Krishna K. Shrestha

From hope to crisis and back again? A critical history of the global CBNRM narrative.

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has been on the ascendancy for several decades and plays a leading role in conservation strategies worldwide. Arriving out of a desire to rectify the human costs associated with coercive conservation, CBNRM sought to return the stewardship of biodiversity and natural resources to local communities through participation, empowerment and decentralization. Today, however, scholars and practitioners suggest that CBNRM is experiencing a crisis of identity and purpose, with even the most positive examples experiencing only fleeting success due to major deficiencies. Six case studies from around the world offer a history of how and why the global CBNRM narrative has unfolded over time and space. While CBNRM emerged with promise and hope, it often ended in less than ideal outcomes when institutionalized and reconfigured in design and practice. Nevertheless, despite the current crisis, there is scope for refocusing on the original ideals of CBNRM: ensuring social justice, material well-being and environmental integrity.

Carbon, community and governance: is Nepal getting ready for REDD+?

Using a multilevel governance lens, this paper analyzes ongoing reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) readiness initiatives in Nepal. We present the evidence of what is happening around these preparatory activities in relation to handling forest tenure issues, stakeholder engagement, developing monitoring and verification mechanisms, and creating benefit-sharing mechanisms. Our aim is to assess whether Nepal is on its way to being ready for full-fledged REDD+ implementation in the next few years. The paper concludes that, while the REDD+ readiness process mobilizes diverse and opposing stakeholders through interactive forums, it pays little attention to basic governance issues such as defining carbon rights and who is authorized to make what decisions about REDD+ rules and practices. Moreover, despite some well-intentioned participatory pilot experiences, fundamental aspects of participation, equity, and fairness remain unaddressed.

Adaptation factors and futures of agroforestry systems in Nepal

Farmers in Nepal mid-hills have practiced agroforestry for generations as main source or supplement of timber, firewood and fodder from government forests. The nature and extent of agroforestry practice is being challenged by rapid social and economic change particularly in the recent rise of labour out-migration and remittance income. Understanding is required of the critical factors that influence farmers in the way they adapt agroforestry to their circumstances. This paper analyses the relationship of households’ livelihood resources and agroforestry practice to identify trajectories of agroforestry adaptation to improve livelihood outcomes. Using data from a survey of 668 households, it was found that landholding, livestock holding and geographic location of farmers are key drivers for agroforestry adaptation. A multinomial logistic regression model showed that in addition to these variables, household income, household-remittance situation (whether the household is receiving remittance or not) and caste influence adaptation of agroforestry practice. The analysis indicates that resource-poor households are more likely to adapt to terraced-based agroforestry while resource-rich households adapt to woodlot agroforestry. Appropriate agroforestry interventions are: (1) develop simple silvicultural regimes to improve the quality and productivity of naturally-regenerating timber on under-utilised land; (2) develop a suite of tree and groundcover species that can be readily integrated within existing terrace-riser agroforestry practices; (3) acknowledge the different livelihood capitals of resource-poor and resource-rich groups and promote terrace-riser and woodlot agroforestry systems respectively to these groups; and (4) develop high-value fodder production systems on terrace-riser agroforestry, and also for non-arable land. The analysis generates important insights for improving agroforestry policies and practices in Nepal and in many developing countries.

Reframing community forest governance for food security in Nepal

The growing challenge of food insecurity in the Global South has called for new research on the contribution of forests to food security. However, even progressive forest management institutions such as Nepals community forestry programme have failed to address this issue. We analyse Nepals community forestry programme and find that forest policies and local institutional practices have historically evolved to regulate forests either as sources of timber or as a means of biodiversity conservation, disregarding food security outcomes for local people. Disciplinary divisions between forestry and the agriculture sector have limited the prospect of strengthening forest–food security linkages. We conclude that the policy and legislative framework and formal bureaucratic practices are influenced by ‘modern forestry science’, which led to community forestry rules and practices not considering the contribution of forests to food security. Furthermore, forestry science has a particularly narrow focus on timber production and conservation. We argue for the need to recognise the importance of local knowledge and community practices of using forests for food. We propose adaptive and transformational approaches to knowledge generation and the application of such knowledge in order to support institutional change and policy reform and to enable landscape-specific innovations in forest–food linkages.

Can Evidence and Voice Influence Policy? A Critical Assessment of Nepal's Forestry Sector Strategy, 2014

This article examines Nepals recently prepared Forestry Sector Strategy (FSS) (as of 2014) in terms of the use of scientific evidence and the quality of stakeholder participation. By reviewing the content and analyzing the context of its development during 2012–2014, we found that the transitional politics and overt influence of international development agencies dominated the process and content of the FSS. Although the FSS was developed through a significant stakeholder engagement, there was limited use of the available scientific evidence. The FSS was narrowly conceived as a deliverable of supporting aid programs, with limited demand for a politically meaningful policy processes. While civil society groups were consulted, they largely failed to present an independent voice due to their dependence on funding agencies. Our assessment calls for rethinking policy development in a way that facilitates assertive and independent participation by a range of actors and make better use of the available research.

Rapid silviculture appraisal to characterise stand and determine silviculture priorities of community forests in Nepal

Community forestry in Nepal is an example of a successful participatory forest management program. Developments in community forestry in four decades have focused on the social and governance aspects with little focus on the technical management of forests. This paper presents a silviculture description of community forests and provides silviculture recommendations using a rapid silviculture appraisal (RSA) approach. The RSA, which is a participatory technique involving local communities in assessing forests and silviculture options, is a simple and cost-effective process to gather information and engage forest users in the preparation of operational plans that are relevant to their needs. The RSA conducted on selected community forests in Nepal’s Mid-hills region shows that forests are largely comprised of dominant crowns of one or two species. The majority of studied community forests have tree densities below 500 stems per hectare as a consequence of traditional forest management practices but the quality and quantity of the trees for producing forest products are low. Silviculture options preferred by forest users generally are those which are legally acceptable, doable with existing capacities of forest users and generate multiple forest products. For sustainable production of multiple forest products, the traditional forest management practices have to be integrated with silviculture-based forest management system.

How understanding of rural households’ diversity can inform agroforestry and community forestry programs in Nepal

ABSTRACT Socio-economic diversity can help to bring about innovative development in agroforestry practices. The diversity of households in the mid-Nepal hills was analysed using survey data from 521 randomly selected households in six villages. A cluster analysis derived the following household typology based on socio-economic variables—Type 1: resource-poor Brahmin/Chhetri; Type 2: resource-poor Janajati; Type 3: resource-rich mixed-caste households; Type 4: resource-rich Brahmin/Chhetri; Type 5: resource-rich Janajati; Type 6: resource-poor Dalit households. The analysis revealed that social status (caste/ethnicity), household status on foreign employment and landholding are strong predictors of household segmentation in rural Nepal. This paper suggests revision of existing wellbeing ranking approaches using these socio-economic variables for more inclusive and equitable agroforestry and community forestry outcomes.

Impacts of market-oriented agroforestry on farm income and food security: insights from Kavre and Lamjung districts of Nepal

In recent years, there has been a growing realization that improving market access for smallholders will lead to improvement in income and food security. However, market failure often limit smallholders’ fair access to market opportunities. To address this problem, a market-oriented agroforestry action research program was implemented in six sites of Kavre and Lamjung districts of Nepal between 2013 and 2016. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the changing impacts of the market-oriented agroforestry system on improving people’s livelihoods and addressing food security issues. The net-margin analysis of five priority products of agroforestry systems indicated that farmers benefitted most by a banana-based high yielding fodder system (56%) followed by Alnus-cardamom system (48%), tomato-fodder and buffalo (36%), chilli-fodder (26%) and ginger-based (25%) systems due to facilitation of market-oriented agroforestry action research services. The impact of market-oriented agroforestry intervention from a survey of 289 households, revealed that household income was increased by 37–48%, which can provide up to six additional months of food to the poorest households. This innovation has the potential to take the majority of households (63%) out of the poverty cycle while avoiding food shortage during the year. The implications of the study are that farmers must be united for collective marketing of their production and develop marketing strategies to eliminate middle men for better return. Some key lessons learned for the success of this research include farmers’ own motivation, favorable environment, and the inclusion of social activities and incentives for cultivating priority products species.

Theoretical Advances in Community-Based Natural Resources Management: Ostrom and Beyond

Abstract Since the publication of Elinor Ostrom’s seminal work on common property institutions and natural resources management (NRM) in the early 1990s, there have been considerable advances in theoretical and policy debates relating to community-based NRM. While community institutions continue to remain a strong element, the recent shifts in scholarly debates are varied and diverse, but not often adequately mapped out and synthesized to present a wider picture of such evolving rich theoretical terrain. The aim of this chapter is to situate Elinor Ostrom’s work in relation to contemporary advances in natural resource governance theories and practical innovations that are taking place in Asia. We chart out five key domains of critical advances, namely (1) decentralization, (2) participation, (3) social equity, (4) deliberative governance, and (5) critical action research. We map out how Ostrom’s works are linked to these domains and demonstrate the ways in which Ostrom’s ideas are being transformed, reproduced, or discontinued. In doing so, we also identify gaps and issues in Ostrom’s framework in the context of contemporary NRM challenges. We argue that there is a need to work toward revitalization of Ostrom’s core programs of common pool resource management in the context of unprecedented socioeconomic and environmental change.

Environment and society: Sustainability, policy and the citizen

This is an important book. It sets itself the ambitious task to explore ways of creating a sustainable society. In so doing, the author has sought to tackle one of the most contentious, complex and difficult issues in contemporary society. The book is divided into four parts. The first is subdivided into the contexts of green dilemmas, sustainability and policy. Part 2, Perspectives, looks at these contexts through behaviour change and the social psychology of environmental action. Part 3, Approaches, includes the framing of environmental practice, sustainable lifestyles and the value-action gap. Finally, Part 4, Applications, contains a discussion of changing behaviour, a social marking approach, and closes with an analysis of sustainability, citizens and progress. The starting point for this book is Hardin’s ‘Tragedy of the commons’ followed by the dire predictions and warnings of the Club of Rome in the 1960s, which framed the debate around the ‘limits to growth’ thesis. The author then outlines the major contribution made by the Bruntland World Commission on the Environment and Development, which was the catalyst for the 1992 World Conference on Environment and Development (commonly referred to as the Rio Earth Summit). In Chapter 2, the author discusses the difficulties in trying to define what the concept of sustainability actually means and how deceptive and elusive it is. Figure 2.1 contains a useful table that outlines the key concepts for exploring sustainable development. The book examines, with a UK focus, the responses to the Rio Earth Summit by a conservative government and plots the phases of sustainable development policy. What the author sees as emerging from this analysis is a diverse picture characterised by significantly varying levels of progress and commitment and also a large divergence between rhetoric and practice. A key finding to emerge from the research is the need for a much stronger focus on specific actors’ willingness to pay for environmentally-friendly products or beliefs about green products (such as health and safety). This must include specific factors that influence behaviour, rather than the assumption of increasing awareness, and providing information to change behaviour through a linear process of attitudes and behavioural change. The overall findings from the research suggest that the committed group was the most willing to change its behaviour away from the status quo and that the nonenvironmentalist group was the least willing to sacrifice its own lifestyle, unless it derived specific satisfaction from helping the environment. The book makes very clear how difficult it is to interpret and transfer the findings into a meaningful a set of policy instruments targeted at these groups. The novelty of this research is contained in Figure 4.3, ‘A conceptual framework of environmental behaviour’. This model seeks to link policy and research for a new perspective on the study of environmental action, which attempts to provide a middle ground between the culturally informed critique of current behaviour change agendas and the linear and rationalistic roles of current policy. The framework tries to identify barriers to behaviour change through the appreciation of the ‘gap’ that exists between intentions and actions, as recognised in the Sustainable Development Strategy (DEFRA, 2005), and to this end three approaches are identified and pursued that are grounded within the overall framework of environmental behaviour; namely, (1) exploring environmental practices: understanding how environmental actions are related to each other and the daily practices in and around the home; (2) identifying lifestyle groups: appreciating the potential lifestyle segments that may be evident in the population; and (3) examining barriers to and motivations for action: using lifestyle groups and our understanding of environmental practices to identify the possible ways in which behaviour can be encouraged. The book’s findings are summarised in the concluding chapter with strong pleas for more research into the adoption of marketing techniques into policy formulation and better links between policy and geography research agendas. The conclusions, however, are disappointing as they tend to summarise the findings contained in the earlier empirical chapters but do not fully bring out the significance of the Australian Planner Vol. 48, No. 2, June 2011, 99 110