Forest Cover Change Pattern after the Intervention of Community Forestry Management System in the Mid-Hill of Nepal: A Case Study

Tripathi, Shankar; Subedi, Rajan; Adhikari, Hari

doi:10.3390/rs12172756

Cited by 29 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The average green vegetation cover of these forests has been increasing since their establishment, from approximately 30% in 1988 to above 70% in 2018. This green-up trend was also discovered for community forests both locally in Nepal [30,31], and in other regions of the world [32,33].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Green Vegetation Cover Has Steadily Increased since Establishment of Community Forests in Western Chitwan, Nepal

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Community forests have been established worldwide to sustainably manage forest ecosystem services while maintaining the livelihoods of local residents. The Chitwan National Park in Nepal is a world-renowned biodiversity hotspot, where community forests were consolidated in the park’s buffer zone after 1993. These western Chitwan community forests stand as the frontiers of human–environment interactions, nurturing endangered large mammal species while providing significant natural resources for local residents. Nevertheless, no systematic forest cover assessment has been conducted for these forests since their establishment. In this study, we examined the green vegetation dynamics of these community forests for the years 1988–2018 using Landsat surface reflectance products. Combining an automatic water extraction index, spectral mixture analysis and the normalized difference fraction index (NDFI), we developed water masks and quantified the water-adjusted green vegetation fractions and NDFI values in the forests. Results showed that all forests have been continuously greening up since their establishment, and the average green vegetation cover of all forests increased from approximately 30% in 1988 to above 70% in 2018. With possible contributions from the invasion of exotic understory plant species, we credit community forestry programs for some of the green-up signals. Monitoring of forest vegetation dynamics is critical for evaluating the effectiveness of community forestry as well as developing sustainable forest management policies. Our research will provide positive feedbacks to local community forest committees and users.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 61%

Green Vegetation Cover Has Steadily Increased since Establishment of Community Forests in Western Chitwan, Nepal

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nepal is one of the leading countries for embracing community forestry ( Nuberg et al, 2019 ) and allowing multi-stakeholder engagement in forestry-related decision-making ( Laudari et al, 2020b ). The forestry sector, particularly the community forestry of the country has a significant contribution to poverty reduction and rural development ( Chhetri, 2009 ), forest cover enhancement and regrowth ( Tripathi et al, 2020 ) and contributing 80 targets of the sustainable development goals ( Aryal et al, 2020 ). While at the same time, the forestry sector (and related industries) of Nepal has the potential to generate millions of full-time jobs and goods and services worth billions ( Subedi et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 lockdown and the forestry sector: Insight from Gandaki province of Nepal

Laudari

Pariyar

Maraseni

2021

Forest Policy and Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Almost all countries have imposed large-scale mobility restrictions (or lockdown) to stop the spreading of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The mobility restriction has disrupted all types of business; causing a devastating impact on countries' economies; and pushing millions of people into extreme poverty. Scientists have been assessing the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on various fronts but there is limited scholarship in the forestry sector. We navigated the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the forestry sector by taking Gandaki Province (21,974 km 2 ) of Nepal as a case. Employing semi-structured interviews ( n = 62) with all ten stakeholder groups, literature review and media analysis, our study revealed that the COVID-19 lockdown suspended all types of forestry and ecotourism businesses; obstructed research and monitoring activities; halted capacity development and extension services; impacted forest development work; and increased incidences of illegal logging and poaching and trafficking of wildlife. Because of the complete shutdown of businesses, the forestry sector of Gandaki province lost 9.6 million USD and 3.2 million man-days of employment during the lockdown period. The economic cost of the lockdown was 1.73 million USD for NTFPs traders, 1.26 million USD for ecotourism entrepreneurs, 0.55 million USD for the community forest user groups and 0.24 million USD for the smallholder or private forest owner. We suggested four post-COVID recovery pathways, including sustainable forest management, nature-based tourism, improvement of forest products value chain and community-based natural resource management to bounce back from the loss. As the current pandemic is most likely to derail the Sustainable Development Pathways of several countries, including Nepal and necessitates the need for an immediate response, the finding and recommendation of our study may inform decision-makers to reimage post-pandemic recovery and leverage sustainable development.

show abstract

“…Nepal is remarkably diverse in flora and fauna due to its climatic and topographical variation. The dramatic differences in elevation and microclimate result in a variety of ecosystems, from tropical savannas along the Indian border to subtropical broad leaf and coniferous forests in the Hilly region and to temperate broadleaf and coniferous forests on the lap of the Himalayas (MoFE, 2018; Tripathi et al., 2020). Indeed, previous work in mountainous areas has shown that topological complexity promotes high species richness (Zhang et al., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Butterfly species diversity and their floral preferences in the Rupa Wetland of Nepal

Subedi

Stewart

Neupane

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Floral attributes often influence the foraging choices of nectar‐feeding butterflies, given the close association between plants and these butterfly pollinators. The diversity of butterflies is known to a large extent in Nepal, but little information is available on the feeding habits of butterflies. This study was conducted along the periphery of Rupa Wetland from January to December 2019 to assess butterfly species diversity and to identify the factors influencing their foraging choices. In total, we recorded 1535 individuals of 138 species representing all six families. For our examination of butterfly–nectar plant interactions, we recorded a total of 298 individuals belonging to 31 species of butterfly visiting a total of 28 nectar plant species. Overall, total butterfly visitation was found to be significantly influenced by plant category (herbaceous preferred over woody), floral color (yellow white and purple preferred over pink), and corolla type (tubular preferred over nontubular). Moreover, there was a significant positive correlation between the proboscis length of butterflies and the corolla tube length of flowers. Examining each butterfly family separately revealed that, for four of the families (Lycaenidae, Nymphalidae, Papilionidae, and Pieridae), none of the tested factors (flower color, plant category, and corolla type) were shown to significantly influence butterfly abundance at flowers. However, Hesperidae abundance was found to be significantly influenced by both flower color (with more butterflies observed at yellow flowers than purple) and flower type (with more butterflies observed at tubular flowers than nontubular flowers). Our results reveal that Rupa Lake is a suitable habitat for butterflies, providing valuable floral resources. Hence, further detailed studies encompassing all seasons, a greater variety of plants, and other influential factors in different ecological regions are fundamental for creating favorable environments to sustain important butterfly pollinators and help create balanced wetland ecosystems.

show abstract

Forest Cover Change Pattern after the Intervention of Community Forestry Management System in the Mid-Hill of Nepal: A Case Study

Cited by 29 publications

References 33 publications

Green Vegetation Cover Has Steadily Increased since Establishment of Community Forests in Western Chitwan, Nepal

Green Vegetation Cover Has Steadily Increased since Establishment of Community Forests in Western Chitwan, Nepal

COVID-19 lockdown and the forestry sector: Insight from Gandaki province of Nepal

Butterfly species diversity and their floral preferences in the Rupa Wetland of Nepal

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About