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Forest restoration and support for sustainable ecosystems in the Gandaki Basin, Nepal

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Abstract

Restoring degraded forest is essential if we are to reduce human pressure on natural ecosystems and their biodiversity. Forests were nationalized in 1957 in Nepal and as a consequence, forest cover declined from 45% in 1964 to just 29% in 1994. However, as its response, sectoral plans and policies, particularly introduction of community-based forest management programs since the 1980s and conservation activities resulted in large scale forest cover restoration. Here, we examined the forest cover change in the Gandaki River Basin (GRB), the catchment with the largest altitudinal variation (ranging from ± 93 to 8167 m) and environmental and ecological significance. To see how forests have changed since then, we analyzed snapshots of spatiotemporal, ecological and physiographic changes in forest cover, and forest type at decadal intervals from 1996 to 2016 using Landsat 5 and 8 satellite images. We observed an overall gain in forest cover of 207 km2, from 7571 km2 (34.4% of the total area) in 1996 to 7778 km2 (35.3%) in 2016. Of the 21 forest cover types identified, the greatest forest coverage during 2016 was of Schima-Castanopsis forest (25.9%) and hill sal forests (16.4%). In terms of physiographic zones, land below 500 m (Tarai) where most people live, witnessed gradual declines in forest cover, in contrast to large increases in forests above 500 m. Historical examination of forest cover at ecological and physiographic scales helps to identify the elevation-wise distribution of forest resources, vegetation composition, ecosystem characteristics, anthropogenic pressure upon vegetation, and hence the overall influence of LULC upon the environment. These outputs will assist planners, policy makers, and researchers in their formulation of effective basin wide plans and policies to ensure the protection of basin level biodiversity and ecosystem function.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all technical experts who have supported during the field work.We are thankful to Sagar K. Rimal, Ripu Kunwar and Abhishek Tiwary for their help in providing reference documents and advise to carry out the study.We would like to thank the Editor and anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Applied Sciences (CAS)-Nepal, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, 44613, Nepal

    Bhagawat Rimal

  2. Department of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand

    Sushila Rijal

  3. Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith School of Environment, Nathan Campus, Griffith University, 170, Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Nigel Stork

  4. Department of Arid and Mountainous Regions Reclamation, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, 31587-77871, Karaj, Iran

    Hamidreza Keshtkar

  5. Key Laboratory of Oasis Eco-Agriculture, Xinjiang Production and Construction Group, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832003, China

    Lifu Zhang

  6. The State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Bhagawat Rimal & Lifu Zhang

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  1. Bhagawat Rimal
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  2. Sushila Rijal
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Correspondence to Bhagawat Rimal.

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Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 6
figure 6

Land use/cover map of the study area during (a) 1996, (b) 2006, and (c) 2016; (d) forest cover 1996; (e) forest cover 2006; (f) forest cover 2016

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Table 12 Land use transfer matrix between 1996 and 2006 (area in km2)
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Table 13 Land use transfer matrix between 2006 and 2016 (area in km2)
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Fig. 7
figure 7

Land use/land cover classes for 1996–2016 by elevation

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Table 14 Forest distribution in the study area based on elevation (area in km2)
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Fig. 8
figure 8

Ecological distribution of forest types in the study area

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Rimal, B., Rijal, S., Stork, N. et al. Forest restoration and support for sustainable ecosystems in the Gandaki Basin, Nepal. Environ Monit Assess 193, 563 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09245-1

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