The Chepang and forest conservation in the central mid-hills of Nepal

This study was carried out in Wards 3 and 4 of Shaktikhor Village Development Committee (VDC), which forms a bottleneck in the Barandavar forest that connects the Chitwan National Park with the Mahabharat Range (mid-hills) in the north. The intent was to analyse the Chepang indigenous community, their dependency and pressure on the forest, their traditional management methods, the potential for community-based forest management and other related issues. The study method included open-ended interviews with four District Forest Office (DFO) staff, 15 key informants, a socio-economic survey of 250 households, data collection on household consumption of forest products and an analysis of land cover changes from the years 1970 and 2000. Chepangs were found highly dependent on a forest whose area has decreased by 12%, resulting in a reduction in species used by the Chepang for their livelihoods. Economic development based on non-timber forest products (NTFPs) has potential to decrease forest dependency...