Wetlands are the most productive ecosystem and provide wide arrays of wetland ecosystems (goods and services) to the local communities in particular and global communities in general. However, management of the wetland often does not remain priority and recognized as the unproductive waste land mainly due to poor realization of the economic value of the wetlands. Taking this into account, the study estimated the total economic value of the Jagadishpur Reservoir taking into account direct, indirect, and nonuse value. The study prioritized six major values of the reservoir which include wetland goods consumption, tourism, irrigation, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and conservation for future use (existence and option value). The study used market and nonmarket based valuation techniques to estimate total economic value of the reservoir. Household survey, focus group discussions, and interaction with the tourism entrepreneurs and district stakeholders were carried out to collect information. The study estimated the total annual economic value of the reservoir as NRs 94.5 million, where option/existence value remains main contributor followed by direct use value such as wetland goods and tourism and indirect use value, for example, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and irrigation. The study reveals that the local communities gave high importance to the future use value and are willing to make investment for conservation and restoration of reservoir given its conservation significance.

This study analyzes the sustainability of community forest management, representing four forest types of two physiographic region Hills and Terai of Nepal. We assess the sustainability based on species composition, stand density, growing stock volume, and growth-to-removal ratio using inventory data of 109 permanent forest plots from four consecutive intervals of three to five years. In addition, forest users, forest committee members, and forest officials were consulted. We observed increment on the representation of economically valuable tree species in all forest types of both regions. The pole-size tree dominates in all forest types with declining number of trees and regeneration. In case of Hills forests, they were over-harvested until 2013 but were under-harvested in the recent period. In contrary, forests were under-harvested in the Terai. We found that ecological objectives of sustainable management are fully achieved while economic benefits remained unharnessed where harvesting is far below the growth. We conclude that maintaining a large number of trees may contribute to ecological but not on economical sustainability. We argue to rationalize annual harvest in all categories of the forest to enhance resource conditions together with regular benefits to the local communities.

Community forestry is required to follow a forest management plan (FMP) to ensure sustainable tree harvesting. However, the role of FMPs or forest bureaucrats’ discretion in guiding harvesting decisions and the resultant effects has not been explored. This paper investigates tree harvesting practices in community forests (CF) and its effects on forest sustainability, using the forest inventory panel dataset for three consecutive periods (2010, 2013 and 2016), together with qualitative information obtained by key informant interviews and a review of records of the community forest users’ group. Harvesting decisions in the CF are largely guided by the decrees or schematic instructions of forest bureaucrats, where the role of the FMP remains highly contested. Whether harvesting decisions should be guided by the prescriptions of the FMP or should be regulated through decrees is a matter of discourse. Forest bureaucrats are arbitrarily reducing harvesting quantities and rarely referring to the prescriptions of the FMP. Consequently, users are compelled to harvest less than half the quantity of trees prescribed in the FMP. Furthermore, they are only allowed to harvest poor quality and dead trees. As a result, the number of good quality trees has increased, while the number of seedlings and saplings has decreased significantly. Although harvesting of saplings and seedlings is a common practice, it is against the provisions of the FMP. Though the current bureaucratic discretion has shown quick short-term effects on the forest stand conditions, the long-term impacts should not be undermined. Our findings will be useful to implementors and policy makers in Nepal and other developing countries with similar circumstances for deciding the tree harvesting. We argue for a rational approach in designing harvesting prescriptions and complying with them rather than regulating harvesting practices through guidelines, circulars and bureaucratic discretion.

Following a case study, community adaptation plans are a bottom-up approach that focus on increasing climate-vulnerable communities’ engagement in local adaptation planning and policy design, prioritization, and implementation in Nepal. This paper explains how Community-Based Adaptation Action Plan (CAPA) groups are being studied to assess the climate vulnerability of the local socio-ecosystem and to develop community-level adaptation measures. However, there is insufficient research to differentiate local vulnerabilities caused by climate change. This paper, therefore, examines climate change vulnerability with respect to community vulnerability and potential adaptation measures to increase community resilience and adaptive capacity through CAPAs. The study compares differences by gender, caste/ethnicity, and wealth in relation to specific climate-related hazards (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) of communities. The study draws on secondary sources of information along with field observations, 73 household interviews, 13 key-informant interviews, consultations, and 9 interactive meetings in 3 districts of Nepal. Differential impact analysis refers to the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of local socio-ecological systems. In addition, multivariate analysis was conducted using the Canoco program to analyze the role of actors with respect to climate vulnerability. The results conclude that the degree of vulnerability varies widely at the household level and is strongly influenced by socio-economic characteristics such as gender, caste/ethnicity, and wealth. Immediate and focused attention is needed to improve access to government resources for vulnerable households, requiring positive support from decision makers. Equally important is improving the chain of communication, which includes information, skills, knowledge, capacity, and institutional arrangements. Analysis of the differential vulnerability and the adaptive capacity of a vulnerable community is more appropriate for the design of local adaptation plans. Therefore, the study suggests that engagement of local partners, including local authorities, in addressing vulnerability and adaptation is required to confront the social process, new institutional arrangements, local adaptation, and capacity-building with technical solutions.

Many tropical species are not yet explored by dendrochronologists. Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) is an ecologically important and economically valuable tree species which grows in the southern plains and mid-hills of Nepalese Central Himalayas. Detailed knowledge of growth response of this species provides key information for the forest management. This paper aims to assess the dendroclimatic potential of Shorea robusta and to understand climatic effects on its growth. A growth analysis was done by taking 60 stem disc samples that were cut 0.3 m above ground and represented different diameter classes (>10 cm to 50 cm). Samples were collected and analysed following standard dendrochronological procedures. The detailed wood anatomical analysis showed that the wood was diffuse-porous, with the distribution of vessels in the entire ring and growth rings mostly marked with gradual structural changes. The basal area increment (BAI) chronology suggested that the species shows a long-term positive growth trend, possibly favoured by the increasing temperature in the region. The growth-climate relationship indicated that a moist year, with high precipitation in spring (March–May, MAM) and summer (June–September, JJAS), as well as high temperature during winter (November–February) was beneficial for the growth of the species, especially in a young stand. A significant positive relationship was observed between the radial trees increment and the total rainfall in April and the average total rainfall from March to September. Similarly, a significant positive relationship between radial growth and an average temperature in winter (November–January) was noted.

The accurate prediction of the volume of standing trees is a prerequisite for planning and decision making in sustainable forest management. In Nepal, limited information on form factor (i.e. the ratio of the volume of a tree to the product of its basal area and height) is available for economically important tree species. Thus, current management plans consider a simple approximation for all species irrespective of their height and diameter, which hampers the estimation of a sustainable harvest rate. Therefore, this study elaborates the form factor for Sal (Shorea robusta), an economically valuable tree of Nepal based on a random selection of 100 individual trees representing a wide range of diameters between 10 and 100 cm. Diameter and bark thickness were measured at every 1-meter interval of the length of the stem and branches until the diameter reached 10 cm. The analysis allowed for the estimation of an average form factor for Sal wood with 0.407 over bark and 0.336 under bark, while the form factor for the stem was 0.335 over bark and 0.281 under bark. The results indicate an increasing form factor until 70 cm diameter and a decreasing value for larger diameters, because of the large crowns of the mature Sal trees. We conclude that the default form factor of Sal (0.5) used in management planning results in an overestimation of standing tree volume. Using form factor according to diameter classes will allow a more accurate prediction of the standing volume.