Papers by Bhaskar Singh Karky
The complex interplay between fuelwood consumption, deforestation, and land-use transformation in... more The complex interplay between fuelwood consumption, deforestation, and land-use transformation in the Dhankuta district of Nepal is scrutinized in this investigation, concurrently shedding light on the feasibility of securing carbon finance via REDD+ mechanisms. Data derived from household surveys and remote sensing ascertained fuelwood as the primary energy recourse for the majority of households, leading to substantial deforestation, forest degradation, and carbon emissions. In a surprising revelation, a 12.4% augmentation in forest cover was discerned over 21 years, attributable to outmigration and conversion of fallow agricultural lands into forests. The investigation established that households involved in agriculture, particularly those with lower income, demonstrated higher dependence on fuelwood, consequently contributing to forest degradation and deforestation that further resulted in the emission of greenhouse gases. Potential avenues for the district to secure carbon finance include the introduction of clean cookstoves, reducing dependency on fuelwood, and greening barren areas. For effective realization of this potential, it is crucial to formulate a benefit-sharing plan that ensures the provision of suitable incentives for forest-dependent communities that are also responsible for forest conservation. By adopting the result-based payment system of REDD+ and promoting sustainable forest management, the district can mitigate carbon emissions, advocate for forest restoration, and qualify for carbon payments.
Sustainability, Mar 31, 2023
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Jun 9, 2014
... education activities”, “social services activities” and “outdoor leisure and exploratory acti... more ... education activities”, “social services activities” and “outdoor leisure and exploratory activities” (Yen ... learning for change”, critical and reflective thinking and possibly having values and capability ... of system learning as well as highlighted sustained learning actions (Wang, 2005 ...
Learning on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation vi Acknowledgements Many... more Learning on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation vi Acknowledgements Many thanks go to all the participants of the workshop on 'Learning on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation' for fruitful and lively discussions. The ideas and contributions from representatives of ICIMOD's regional member countries, members of government and non-government offices and organizations, consultants and freelancers, and enthusiastic students made this conference a success beyond our greatest expectations. ICIMOD would also like to thank NORAD for their financial support without which it would not have been possible to host the workshop. Special thanks go to the members of the REDD Advisory Committee, REDD Monitoring Committee, REDD network members, and community forest user groups of Kayar Khola watershed in Chitwan District of Nepal, who extended a warm welcome to the participants during their two-day visit to the project site. The contributions of the ICIMOD colleagues were overwhelming and we thank them all for their support. The workshop organizers express special thanks and appreciation to the rapporteurs for the different sessions and break out groups:
Journal of Animal Production Advances, 2014
Environmental Research Letters, Sep 24, 2020
Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) encompasses a range of incen... more Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) encompasses a range of incentives for developing countries to slow, halt and reverse forest loss and associated forest carbon emissions. Where there is high dependence on biomass energy, cleaner cooking transitions are key to REDD+’s success. Given the poor track record of efforts to promote clean cooking, more evidence is needed on the potential for REDD+ to reduce unsustainable extraction of biomass energy. We present a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of REDD+ in Nepal. Unsurprisingly, we find little evidence of impacts on forest carbon in just two years. We do find that REDD+ reduced forest disturbance as measured by four plot-level indicators (signs of forest fire, soil erosion, encroachment and wildlife) that are predictive of future changes in net carbon emissions and reflective of reduced extraction pressure by households. While our analysis of household survey data does not show that REDD+ reduced harvest of forest products, we find some evidence that it reduced household dependence on firewood for cooking, possibly by increasing use of biogas. Thus, communities in Nepal appear to have improved conditions in their forests without undermining local benefits of those forests. To secure progress towards reduced emissions and improved livelihoods, interventions must be designed to effectively meet household energy needs.
Communities in forest areas can be trained to map and inventory forests • although they may need ... more Communities in forest areas can be trained to map and inventory forests • although they may need technical support for some tasks. The cost of community carbon monitoring is likely to be much less than • for professional surveys and accuracy is relatively good. The degree of precision depends on the size of the sample. There is a tradeoff between the cost of increasing the sample size and the amount of carbon that communities could claim. Entrusting forest inventory work to communities could have other • advantages for national REDD + programmes, such as transparency and recognition of the value of community forest management in providing carbon services.
Forests, Mar 13, 2018
A growing literature on collective action focuses on exploring the conditions that might help or ... more A growing literature on collective action focuses on exploring the conditions that might help or hinder groups to work collectively. In this paper, we focus on community-based forest management in the inner Terai region of Nepal and explore the role of community and user attributes such as group size, social heterogeneities, forest user' perception on forests, and affiliation to the user group, in the collective action of managing community forests. Household surveys were carried out with 180 households across twelve community forest users' groups. We first measured ethnic diversity, income inequality, landholding inequality, and user perception towards the use and management of community forests to understand their effect on the participation of forest users in the management of community forests. Our results show that among the studied variables, group size (number of forest users affiliated to the community forests) and perception of the management of their community forests are strong predictors of forest user participation in community forest management. Income inequality and ethnic diversity were found to have no significant association. Land inequality, however, was found to decrease participation in the management and use of community forests. These community and user attributes play a crucial role in the success of collective action and may vary from community to community. Hence they need to be duly considered by the practitioners prior to any community-based project interventions for stimulating successful collective action.
Ecological Economics, 2010
This paper estimates the economic returns to carbon abatement through biological sequestration in... more This paper estimates the economic returns to carbon abatement through biological sequestration in community managed forest under future REDD policy, and compares these for three possible management scenarios. For the estimation, the research relies on forest inventory data together with other socioeconomic and resources use data collected from forest users in three sites of Nepal Himalaya. The paper estimates the incremental carbon from forest enhancement on a yearly basis over a five-year period using the value of $ 1 and $ 5 per tCO 2 for conservative analysis. The results based on the three sites indicate that community forest management may be one of the least cost ways to abate carbon with a break-even price under Scenario 2 which ranges from $ 0.55 to $ 3.70 per tCO 2. However, bringing community forests into the carbon market may entail high opportunity costs as forests provide numerous non-monetary benefits to the local population, who regard these as the main incentive for conservation and management. An important finding of the research is that if forest resources use by local communities is not permitted, then carbon trading will not be attractive to them as revenue from carbon will not cover the cost foregone by not harvesting forest resources.
Journal of Forest and Livelihood
Forest fire has been one of the compelling issues in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. To pr... more Forest fire has been one of the compelling issues in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. To promote regeneration, clearing fields for agriculture, hunting, and security reasons, local people deliberately set forests on fire. In this paper, active fire incidents, temperature, precipitation, and the changes of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and Carbon monoxide (CO) value associated with forest fire were evaluated. The active forest fire incidents obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite are supplemented by the ERA5-land dataset to see the relation between precipitation and temperature with forest fires. MODIS and Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) sensor datasets were used to see the changes in AOD and CO in the region. MODIS sensor detected more than 30,462 active fires incidents in March and April 2021 in the study areas. Shan State of Myanmar recorded the maximum number of active fire incidents which is due to the practice of shift...
Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
Forest biomass may vary by species composition, location, management regimes, and management inte... more Forest biomass may vary by species composition, location, management regimes, and management interventions. To assess the variation in biomass production by management regimes, we conducted a study in three physiographic regions (mid-hills, Siwaliks and Terai) of Nepal with four different management regimes (community forest, collaborative forest, protected area, and protected forest). As community forest is the dominant forest management regime in Nepal, it was studied in all physiographic regions whereas the other two regimes were drawn only from the Terai. We interviewed a total of 1,115 forest user households, which was supplemented by high-resolution satellite image analysis and forest inventory to estimate the costs and benefits of forest management and calculate the opportunity cost of conserving forest. Our estimates suggest that the opportunity cost of conserving forest in Nepal ranged from USD 654/ha in collaborative forest to USD 3,663/ha in protected forest in 2015. The ...
Bracing for Transboundary Cooperation 9 Harmonizing Mountain Forest Management Forest Fires and M... more Bracing for Transboundary Cooperation 9 Harmonizing Mountain Forest Management Forest Fires and Mountain Forest Management Solutions Mountain Forest Management and Ecosystem Services Payment for forest ecosystem services 12 Valuation of forest ecosystem services and payment mechanisms 12 Transboundary forest ecosystem management: Experiences from around the globe 12 Mountain Forestry: Policy, governance, and institutions Governance and working with communities 13 Research and knowledge sharing 13 REDD+ in the Himalayas: Linking forest carbon to conservation and development Making Business with Forests Reference Message from the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Government of India Transcription of video message delivered by Minister Prakash Javadekar at the inauguration of the symposium Dignitaries, Ministers from neighboring countries, Ministers from various states, Members of Parliaments, other dignitaries on and off the dais. It is a very important initiative by ICIMOD and Forest Research Institute to organize this four days seminar towards transforming mountain forestry for the welfare of mountain people, forests and environment in Himalayan ecosystems.
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Papers by Bhaskar Singh Karky