Abstract
Deforestation and forest degradation mostly caused by human interventions affect the capacity of the forest ecosystem to provide ecosystem services and livelihood benefits. Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is an emerging concept that focuses on the improvement of the ecosystem as well as the livelihood of the people at the landscape level. Nepal has successfully recovered degraded forest land mainly from the hilly region through forest restoration initiatives, especially community-based forestry. However, the Tarai region is still experiencing deforestation and forest degradation. This study navigated the gaps related to forest restoration in the existing policies and practices and revealed that the persistence of deforestation and forest degradation in Tarai is a result of a complex socioeconomic structure, the limitations of the government in implementing appropriate management modality, unplanned infrastructure, and urban development. We suggest that forest restoration should focus on ecological and social wellbeing pathways at the landscape level to reverse the trend of deforestation and forest degradation in the Tarai regions of Nepal. The study provides critical insight to the policymakers and practitioners of Nepal and other countries (with similar context) who are engaged in forest/ecosystem restoration enterprise.
Highlights
Published: 7 May 2021Deforestation and forest degradation is one of the major sources of terrestrial carbon emission [1]
This study reviewed the history of forest management in Tarai, assessed the existing policies and programs, and proposed a pathway of change that could provide strategic feedback for expediting Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) in the Tarai region of
We propose a theory of change that provides a pathway to deal with existing problems and identify and suggest pathways of change that address the existing problem along with the assumptions related to those pathways; strategies to move along those pathways; expected changes resulting from those strategies; and restoration outcomes resulting from those changes (Figure 4)
Summary
Deforestation and forest degradation (hereafter referred to as D&FD) is one of the major sources of terrestrial carbon emission [1]. United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 highlighted the need for greatly increased global cooperation to restore degraded and destroyed ecosystems, including forests [15] These international policy proposals have prioritized forest restoration as a key measure to fight against climate change, avoid species loss, and support rural livelihood [16,17]. It is deemed important to explore an appropriate forest restoration approach and mechanism so that the FLR initiative could provide multiple benefits: (a) by assessing the existing forest policies and programs in the Tarai. From this perspective, this study reviewed the history of the prevention of forest land degradation; (b) poverty alleviation;. Nepal and other countries that have similar biophysical and socioeconomic contexts
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