Socio-Environmental Dynamics of Community Forestry in the Middle Hills of Nepal: Understanding Forest Ecosystem Feedbacks, Rural Out-migration, and Land Use

Nepal is a pioneer of the community forestry program, one of the most successful community-based environment policies in the world. Decades-long Forest conservation efforts by the local community have enhanced forest conditions and contributed to the livelihoods of the forest-dependent communities. However, the relationship between people and forests also comes with negative externalities, that existing policies have not properly acknowledged. This research aims to improve the understanding of the interactions between local communities and their forests. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of household and land parcel surveys, and geo-spatial data collected from two geographic locations of the Mid Hills of Nepal, this research investigates three key aspects of the socio-ecological dynamics of community forestry: (1) How have the feedback effects of community forest to the social system, in the form of human-wildlife conflicts, impacted the livelihood of rural community? (2) How have community forestry influenced the cropland use dynamics after controlling other social-ecological factors? (3) How has out-migration influenced community forestry governance? This research found that human-wildlife conflicts had added economic burden to rural livelihood and was emerging as a major conservation challenge in the context of community forestry. Regarding the second question, it was found that the cropland parcels in the proximity of the community forests were associated with increased cropland abandonment. Similarly, for the third objective, although out-migration did not significantly influence community forest management, household-size was identified as the major factor affecting participation in decision-making and forest management. The households with out-migrants had lower dependency on forest products from community forests. Overall, this dissertation have revealed intricate interactions between the local people and community forestry. This research highlights the need to address the negative externalities from the community forest to achieve the goal of sustainable forest management. These research outcomes inform sustainable agriculture and forest management policies at the local and national level and benefit the forest-dependent communities around the world with similar socio-economic and biophysical contexts.Doctor of Philosoph