Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Volume 21 Number 1 Himalayan Research Bulletin; Nepal After Article 16 the Revolution 2001 Research Synopsis: Land Management in Mugu District of Western Nepal: Power, Cultural Practices and Ecological Conditions Andrea Nightingale University of Minnesota Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya Recommended Citation Nightingale, Andrea (2001) "Research Synopsis: Land Management in Mugu District of Western Nepal: Power, Cultural Practices and Ecological Conditions," Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: Vol. 21: No. 1, Article 16. Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol21/iss1/16 This Research Report is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Research Reports Research Synopsis: Land Management in Mugu District of Western Nepal: Power, Cultural Practices and Ecological Conditions Andrea Nightingale University of Minnesota My research interests broadly encompass human-en­ group. Furthermore, based on issues raised within the po­ vironment interactions with a focus on resource manage­ litical ecology, feminist, post-colonial, and agrarian change ment in the Third World. I am committed to scholarship literatures, I argue that meanings attached to forests and that centers on social and ecological sustainability and is­ beliefs about ecological processes (nature) articulate with sues of equity. Specifically, I examine community forestry social and power relations to influence which management management in the Mugu District of northwestern Nepal. strategies are adopted by the group. In addition to these My work most closely falls within the geographical sub­ cultural and political elements, changing ecological condi­ discipline of political ecology (Peet 1996; Bryant 1998), tions either reinforce or challenge existing beliefs about but I emphasize a feminist and ecological perspective that nature and social power relations, causing a re-negotiation is often lacking in other political ecology research. Forest of them. I contend, therefore, that ecological conditions management in Nepal provides an especially rich context articulate with both power relations and cultural practices within which to investigate human-environment interac­ to drive forest management in Nepal. tions because of the collision between villagers' daily needs For this work I developed a "trialectical" framework and corresponding harvesting practices, the long-term man­ from which I could examine community forestry in an in­ agement goals of the locally based user-groups and the tegrated perspective. I understand the three analytical do­ State, and forest ecological changes. mains as mutually constitutive and fluctuating over time, Forests are considered central for survival in Nepal and space and scale (cf. (Harvey 1996; Soja 1996). Social and the gathering of forest products occupies a large portion of power rel ations include but are not exclusive to: caste, class, most women's time. Villagers use composted leaf litter race and gender relations, and in the Nepali case, political and animal manure as their primary source of fertilizer and party membership. These categories do not operate inde­ gather firewood for cooking and green leaves for animal pendently, but rather, different elements of peoples' identi­ fodder (feed); they also cut timber, and animals graze on ties combine in complex and subtle ways to influence their understory plants. District Forest Office (DFO) rangers and degree of social and political power. Cultural practices is villagers were concerned about degrading forest conditions an analytical category that I broadly define to encompass and, together, implemented Community forestry (CF) be­ beliefs about nature, meanings attached to land and the in­ ginning in 1990. Community forestry allows villagers to stitutions formed to manage land. These cultural elements manage forest lands as a common pool resource, based on shape the range of land management decisions people will management plans they develop with the help of DFO rang­ consider, as well as influencing power relations, and there­ ers. CF projects often improve forest conditions, and the fore are critical to understanding how environmental trans­ democratic, locally based structure of the user-groups is formations occur. Ecological conditions vary with the spe­ consistent with the government's decentralization goals. cific issue, but human land use often has a huge impact on which species of plants and animals are dominant in a par­ The success of community forestry programs has been ticular place. These conditions, in turn, shape the beliefs inconsistent across Nepal. Several different factors help and practices that arise in relation to parti cular landscapes. explain these variable results including: the extent to which In addition, poor ecological conditions tend to impact international donors provide technical and organizational marginalized members of the community most dramati­ support to the user-group, the length of time the user-group cally, and inversely, control over resources is often a po­ has been functioning, and the power dynamics within the tent source of social and political power. RESEARCH REPORTS: Nightingale, Land Management in Mugu District 41 While several excellent political ecology studies ad­ tensi ve open ended interviews and ecological oral histo­ dress gender relations as a significant factor in resource ries. This methodology combines quantitative and quali­ management, few studies have sought to understand how tative methods as demanded by the kinds of questions each categories of difference, including gender, caste, class and method addressed. The entire process was informed by a other social relations, are constituted through contexts like strong feminist ethic of research that sought to include the community forestry. Categories of difference, in part, struc­ · Nepalis in the research process and to address questions of ture the extent to which individuals have access to social importance to th e community, in addition to those I be­ and political power, but as feminist researchers have dem­ lieve are important. onstrated, the process of contesting and reproducing these The preliminary results emerging from this work are categories is a critical way in which these relations become fascinating. For example, the user-group has changed its significant in specific geographical and historical contexts approach to forest fires with the advent of CF and anum­ (Haraway 1991; Massey 1994; Radcliffe 1994). Commu­ ber of tensions are arising within the group as a result. nity forestry programs seek the participation of women and Historically, villagers burned the forest understory to pro­ low-caste members, but the extent to which their partici­ mote the growth of grass for animal grazing. Most species pation translates into influence in the management process of mature trees cannot tolerate such burning, but many oaks is closely related to power relations as they operate through (Quercus leucotrichophora and Quercus selllecarpifolia) caste, class, and gender, and has demonstrable ecological and the blue pine (Pinus wallichiana) of Western Nepal consequences (Nightingale 1996). are fire adapted and most mature trees survive understory A number of important issues are highlighted by the fires. In the forest understory grass is relatively prevalent, trialectical analysis I have outlined. Most significantly, but as saplings and the canopy become thicker, the grass ecological conditions and processes are taken to be active tends to die out and other, more shade tolerant species take agents in the process of shaping human land use. It is not over. Fires that burn relatively quickly kill seedlings and adequate to only understand the environment as a back­ saplings and add nutrients to the soil, causing grass to grow ground for an analysis of resource use. Rather, the kinds thick and rich in the following season. The promotion of of resources available, their rates of regeneration, the kinds grass growth, however, declines over time if the area is of disturbances that either increase or decrease the abun­ burned regularly, due to depletion of nutrients in the sys­ dance these resources, and their overall trajectory of change tem. The exact interval between burning needs to be de­ over time contribute to the formation of particular kinds of termined for each specific ecosystem, but in general, a social and power relations and cultural practices; all of these minimum of four to five years without burning is required then combine to drive land management. Similarly, the to avoid excessive loss of organic matter from the soil and beliefs about nature, meanings attached to land, and the other nutrients critical to soil fertility (Dahms 1997). In institutions formed to manage land (cultural practices), in­ addition, when periodic burning and harvesting of mature fluence the kinds of land management options people will trees for timber are combined, the forest can degrade rap­ consider, which they believe will be most effective, and idly as canopy trees are not replaced due to