A commentary on Bhattarai et al, (2002). "The vacillating evolution of forestry policy in Nepal: historically manipulated, internally mismanaged."

A commentary is given of the paper by Bhattarai et al which reveals how political and bureaucratic elites have manipulated the forest policies and practices in Nepal for their benefits despite the rhetoric of periodic change/improvement. The authors seem to be less clear in their main argument on the possible institutional modality of forest management, and are often inconsistent about their political and moral viewpoints on the issue. Some of the important gaps and emergent themes that deserve further analysis and reflections are described, viz., citizen-state relations and the democratic legitimacy of forest governance, technocratic bias, and ambiguity/lack of clarity.