BIOMASS RESOURCES AS ENERGY IN NEPAL

Nepal's economic activity is dominated by agriculture. The volume of e xports is small. About a quarter of the foreign exchange earned from e xport is required to cover costs of imported fossil fuels. Fossil fuel s supply less than 7% of total energy consumption. More than 90% of pr imary energy consumption is supplied by biomass resources, and forests are the major source of biomass. The sustainable fuelwood yield of fo rest is far less than the total consumption, which has caused severe f orest denudation. Consumption of crop residues and animal dung for fue l are increasing because of fuelwood shortage. The paper outlines the consequences of biomass consumption in Nepal and past efforts at bioma ss resources management and indicates their effectiveness. A few major practical policy measures have been suggested to correct the situatio n. The experiences and measures for biomass resources management expla ined in this paper are expected to be useful to other countries facing a similar situation.