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Forest fragmentation and regrowth in an institutional mosaic of community, government and private ownership in Nepal

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Abstract

This study analyzes forest change in an area of Nepal that signifies a delicate balance between sustaining the needs and livelihood of a sizable human population dependent on forest products, and an effort to protect important wildlife and other natural resources. The study area, a portion of the Chitwan valley district of Nepal, represents what may be becoming a common institutional mosaic in many countries of the world who have a population reliant on forest products for their livelihood: (1) a national park; (2) a designated park buffer involving participatory forest management programs; (3) scattered patches of designated community forest; and (4) large areas of adjacent landscape made up of mostly private landholdings under agricultural practices. Utilizing Landsat images from 1989 and 2000, we analyze land cover change in each of these management zones using landscape ecology metrics and quantifying proportional distributions of land cover categories. Our results show significant differences in terms of land cover dynamics and landscape spatial pattern between these land ownership classes. These findings indicate that community-based institutions (participatory management programs in the park buffer and the designated community forests) are capable of halting or even reversing trends in deforestation and forest fragmentation.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant SBR9521918), and the Society in Science: Branco Weiss Fellowship to HN. The authors are grateful to Birendra Karna, Mukunda Karmacharya, Sudil Acharya and Kanchan Thapa for their valuable assistance in the field, and to Elinor Ostrom, Ganesh Shivakoti and George Varughese for insightful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change, Indiana University, 408 N. Indiana Avenue, Bloomington, IN, 47408, USA

    Harini Nagendra

  2. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, 659 5th A Main, Hebbal, Bangalore, 560024, India

    Harini Nagendra, Sajid Pareeth & Bhawna Sharma

  3. Department of Natural Resource Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Holdsworth Hall 217, Amherst, MA, 01003-9275, USA

    Charles M. Schweik

  4. Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Tribhuvan University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal

    Keshav R. Adhikari

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  1. Harini Nagendra
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  2. Sajid Pareeth
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  4. Charles M. Schweik
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  5. Keshav R. Adhikari
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Correspondence to Harini Nagendra.

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Nagendra, H., Pareeth, S., Sharma, B. et al. Forest fragmentation and regrowth in an institutional mosaic of community, government and private ownership in Nepal. Landscape Ecol 23, 41–54 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-007-9162-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-007-9162-y

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