Bringing back the trees - Responses to deforestation Case Study Click on the following links for further information about this case study: Teacher's Notes Student Activities Introducing Nepal Nepal is a landlocked country in the central Himalayas located between two of the world's most densely populated countries; India and China. It covers 140,800 square kilometres, comparable to the size of England. It is estimated that 24,702,119 people lived in the Kingdom in 2000, giving an average population density of around 145 people per square kilometre. Geographically, there are three distinct regions within the country: the fertile tropical plain located on the southern border with India the Middle Hills and plateaux, ranging from 2,000 - 5,000 metres above sea level; and the Himalayan Mountains to the north where the world's highest peak, Mt. Everest (8,848 metres), is located. The climate varies according to altitude from rainy and sub-tropical in the south to cold in the high mountains of the north. This diversity of environments allows the cultivation of rice, sugar cane, tobacco, jute and cereals on the plains and in the Middle Hills. Livestock is important, especially sheep and buffalo. Mineral and hydroelectric resources from the fast flowing rivers fed by snowmelt are unexploited. Wood provides 90% of the energy consumed. Unsustainable forestry practices have resulted in severe deforestation, soil erosion, poor catchment management and major land degradation problems. Economically, the Kingdom of Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Nearly half of the population lives below the poverty line. The high rate of population growth, 2.5% per annum (1994-2000), high fertility rate of 4.6 children per woman (average 1995) and low levels of educational attainment and literacy levels, 41% for males (1995) and 14% for females (1995), have meant that Gross National Product per capita is only $US 220 (1997). Impact of forest use Despite improvements in living conditions, poverty has caused unsustainable resource use patterns, especially of the Kingdom's forest resources. A mixed forest of broadleaf trees, hardwoods and scrubland covers many of the lower slopes of the Himalayan Mountains. Since 1953 it has been estimated that half of the forests have been cut down to provide fuel wood and land for the grazing of livestock and for arable agriculture so that farm terraces could be extended. The scale and extent of deforestation was a particular problem when aid workers from the Australian Agency for International Development first went to the Kingdom of Nepal in the late 1970s. In the Middle Hill region of the country, Australian field staff discovered denuded and barren hill slopes; hillsides deeply incised with gullies and excessive rates of runoff. After heavy rainfall streamlines were left choked with sediment and major losses of topsoil affected the productive potential of agricultural land. Deforestation resulted in severe land degradation in the Middle Hill region of Nepal by the late 1970s.   This spatial change over time has occurred partly as a result of rapid population growth. Local forests provided wood to build houses, energy to fuel fires, food for animals as leaf litter and saleable products such as saw logs. Levels of forest use were unsustainable and as a result severe land degradation on steeply sloping land ensued. Responding to deforestation Drastic problems called for drastic responses and the Australian project team set about helping the Government of Nepal with its massive program of reforestation. The Australian input was mainly in the form of technical assistance and training for Nepal's Forest Department staff. Within five years, thousands of hectares of trees had been planted and hundreds of nurseries established. Since then, the project has evolved and changed dramatically. It has shifted from a focus on reforestation to working with groups of local forest users, known as Forest User Groups, helping them manage and protect their own forest resources. It has gone from a project where solutions to forestry problems were managed from above, to a grass roots approach that tackles a broad range of local issues. In other words, the nature of the Australian input has moved from the provision of technical advice on growing trees to providing local people with the help they need, not only to manage their forests, but to utilise them in ways which benefit the whole community. There are now thousands of Forest User Groups all around the country, managing their own patches of the forest. The villagers have devised simple rotational systems so that some parts of the forest are rested while others are used to collect firewood, dead leaves or fodder. They have introduced user pays schemes, charging forest users a small fee for collecting loads of fuel. The project has encouraged the wiser use of the scarce forest resources. Newly established nurseries now house thousands of young seedlings. By collecting fees from forest users, some user groups have branched out, becoming local micro-entrepreneurs as well as forest managers. Some grow commercially viable species such as the lokta, a local species that produces the raw ingredient for the exotic, silk-like paper produced in Nepal and highly prized in Japan. Careful management through community development has assisted the reforestation of severely degraded agricultural land.   The Australian project has helped to train village workers on how to grow these species and many have begun to generate income, enough in some cases to make significant improvements in the lives of village people. There are now groups distributed all over the Middle Hills of Nepal, protecting forests, ensuring a regular supply of forest products for their members and accumulating funds which they use to plant more trees. They can now hire forest guards, build roads and schools, establish drinking water systems and connect electricity. This type of Community Forestry has helped provide hope. Women have become a particular focus of the Nepal Australia Community Resource Management Project. At the local scale, women's lives have been made easier because the forest products they rely upon - fuel wood for their cooking stoves, leaf litter for their livestock, water, and timber for building - are now more abundant and easier to gather. More and more women have the confidence to become involved in discussions about forest issues. This has led to the development of other activities that will particularly benefit women and girls, such as water schemes. The project has employed a small group of specialists to work with Forest User Groups and has so far brought cleaner, safer water to thousands of people. Less than 20% of women in Nepal can read or write. The project has helped set up literacy and numeracy classes, which enhances their ability to take more control of their future as well as their family's. Many Forest User Groups are also raising money, tiny amounts in some cases, but enough to inspire confidence in the future and prevent the movement of village men, women and children into the towns and cities of South Asia. The benefits to women from managing their own forests are outlined below. Women managing forests Dil Kumari Shreshtram 33, is the chairwoman of the Mahankali all-women Forest Users Group Committee. She and her 13 committee members manage a 8.75 hectare forest - a mixture of pine and natural broadleaf forest - on the outskirts of the small bazaar town of Chautara. In the male-dominated society of Nepal, the Mahankali group is a bold experiment. "Nepalese women go into the forest and collect forest products" says Dil Kumari, holding the hand of her three-year-old daughter, "but we realized that men were always on the Committees. We thought - if we do all the work, why not form our own committee?" "In the first six months we had some difficulty with things such as bookkeeping. Now we feel more confident and feel we can face anything." The committee charges a small fee to the 80 households who use the forest to collect firewood and fallen leaves. They've raised enough to help build a new water supply and a series of retaining walls to prevent soil erosion in the forest. Their forest is healthy and productive and the water which used to take them hours to collect is now cleaner and more plentiful. The next project to be undertaken by the committee says Dil Kumari is "..to build a primary school…because the other school is crowded and too far away". Overall, women still play a limited role in decisions over forest management in Nepal, partly because of social, religious or caste restrictions and partly because most of them can't read or write. In the Mahankali group, only Dil Kumari, who has a job as a clerk and the treasurer of the committee have any formal education. In an attempt to address this, the NACFP has developed a literacy program especially for women members of Forest User Groups, with 6000 women taking part so far. Top © Commonwealth of Australia