Rethinking grazing in community forests in Nepal

Livestock rearing through grazing has been one of the major livelihoods for centuries; however, feeding patterns have changed with time and circumstances. Born from the urgency of the 1960s and 1970s afforestation drives, when young saplings needed protection and degraded hillsides desperately needed cover, the blanket stopping grazing became gospel. It has been helpful during massive afforestation. Forests came back. But that success story may now be obscuring a quieter crisis unfolding on the forest floor.

Nepal’s community forestry programme is, by any measure, one of the world’s great conservation achievements. In 1992, forests covered just 26 per cent of the country’s land area. By 2016, that figure had climbed back to 45 per cent, nearly double, thanks largely to more than 22,000 Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) that today collectively manage close to three million hectares across Nepal, directly benefiting roughly half of all rural households. The programme has been lauded globally as a model of participatory resource governance.