Rural out-migration and community forest governance: a case study from two Middle hills districts of Nepal

Keywords: Rural out-migration; Nepal; Forest Governance; Participation
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 10

Abstract

Community forestry (CF) in Nepal is considered one of the most successful environmental policies in the world, resulting in significant improvement of forest conditions. Outmigration was a rare social phenomenon at the time of CF initiation. Now it drastically influences nearly every aspect of the livelihood in Nepal. However, it is unclear how outmigration affects CF governance for sustainable rural development. Therefore, this paper addresses two major research questions: a) How does rural out-migration affect the participation in community forestry decision-making and management practices? b) How do out-migration influence the use of forest products- fuelwood, fodder, timber, pole, and animal bedding? This paper draws on the data collected from an extensive survey of 415 households (HH) from 15 community forest user groups in two Mid-Hill districts of Nepal. We used ordered logit regression to model the impacts of outmigration on the participation in forest management and decision-making. We used relative importance index (RRI) and t-tests to differentiate the impacts of out-migration and remittance on the demand of forest products and the amount of products collected from CF. We found multiple socio-economic factors that determine the participation of community forest user groups members in decision-making and forest management activities. This study provides valuable information for making new CF policies addressing issues arising from outmigration in rural Nepal.