English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

Chapter4Addressing poverty andpromoting good governance:Community forestry in postconflictNepal 1 Bharat Kumar Pokharel 2Jane Carter 31. IntroductionNepal provides in many ways a ‘text book’ example of chronic poverty inremote rural areas (RRAs). The mountainous landscape is beautiful, butthe steeply intersected terrain hinders access and makes infrastructuredevelopment and maintenance costly. Numerous roads and bridges havebeen built over the past 50 years, and other infrastructure are developed,but still a large section of the population live many days walk from thenearest road head, and without ready access to basic facilities such asdrinking water, health services, schools or rural electrification (or atleast to those of any quality). Deaths and permanent injury as a result ofgeographical isolation – including being unable to reach medical servicesor receive appropriate treatment in time, coping with the drudgeryof bearing heavy loads up and down mountainous slopes, or sufferingaccidents while crossing rivers, etc. - are common. Fertility rates are high(partly but not entirely due to lack of access to birth control), with highermaternal and child mortality. The basis of the rural economy is labourintensiveagriculture, cultivating fragile soils and raising livestock forlow returns. Land fragmentation is extreme and many households haveinsufficient land for food security. Given that opportunities for earningbeyond basic wage labour are scarce, out-migration (to urban areas orabroad) is the most obvious coping strategy, and is widely practised – bothseasonally and longer-term. Indeed, remittances represent a substantial1This chapter is a revised and updated version of a paper originally prepared for an international workshopin Cape Town, South Africa in March 2007 organised by the Overseas Development Institute.2Project Director, Nepal Swiss Community Forestry Project and Country Representative, IntercooperationNepal. PO Box 113, Kathmandu, Nepal bk_pokharel@nscfp.org.np3Co-Head, Governance and Natural Resources, Intercooperation, PO Box 6724, Bern, Switzerland, jane.carter@intercooperation.ch65