ABSTRACT
For more than a decade, Nepal has been consistently ranked in the ten poorest and least developed nations in the world. It is currently estimated that over 50 per cent of the population live below the absolute poverty line, and this percentage has barely changed in the last three decades (World Bank 1987; 1998). Agriculture is the key economic activity and over 80 per cent of economically active Nepalese are farmers, a significantly higher percentage than for most less-developed countries. This, coupled with a high population growth, puts great demands on the natural resources of Nepal for fuel, fodder, fertilizer, and building materials. These products (wood, leaves, and grasses) are obtained from forests, which are essential to Nepalese rural livelihoods. Forests in a Nepalese context are not an industrial resource, but are a critical source of inputs into farming systems (Figure 17.1). It is appropriate for these resources to be managed as far as possible by local people, a type of forestry that has become known as community forestry.
