JapanJapanSociety Society ofForestof Forest Planning 25 Article An Analysis of the Soeioeconomic Conditions of the Rural People based on Caste Implications for Suitable Watershed Management in the Kaski District, Nepal Rajendra Prasad Lamichhane'i, Masahiro Amano'2,Takeshi Kadota*3 and Akihiko Sasaki*` ABSTRACT Watershed management is important in Nepal to stabilize the physical environment and to improve the livelihood of watershed residents. Recently, people's participation has been a fundamental government policy in forestf watershed conservation. Although participation of all the stakeholders is necessary for the success of the program, their participation largely depends upon the extent of the reflection of their needs in watershed managernent activities. With caste-related cliscrimination still prevalent in Nepal, this paper attempted to identify the caste differences as reflected in their sociocconomic condition. The findings revealed that there are wide gaps between the castelethnic groups regarding their socioeconomic cendition. The gap is particularly wide between the higher caste/ethnic group and the lower castes. Radar chart ana]ys{s showed that the local people are more concerned with socioeeonomic problems cumpared to the natural resource aspects, Regression analysis showed that shortage of cereals is the biggest positive predictor variab]e of the concern for food avai]ability. The proportion of Miterate households and livestock population are the other predictor variables. On the other hand, the amount of paddy produced, walking distance to piped water in the wet season, and walking distance to fuelwoocl forest are the negatively related predictor variables of the concern for food availab{lity. Total area of Bariland (rainfed farmland) is the most irnportant negative predictor variable for concern for fuelwood availability, fo]lowed by the area of Khetland (irrigated farmland). Walking distance to fuelwood forest, production of rnaize and membership in cornmunity forest are the positive predictor variables. The differences in socioeconomic conditions have cleep implications for the participatory approach, as conflict of interest may arise between thc groups with different socioeconomic backgrounds. It is recommended that sueh clifferences in watershed managernent planning be addressed so as to gain broader participation from a]] the stakeholders, Kaywont: people's participation, caste, watershed management,socioeconomic condition of 147,481 krn2, has a population of 18,491,097 (CENTRAL INTRODUCTION BuREAu oF STATisTics, 1997) . Dvlore than 80% of the econom- ically active population is involved in farming. Nepal Nepal, a sma]1 mountainous country covering an area consists of three geographical regions-the Tera{ (plain area), the Hil]s and the Mountains (Fig. 1 ). Forestland is an integral part of the farming system in the Hil]s of Nepa]. Si Dectoral Program, Department ef Agriculture A feature of the integral relationship between the forests and Life Sciences, Faculty of Forest Science and the system in Hills is significance of Forest Management, University farming the the Laboratoryof of Tekyo e-mail/ ram[@fr.a,u-tokyo.ac.jp watershed conservation in Nepal, '2Department of Forest Management, Forestry However, past forest policies failed Lo recognize this and Forest Products Research Institute '3 relationship, and were generally counterproductive in for- {Late) Ex-JICA Expert. *4Nippon Koei estfwatershed conservation. AII ferestlands were brought J. FbxPlann.6;25-37reOOov NII-Electronic Library Service JapanJapanSociety Society of Forest Planning 26 Lamichhane et al. 848m)77m) Fig.1 TheGeographicalregions of Nepal under government control (MAHAT et al., 1986) and state experienced a rnajor paradigm shift in approaches to ownership was guaranteed through legal arrangements. watershed management. The Iocal people; however, continued to use the forest resources from the natienal forest, even though it was Past watershed management approach illegal. The forests continuous exploitation of resulted in a Until the late 1980s the Department focused on the decrease in the forest area in the Terai and the degradation large watersheds, implementing activities throughout the of watersheds in the Hills. His Majesty's Government watershed area. The operational approach was on a (HMG) of Nepal realized that forest/watcrshed conserva- project basis and many agencies were involved in carrying tion could not be achievecl by the government alone; ancl, out various activities. there was a need for involvement of Ieca] people (NATroNAL Further there was more emphasis on the erosion FoREsTRy PLAN, 1976, as quoted by BAJRAciiARyA, 1992). control aspects such as gully contro], landslicle treatment, Even though the caste system was legally abolished in torrent control etc. Work was carried out in the field either 1963, caste-based discrimination is still alive in Nepal. by directly hiring local laborers or by operating through Since it is important for all sections of the society to take contractors. The beneficiaries were scarcely involved part in watershed management activities, it is useful to (IvlEiMAN et aL 1985; SHAKyA et al,, 1991 quoted by BoGATi, study the socioeconomic condition of various castefethnic 1996). The projects contributed almost all the costs households fer a more pragmatic watershed rnanagement required for watershed management activities and people's approach. partlclpatlon was non-exlstent. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the Integration among various line agencies and effective socioeconomic condition of the caste/ethnic households in mechanism for involvement of local people were found to the Kaski District and to cliscuss its implications for water- be lacking in the implementation of such large watershed shed management in the context of the current par- projects. The iinplementation strategy consisted of top- ticipatory approach. down planning, implementation and monitoring of water- shed projects. This approach did not encourage farmers' WATERSHED MANAGEMENT IN NEPAL participation and hence proved to be unsustainable (WAGLEy, 1997). Terrace construction on the hill-sides and planting of fodder and fue]wood trees are some of the numerous tradi- Current watershed management approach tional watershed management practices in the IIills. However, at the government level, niore concerted efferts While most of the projects were implemented on a started after the establishment of a separate Department of broad watershed basis, some projects, which adopted a Soil Conservation and Watershed Managernent different approach, were already demonstrating some '5 {DSCWM) in 1974. Watershed management is one of the promising results at the grass-roots level in the early 1990 six primary components of the Master Plan for Forestry s. The Begnas Tal Rupa Tal Watershed Management Sector (MPFS, 1989). Over the years, the Departrnent has Project (BTRTfWMP) joint]y {mplemented in the Kaski District by the DSCWM and CARE International, was one such Project. The Begnas ancl Rupa lake watersheds, the 'S working area of the Project, Then Department of Soil and Water Conserva- consist of 19km2 and 30km2 tlon respectively. The Project adopted people's participatien as NII-Electronic Library Service JapanJapanSociety Society ofForestof Forest Planning An Analysds of the Socioeconomic Conditions of theRu7ul Reoplebased on Cmste 27 its fundamental strategy and was considered as a success- text, the definition of watershed management given by ful project in terms of contr{bution of local people and SHARNm et al. (l997) deserves particular attention, ownership of the completed activities (BoGATi,1996). Sustainable participatory integrated watershed rnan- Lessons from such projects; persistent financial and agement is defined as utilization and conservation of ]and, manpower constraints; the need to produce more visible water, and forest resources, at farm househo]d and commu- impacts in a short time, ancl further strengthening the nity {or given watershed ) level for continttously improved mechanism of peeple's participation, entailed shifting to livelihood and human deve]opment (SHARMA et al., 1997) the sub-watershed approach. At present, functional sub- People's participation is a rich concept which is inter- watersheds of 5-25kmt are identified for management with preted differently in different situations (WoRLD BANK, emphasis on people's partieipation (AcHE'r,1998). The 1996; OLTHETEN, ]995). However, two aspects are found DSCWM implements a wide range of watershed manage- most commonly in descriptions of people's participation, ment activities such as gully treatment, torrent contro], The first is the involvement of the disadvantaged group conservation planting, fruit and fodder tree planting, train- who have been previously excluded in the development ing, extension etc. which are broadly categorized as: process; and, the second is the stakeholders' influence and ･ Land Use Planning control of the developinent processes which affect them. ･ Land Productivity Conservation {Boc;A-r[, 1995; FAO, 1991; OLTHETEN, 1995; SHARMA et al., ･ Development Infrastructure Proteetion 1997; WoRLD BANK 1996). Following this it can be concluded ･ Natural Hazard Prevention that in the people's participation process, people's emp- - Community Soil Conservation owerment is vital so that they can take initiatives and 'Guidelines In 1993, the for People's Participation in contribute to ancl control the development process. Soil Conservation