IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/forpol/v91y2018icp19-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Politics of getting the numbers right: Community forest inventory of Nepal

Author

Listed:
  • Baral, Srijana
  • Meilby, Henrik
  • Khanal Chettri, Bir Bahadur
  • Basnyat, Bijendra
  • Rayamajhi, Santosh
  • Awale, Srijana

Abstract

Inventory based management planning is a prerequisite for handing over forest management rights to community forest user groups in Nepal. However, the quality and rationale of such planning remains largely unexplored. Using a multiple case study approach, we aimed to assess the quality of community forest inventories in the mid-hill region of Nepal. We therefore conducted inventory in nine community forests, reviewed forest management plans and guidelines, and interviewed forest officials and representatives of community forest user groups to understand the procedures applied. Further we compared our inventory results with results presented in the plans and explored reasons for deviations. We found that the Inventory Guideline was frequently disregarded, both in design and implementation. Forest inventories were either poorly conducted or results simply fabricated. Significant differences were observed between the results of our inventories and those presented in the management plans. Furthermore, it turned out that growing stock volume was frequently manipulated to align with government circulars, specifying an upper limit of growing stock volume of 178m3ha−1. Seemingly, community forest inventories contribute to recentralizing community forestry through strengthening bureaucratic authority. Thus the inventory requirement serves mainly as a tool to satisfy bureaucratic requirements, rather than being a tool for guiding forest management decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Baral, Srijana & Meilby, Henrik & Khanal Chettri, Bir Bahadur & Basnyat, Bijendra & Rayamajhi, Santosh & Awale, Srijana, 2018. "Politics of getting the numbers right: Community forest inventory of Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 19-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:91:y:2018:i:c:p:19-26
    DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2017.10.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138993411730120X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.forpol.2017.10.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Green, Kathryn E. & Lund, Jens Friis, 2015. "The politics of expertise in participatory forestry: a case from Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 27-34.
    2. Scheba, Andreas & Mustalahti, Irmeli, 2015. "Rethinking ‘expert’ knowledge in community forest management in Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 7-18.
    3. Rutt, Rebecca Leigh & Chhetri, Bir Bahadur Khanal & Pokharel, Ridish & Rayamajhi, Santosh & Tiwari, Krishna & Treue, Thorsten, 2015. "The scientific framing of forestry decentralization in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 50-61.
    4. Adhikari, Bhim & Di Falco, Salvatore & Lovett, Jon C., 2004. "Household characteristics and forest dependency: evidence from common property forest management in Nepal," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 245-257, February.
    5. Richard Gauld, 2000. "Maintaining Centralized Control in Community‐based Forestry: Policy Construction in the Philippines," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 229-254, January.
    6. Toft, Maja Nastasia Juul & Adeyeye, Yemi & Lund, Jens Friis, 2015. "The use and usefulness of inventory-based management planning to forest management: Evidence from community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 35-49.
    7. Krott, Max & Bader, Axel & Schusser, Carsten & Devkota, Rosan & Maryudi, Ahmad & Giessen, Lukas & Aurenhammer, Helene, 2014. "Actor-centred power: The driving force in decentralised community based forest governance," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 34-42.
    8. Lund, Jens Friis, 2015. "Paradoxes of participation: The logic of professionalization in participatory forestry," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-6.
    9. Schusser, Carsten & Krott, Max & Yufanyi Movuh, Mbolo C. & Logmani, Jacqueline & Devkota, Rosan R. & Maryudi, Ahamad & Salla, Manjola & Bach, Ngo Duy, 2015. "Powerful stakeholders as drivers of community forestry — Results of an international study," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 92-101.
    10. Andrea J. Nightingale & Hemant R. Ojha, 2013. "Rethinking Power and Authority: Symbolic Violence and Subjectivity in Nepal's Terai Forests," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 44(1), pages 29-51, January.
    11. Faye, Papa, 2015. "Choice and power: Resistance to technical domination in Senegal's forest decentralization," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 19-26.
    12. Ribot, Jesse C. & Agrawal, Arun & Larson, Anne M., 2006. "Recentralizing While Decentralizing: How National Governments Reappropriate Forest Resources," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1864-1886, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wim Carton & Adeniyi Asiyanbi & Silke Beck & Holly J. Buck & Jens F. Lund, 2020. "Negative emissions and the long history of carbon removal," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(6), November.
    2. Basnyat, Bijendra & Treue, Thorsten & Pokharel, Ridish Kumar & Kayastha, Pankaj Kumar & Shrestha, Gajendra Kumar, 2023. "Conservation by corruption: The hidden yet regulated economy in Nepal's community forest timber sector," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    3. Basnyat, Bijendra & Treue, Thorsten & Pokharel, Ridish Kumar & Baral, Srijana & Rumba, Yam Bahadur, 2020. "Re-centralisation through fake Scientificness: The case of community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. Eve Bohnett & Sanju Lamichhane & Yanjing Tracy Liu & Scott Yabiku & Digambar Singh Dahal & Siraj Mammo & Kossi Fandjinou & Bilal Ahmad & Li An, 2023. "The Implications of Community Forest Income on Social and Environmental Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-23, April.
    5. Filippo Caporale & Jimena Mateo-Martín & Muhammad Faizan Usman & Carsten Smith-Hall, 2020. "Plant-Based Sustainable Development—The Expansion and Anatomy of the Medicinal Plant Secondary Processing Sector in Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-20, July.
    6. Paudel, Ganesh & Bhusal, Prabin & Kimengsi, Jude Ndzifon, 2021. "Determining the costs and benefits of Scientific Forest Management in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    7. Myers, Rodd & Fisher, Micah & Monterroso, Iliana & Liswanti, Nining & Maryudi, Ahmad & Larson, Anne M. & Mwangi, Esther & Herawati, Tuti, 2022. "Coordinating forest tenure reform: Objectives, resources and relations in Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Peru, and Uganda," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    8. Aryal, Kishor & Awasthi, Nripesh & Maraseni, Tek & Laudari, Hari Krishna & Gotame, Pabitra & Bist, Dhan Bahadur, 2023. "Calibrating Nepal's scientific forest management practices in the measure of forest restoration," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    9. Mawutor, Samuel M. & Hajjar, Reem, 2022. "Examining the powers decentralized to community resource management areas in Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    10. Yiwen, Zhang & Kant, Shashi & Dong, Jiayun & Liu, Jinlong, 2020. "How communities restructured forest tenure throughout the top-down devolution reform: Using the case of Fujian, China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Basnyat, Bijendra & Treue, Thorsten & Pokharel, Ridish Kumar & Lamsal, Lok Nath & Rayamajhi, Santosh, 2018. "Legal-sounding bureaucratic re-centralisation of community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 5-18.
    2. Lund, Jens Friis, 2015. "Paradoxes of participation: The logic of professionalization in participatory forestry," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-6.
    3. Basnyat, Bijendra & Treue, Thorsten & Pokharel, Ridish Kumar & Baral, Srijana & Rumba, Yam Bahadur, 2020. "Re-centralisation through fake Scientificness: The case of community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. Nantongo, Mary & Vatn, Arild & Vedeld, Paul, 2019. "All that glitters is not gold; Power and participation in processes and structures of implementing REDD+ in Kondoa, Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 44-54.
    5. Scheba, Andreas & Mustalahti, Irmeli, 2015. "Rethinking ‘expert’ knowledge in community forest management in Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 7-18.
    6. Nicole Gross-Camp & Iokine Rodriguez & Adrian Martin & Mirna Inturias & Glory Massao, 2019. "The Type of Land We Want: Exploring the Limits of Community Forestry in Tanzania and Bolivia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Mustalahti, Irmeli & Gutiérrez-Zamora, Violeta & Hyle, Maija & Devkota, Bishnu Prasad & Tokola, Nina, 2020. "Responsibilization in natural resources governance: A romantic doxa?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    8. García-López, Gustavo A., 2019. "Rethinking elite persistence in neoliberalism: Foresters and techno-bureaucratic logics in Mexico’s community forestry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 169-181.
    9. Dobrynin, Denis & Smirennikova, Elena & Mustalahti, Irmeli, 2020. "Non-state forest governance and ‘Responsibilization’: The prospects for FPIC under FSC certification in Northwest Russia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    10. Mwaseba, Dismas L. & Erkkilä, Antti & Friis-Hansen, Esbern & Maro, Aristarik H. & Maziku, John D., 2020. "Responsibilization in governance of non-industrial private forestry: Experiences from the Southern Highlands of Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    11. Carla Roncoli & Brian Dowd‐Uribe & Ben Orlove & Colin Thor West & Moussa Sanon, 2016. "Who counts, what counts: representation and accountability in water governance in the Upper Comoé sub‐basin, Burkina Faso," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(1-2), pages 6-20, February.
    12. Rutt, Rebecca Leigh & Chhetri, Bir Bahadur Khanal & Pokharel, Ridish & Rayamajhi, Santosh & Tiwari, Krishna & Treue, Thorsten, 2015. "The scientific framing of forestry decentralization in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 50-61.
    13. Eliezeri Sungusia & Jens Friis Lund & Christian Pilegaard Hansen & Numan Amanzi & Yonika M. Ngaga & Gimbage Mbeyale & Thorsten Treue & Henrik Meilby, 2020. "Rethinking Participatory Forest Management in Tanzania," IFRO Working Paper 2020/02, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    14. Trejos, Bernardo & Flores, Juan Carlos, 2021. "Influence of property rights on performance of community-based forest devolution policies in Honduras," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    15. Kalonga, Severin Kusonyola & Kulindwa, Kassim Athumani, 2017. "Does forest certification enhance livelihood conditions? Empirical evidence from forest management in Kilwa District, Tanzania," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 49-61.
    16. Sapkota, Prativa & Keenan, Rodney J. & Ojha, Hemant R., 2018. "Community institutions, social marginalization and the adaptive capacity: A case study of a community forestry user group in the Nepal Himalayas," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 55-64.
    17. Singer, Benjamin & Giessen, Lukas, 2017. "Towards a donut regime? Domestic actors, climatization, and the hollowing-out of the international forests regime in the Anthropocene," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 69-79.
    18. Toft, Maja Nastasia Juul & Adeyeye, Yemi & Lund, Jens Friis, 2015. "The use and usefulness of inventory-based management planning to forest management: Evidence from community forestry in Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 35-49.
    19. Hinojosa Flores, Isaías Daniel & Skutsch, Margaret & Mustalahti, Irmeli, 2016. "Impacts of Finnish cooperation in the Mexican policy making process: From the community forest management to the liberalization of forest services," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 229-238.
    20. Fatem, Sepus M. & Awang, San A. & Pudyatmoko, Satyawan & Sahide, Muhammad A.K. & Pratama, Andita A. & Maryudi, Ahmad, 2018. "Camouflaging economic development agendas with forest conservation narratives: A strategy of lower governments for gaining authority in the re-centralising Indonesia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 699-710.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:91:y:2018:i:c:p:19-26. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/forpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.