Land-cover and Forest in Nepal (II)

Between 1978 and 1992 dramatic forest conversion occurred in two adjacent sub-basins of the Kair Khola watershed in the Chitwan District of Nepal. However, the form of conversion differed significantly. In the Kair sub-basin dense forest was most often converted to maize-based agriculture, while in the Shakti sub-basin dense forest most often became degraded forest. This study undertook a village-level investigation of forest governance to determine whether community and institutional arrangements explain the differences in land-cover change or whether they are the result of human response to physical and topographic influences alone. It is found that in both sub-basins there are similar institutional structures that are inadequate to control the overexploitation of forest resources and this common attribute, coupled with topographic differneces, is responsible for the different form of land-cover change in the area. 

This case was part of a study to determine whether the institutional design principles of Ostrom where, in fact, related to "governance success" by Cox et al.  In that analysis, this case was classified as a success/failure (to be supplemented).