It can prove difficult to reconcile the conflicting objectives of climate and forest protection on the one hand and food security on the other. Nepal is a case in point. A majority of households in rural Nepal are dependent on access to public forests for collecting fodder for their livestock. However, due to climate and ecological concerns, the amount of livestock each household is permitted to hold is being systematically reduced and controlled along with restrictions on forest use. Such restrictions have had an extremely negative impact on private livestock farming, one of the pillars of food security in Nepal. A study entitled “Forests for Food Security and Livelihood Sustainability” by Bhubaneswar Dhakal et al. has, for the first time, attempted to quantify these losses and also identify policy approaches that simultaneously address climate change, nature conservation, and food security.

The problem originated in the 1970s and ’80s when efforts were taken to counteract the effects of heavy rains and landslides. Key measures included reforestation initiatives in combination with limits on private livestock holdings. In recent years, climate change mitigation has also resulted in increased investment for conserving forest cover. This, too, has been at the cost of food security. The numbers of goats, buffaloes, and cows have since declined by about one third. Animals are often a household’s only source of income, thus malnourishment and diseases are on the rise, especially among the poorer sections of the population.

The authors consider agroforestry an appropriate approach to resolve this problem and for offering an alternative to current forest management practices. Under this approach, parts of the forest are leased to individual households. The community monitors forest use and has a share in the income. Not only does this contribute to food security, it also helps generate additional sources of income. Simultaneously, erosion is controlled and soil quality is improved while gains are made on climate protection and biodiversity conservation. The need for such an approach in Nepal will become even more urgent if the government expands protected forest areas to 25 percent of total land area, as it ambitiously announced at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009. (Stefanie Schaefter)

The study "Forests for Food Security and Livelihood Sustainability: Policy Problems and Opportunities for Small Farmers in Nepal" by Bhubaneswar Dhakal, Hugh Bigsby, and Ross Cullen was recently published in the Journal of Sustainable Agriculture. It can be downloaded here.

Further information on climate protection in Nepal’s forest sector can be found here. The report "Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies in Nepal’s Forest Sector: How Can Rural Communities Benefit?" was published in 2009 in the framework of the Nepal Swiss Community Forest Project NSCFP.

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, 1/2011