Nepal: Adapting the decentralization and tenure policy

In areas of Nepal, extensive rights, including in some cases ownership, have been granted to local communities with regard to natural forests formerly under state control. The Forest Act of 1993 is a "single comprehensive law that is designed to transfer a major portion of forest land use and management back to local forest user groups ... repealing restrictions on cutting or transporting trees" (Pardo, 1993).

Fox (1993) describes a village where, in spite of (because of) increasing population growth, the state of forest resources improved between 1980 and 1990. The author's analysis gives three reasons for this: the introduction of a road (the government provided physical infrastructure); the role of "outsiders" and NGOs in assisting local people in environmental management (emerging partnerships); and, most important, the introduction of a new tenure regime for forest lands which encouraged villagers to assume more responsibility for forest management and to develop new forest management arrangements. It appears that, at least for part of this period, tenure rules and regulations were not expressed very clearly or decisively, thereby allowing some local interpretation: "Once the villagers realized that protection committees are sanctioned by government officials they quickly developed their own methods for managing local resources."