In a paper presented at the ECPR Summer School on Environmental Politics, Keele University, UK (June 26th - July 7th, 2006), Poshendra Satyal Pravat reviews and explores the equity and sustainability issues in the forestry sector in the Terai, Nepal with a focus on the past and present forest politics and policy in the region.

The paper argues that Terai forestry has been historically an inequitable domain that only benefited the State and the ruling class whereas the common Nepali people did not get a fair share of the benefits from it.

The upper hand of the State in the control of Terai forests ever since the beginning of the history of Nepal remained as a legacy for a long period, even influencing current forestry policy and practice in the region. This could explain the reluctance of successive governments for transparent and accountable forest governance in the Terai. This also explains the restricted policy of the State to hand over only a few parts of Terai forests for community management.

Poshendra Satyal Pravat - "A History of Forest Politics in the Terai, Nepal: A Case of Equity or Ecology?"