Email: paudelg@gmail.com

Affiliation: Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies, Nepal

Nationality: Nepalese

Promised much, delivered a little: explaining the downturns of forest-based enterprises and its implications on agro-ecological changes in Nepal

Abstract

Scholars, policy makers and practitioners have commended forest-based enterprises as means of achieving twin objectives of promoting (economic) development and ensuring conservation. Research highlights the ability of forestry enterprises to address local needs and environmental concerns, transform communities into entrepreneurs and generate returns on investment. It is also argued that such enterprises help build local capital, enhance entrepreneurship and contribute to local development. Resonating with this argument, Nepal has developed policies, plans and programs that, arguably, promote forestry enterprises to generate income and employment opportunities and address poverty. Despite these efforts, studies have found that the contribution of these enterprises in generating economic returns has only been modest. Nepal has missed the opportunity of developing community-based enterprise and prospects of forging community-private sector partnership for capital formation and attracting investment in forestry businesses.

The underperformance of the forestry-based enterprises in the rural areas has three major consequences that adversely impact the rural farming communities. First, the young generation is completely detached from the forestry sector that is not generating economic opportunities. Youngsters, therefore, have no interest in engaging in forest conservation and development. Second, the absence of income and employment opportunities has contributed to declining collective action and increasing rural-to-urban migration. Finally, declining collective action and decreasing communities' interest in forestry (that is not economically beneficial) lead to an absence of human intervention in the forests. This, in turn, has gradually transformed community-managed forests to unattended (and therefore, unproductive) 'jungle' and completely changed the ecological make-up of the forests. This situation of ever-changing agricultural and forestry landscapes demands rigorous academic enquiries on how such changes are happening in the rural areas and how those changes are impacting the life and livelihood of rural communities. There has been little research conducted in this context so far, and therefore, this paper addresses this lacuna.

In this paper, we analyse two strands of changes in the farming communities in rural Nepal. First, it sheds light on 'lived realities of people' to see how rural society is changing on its own or triggered by the absence of agriculture and forestry-based enterprising activities. We evaluate how rapidly changing socio-economic situations in the rural areas are adversely impacting the lives of smallholder farmers. We do so by looking at the action research attempts to revive forest-based enterprises, past attempts in the development of forest enterprises and provide a detailed account of what could not have been done in the past. Second, we analyse the ecological and socio-political changes, including the role of institutional forms, that are shaping the rural societies and their interrelationships. We argue (and demonstrate) that the transformations in the rural, farming landscapes are socially, economically and ecologically unfavorable to rural farming communities. We suggest ways that help provide (and that the movement activists advocate for) alternatives to address rural poverty and economic inequalities by means of creating forest-based economic opportunities that contribute to the local (also national) economy.

Bio

Govinda Paudel is a research, writing and publishing enthusiast interested in a range of social science research in the field of forestry, agriculture, climate and development, rural economy/livelihoods as well as agriculture/forest-based enterprises. Particularly, he focuses the research on people, resources and political economy of natural resource management to determine how governments mobilise the private and other power elites to maintain and reinforce its control over the natural resources. He holds a PhD in Human Geography from University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. His PhD research is centred around investigating the policies and politics that shape how local communities manage forests and derive socio-economic benefits to contribute to livelihoods and the national economy. His research illustrates the power of a political ecology framework to explain complex policy processes and how politics govern the way policy actors interact and determine forest policy outcomes.