FOREST PLACES, POLITICAL SPACES: THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF COMMUNITY FORESTRY IN NEPAL by CHRISTOPHER BLAIR TARNOWSKI (Under the Direction of Robert E. Rhoades) ABSTRACT This dissertation examines a number of overlapping social and political implications associated with the implementation of Nepal’s Community Forestry Program. Based on several of the broad concerns of a post-structural political ecology, and inspired by the work of Foucault, Escobar, Ferguson, Scott, and others, this study combines an examination of the policies and practices of the state, development and forest management with the myriad ways in which villagers adopt, embrace, manipulate, redefine, and/or reconfigure community forestry as it is put into practice at the local level. The study is divided into two sections. The chapters of the first section explore the histories associated with the emergence and growth of the Nepal state, the expansion of development, and the changes in forest policy culminating in the current policy and practices associated with community forestry. Community forestry policy is seen to represent the devolution or ‘decentralization’ of management control to local communities. Through an examination of the practices associated with community forest management, this section argues, however, that contrary to claims of ‘decentralizing’ control, forest resources and the rural population are subject to an expanding apparatus of ‘governmental’ control. The second section of this study is based on fieldwork conducted among three user groups in a single ‘village’ setting, and situates local management practices within the context of an expanding state and the proliferation of numerous development imperatives. The chapters of this section highlight several aspects of social difference – caste and ethnic group membership, gender, wealth, education – that have salience for the outcome(s) associated with community forestry as put into practice. Despite a diverse set of objectives to foster ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’ of women, poor and other disadvantaged ‘community’ members, to promote ‘democracy,’ and simultaneously ‘depoliticize’ community forestry, this study suggests that the community forestry program has instead opened a new political space within which local economic and political elite are able to expand their power and authority over forest management and local community development within the village. INDEX WORDS: Nepal, Community Forestry, Community-based resource management, Development, Politics, Political Ecology FOREST PLACES, POLITICAL SPACES: THE SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF COMMUNITY FORESTRY IN NEPAL by CHRISTOPHER BLAIR TARNOWSKI B.A., The University of Alberta, Canada 1992 M.A., The University of Alberta, Canada 1995 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2002 © 2002 Christopher Blair Tarnowski All Rights Reserved FOREST PLACES, POLITICAL SPACES: THE IMPLICATIONS OF COMMUNITY- BASED FOREST MANAGEMENT IN NEPAL by CHRISTOPHER BLAIR TARNOWSKI Approved: Major Professor: Robert E. Rhoades Committee: J. Peter Brosius Virginia Nazarea Benjamin Blount Michael Olien Electronic Version Approved Gordhan L. Patel Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2002 DEDICATION To GMT For Everything iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like all works of this nature, this dissertation is the product of a great many influences, many large and others small, some covering many years and others merely fleeting. For each of these influences I am most appreciative, though there are several individuals in particular that are due special recognition. To begin, I am grateful to my entire dissertation committee for their support, guidance, and suggestions. I am especially thankful for the support of Robert Rhoades, my committee chair, who always respected my research interests, while also giving me the freedom to pursue directions divergent from his own. I owe an immense debt to Peter Brosius. Through his research, teaching, guidance, and recommendations, as well as our many conversations, Pete has been an exceptionally significant source of inspiration for this dissertation, as well as future directions for my research and teaching. I am also thankful for the opportunity to have been a student of Virginia Nazarea, whose teaching and work has also given direction to my own. During my studies as an anthropologist, which first began more than a decade ago as an undergraduate student, there were many teachers from whom I have learned a great deal. While an undergraduate student at the University of Alberta, it was Frederic Ulmer who first sparked my interest in anthropology. It was during those first classes with him that I realized I would eventually pursue a doctoral degree in the subject. Jean DeBernardi, Linda Fedigan, Nancy Lovell, and David Young were other important sources of knowledge and inspiration. I am especially grateful to Jean DeBernardi for providing me with my first opportunity for collaborative research in the ‘field,’ a positive experience with which I recall fondly. I am very grateful to Rod Wilson, whose heart and v passion for the application of anthropological knowledge outside of the walls of academia, stimulated my interests in the subject of development and applied anthropology, a subject I also chose to pursue as a masters student under his direction. From Bruce Morrison, who served as a co-advisor for my masters degree, I have learned a great deal about Nepal and anthropology, as well as teaching and humanity. Words are insufficient to describe how much I have cherished his friendship and his mentorship. Don Messerschmidt has also been a long-lasting influence through his guidance, suggestions, and years of work and research in Nepal. Others, at the University of Georgia, whom I wish to thank, include my closest friends and colleagues, Neeraj Vedwan, Shannon Gray, Mikell Gleason, Rebecca Austin and Ramie Gougeon. I would also like to give heartfelt thanks to Charlotte Blume, graduate student coordinator in the Department of Anthropology; although she may not have contributed directly to the content of this dissertation, through her constant assistance she was nonetheless instrumental to my having completed it. The research for this dissertation covered two full years in Nepal, and would not have been possible without the assistance of all of the villagers with whom I lived and learned. I am greatly indebted to them for their immense generosity and patience. I would especially like to thank Khem and Bishnu Subedi, who provided me with a place to call home for so many months. I also spent many hours in the company of Kamal Parajuli, Ganesh Parajuli, Indra Sharma, Indira Kumari Shahi, and Patra Malla, each of whom taught me a great deal about village life and enriched my experience greatly. The first few months of my research in the village would not have proceeded as smoothly or vi as successfully without the aid of Benktesh Sharma, who began as an invaluable research assistant and became a good friend and companion. My research was only possible because of the contributions of many staff from the Department of Forests, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Institute of Forestry in Pokhara, the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) and numerous forestry and development project offices, chief among them the Nepal-UK Community Forestry Project, Nepal-Swiss Community Forestry Project, Nepal-Australia Community Resource Management Project, CARE and USAID. In particular, I am grateful to Keshav Kanel, Bharat Pokharel, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Santosh Rayamajhi, Siddhartha Bajracharya, Harihar Acharya, and K.P. Sikdel. Ram Babu Poudel, Gajendra Thakur, Baudhu Mahato, and many of the staff at the District Forest Office in Myagdi district were most generous and helpful. All of the staff of the Nepal-UK Community Forestry Project were extremely generous and assisted my research in a variety of ways. I would especially like to thank Nick Roche, Clare Hamilton, Dhruba Acharya, Sunil Lama, Tilak Khatri, all of whom not only endured my many questions and requests, but also went out of their way to provide me with assistance. While in Nepal, there were also several friends and colleagues who assisted my research in a variety of ways. First and foremost, I owe much to Ian Harper, a great friend and colleague, who through our conversations and the time we spent writing – and traveling – in Nepal, was (and remains) a source of much inspiration. Ram Chhetri of Tribhuvan University, Nepal, was another valued friend and colleague who helped support my research while in Nepal, and read and commented on a draft of this dissertation. Ridish Pokharel, at the Institute of Forestry in Pokhara, was always willing vii to discuss my research and share his own experiences and insights. Both Sandra MacDonagh and Camille Richard provided me with places to live and became valued friends and confidants. Finally, and of course, I am very greatly indebted to my family for their love and support throughout this very long journey. Daryl and Doreen Tarnowski, Tara Tarnowski, and Giselle Trahan, I could not have done this without any of you. The research for this dissertation was funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship. A Doctoral Dissertation Writing Assistantship from the University of Georgia primarily funded the writing of the dissertation.