Governing Nepal's Forests: The Peasant's Dilemma. Consequences of Central Regulation

Abstract

"This paper discusses the 'management' of common-pool resources in Nepal, with particular reference to forest resources and forest products. The emphasis will be on describing some of the consequences that emerged as a result of the government's 'corrective' intervention in the form of nationalization of forests and subsequent legislations . I shall try to show how the political structure of the state of Nepal manifested by a centrally regulated top-down approach to policy-making disrupted the forest resource, its management, and its relationship to the people most dependent on it for survival--the peasants."