Political Conflicts and Community Forestry: Understanding the Impact of the Decade-Long Armed Conflicts on Environment and Livelihood Securities in Rural Nepal

In this paper, we investigated the impact of the decade-long Maoist armed insurgency on three major resource management outcomes with regard to the community-based forest management in Nepal: governance, livelihoods, and environment sustainability. Field studies combined qualitative (interview and participant observations, focused group discussions) and quantitative methods, such as a household survey. Secondary data available from various sources was also assessed. Although the period of armed insurgency was to blame for the destruction of local level infrastructures and crisis of governance, the empirical analysis confirmed that that there was no marked impact as a result of the armed conflict on the governance regime of CFUGs, nor to access to forest products. The central government was dysfunctional during much of the insurgency, but local forest management by CFUGs continued to operate effectively. Although the study reported few incidents of clear cutting of community forests for security purposes, there was no marked difference between “before” and “during” situation in terms of community forest based environmental services associated with CF such as greenery, biodiversity conservation, watershed protection, erosion and landslide control and household income. We discussed that the resilience of local management institutions was crucial to cope with the armed conflicts at the local level during the period of Maoist conflict.