Monitoring and evaluation forest landscape restoration for asia pacific forests 2016 04 eng

104 1. Overview of forest and land degradation and current status

1.1 Location and topography

Nepal lies between the arid Tibetan highlands to the north and the Indian foothills of the Himalayas to the south. The country has five development administrative zones and topographically it is divided into three main physiographic zones: the foothills Terai occupy 15 percent of the land area, the mid-hills Shiwaliks 13 percent and the mountains Middle, High, High Himal the rest of the land. Distinct climatic conditions exist which influence the type of vegetation significantly. In fact climate, soil, altitude ranging from 60 to 8 848 m and terrain aspects are the major factors which determine vegetation distribution Bajracharya 1986.

1.2 Forest area

Nepal has a land area of 14.7 million ha. Of that forest covers 3.6 million ha 25 percent and other wooded land about 1.9 million ha Table 1; FAO 2010.

1.3 Changes in forest cover

According to Nepal’s National Forest Inventory, in the 1960s, over 45 percent of the country used to be covered with forest Table 2. This has since declined to 25 percent currently. The annual rate of change was around -2 percent in the 1990s, it moderated somewhat during 2000-2005 to -1.4 percent, but since then it has stabilized. In the process, the other wooded land or shrubland has continued to rise, from 4.7 percent in the 1970s to 10 percent in the 1990s DFRS 1999; it is now approximately 13 percent FAO 2010. Overall the country has experienced rapid loss of forest cover and degradation, and only in recent years has the situation leveled out. Table 1. Forest area, trends and annual rate of change of forest area x 1 000 ha FAO 2010 Table 2. Forest cover identified by different national forest inventories Sources: LRMP 1986; Bajracharya 1986; DFRS 1999.

1.4 Forest to population ratio

During the 1930s, population growth was modest at 1.0 percent but increased to around 2.2 percent in the 1990s. Forest cover declined dramatically with population growth and the decrease had a multiplying effect on the per capita forest area. As of 2011, this was 0.16 ha of forest and 0.06 ha of shrubland per capita. Many independent variables such as the Forest area 3 636 land area 25 Other wooded land 1 897 land area 13 Other land 8 767 Country area 14 718 Forest trends Area 1990 4 817 2010 3 636 2005 3 636 2000 3 900 Annual rate of change 1990-2000 -92 -2.09 2005-2010 0 0 2000-2005 -53 -1.39 Vegetative cover Forest Shrub Total First NFI 19631964 45 - 45 Third NFI 19931994

29.0 10.6

39.6 Second NFI 19781979 38 4.7 42.7