A critical assessment of scientific and political dimensions of the issue of community forests inventory in Nepal.

A critical assessment of scientific and political dimensions of the issue of community forests inventory in Nepal

A recently enforced forest inventory directive has been a contentious issue in Nepal’s community forestry. This note explores the science and politics that lie behind this issue. It is argued that properly addressing this issue necessitates adopting a scientific approach for resource inventory that is compatible with local knowledge system, while at the same time achieving the desirable level of precision, and separating ‘service’ from ‘regulatory functions’ of Department of Forest (DOF). The purpose of this note is to further facilitate discussions by highlighting the science and politics of that lie behind the inventory intervention. In particular, it aims to facilitate debate on the following key questions so that this will feed into a more comprehensive, pragmatic policy instrument in future….

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Ojha, H. 2002. A critical assessment of scientific and political dimensions of the issue of community forests inventory in Nepal: A policy discussion note. Discussion Paper. ForestAction Nepal.