forests via natural regeneration and 30 percent via plantation. The restored corridors and bottlenecks will contribute to restoring degraded habitats and reducing grazing pressure in the future. MoEST 2006 has estimated that an area of about 18 000 ha was rehabilitated annually Table 6. Table 6. Land under rehabilitation Adapted from MoEST 2006. Many forestry sector programmes such as community forestry, leasehold forestry, pasture development, soil and water conservation, conservation of protected areas and development of markets for non-wood forest products NWFPs are being implemented in selected locations with increased people’s participation. Enhanced attempts are underway to manage the buffer zone areas surrounding the protected areas for biodiversity conservation. Buffer zone management scheme areas are already underway using the participatory approach, however, the objectives are different. Forest management and development plans were developed for a number of national forests but with limited or no implementation. This has resulted in poorer results than expected in terms of rehabilitation, production, number of forest industries, employment and overall contribution to the economy. The Ninth and Tenth Five Year Plans 1998 and 20022003 attributed this condition to lack of proper allocation of funds and attention to the forestry sector. Involvement of NGOs: The forest and biodiversity resources of Nepal are scattered and it is not possible for the government to manage them alone. NGOs are therefore mobilized as necessary for sustainable forest resource management. The Nepal Trust for Nature Conservation, the Mountain Institute, WWF, IUCN and so forth are all involved in biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest resource management. Coordination among donors and the government: Nepal has maintained relations with many countries and organizations as development partners. In order to achieve better coordination, the MoFSC has formed the Forestry Sector Coordination Committee FSCC. The FSCC discusses problems and gives advice to the government, maintains uniformity in programme implementation and also avoids duplication of activities. International cooperation: The forestry sector of Nepal has received technical and grant assistance from foreign aid for more than 40 years. Due to the low revenue surplus from the forestry sector, financing of development expenditures for the forestry sector is largely met by foreign aid, as the government has allocated less than 2 percent of the total national budget for the sector. A significant number of forestry sector development programmes and projects have been financed with foreign aid. Land area under rehabilitation Rehabilitation of degraded croplands Rehabilitation of degraded rangelands Rehabilitation of degraded forests Area ha 5 176 900 12 992 Remarks Rehabilitated annually Rehabilitated annually Rehabilitated annually