LAND-USE CHANGES IN 2 MIDDLE HILLS DISTRICTS OF NEPAL

Between 1993 and 1996 the Nepal Australia Community Forestry Project c arried out four comparative land-use studies in Sindhu Palchok and Kab hre Palanchok districts of Nepal to evaluate the impacts of Australian development assistance over a continuous 19-year period fostering com munity forestry. The four studies made use of sets of air photographs taken in 1978 and 1992 to assess land-use changes. The samples covered almost 15 percent of the 400,000 ha land area of the two districts; t hey ranged between 600 and 4,000 m in altitude. Land-use change based on photo interpretation and ground truthing was supplemented by Rapid Rural Appraisal and by information obtained from local villagers. Comm unity forestry activities within certain areas at the lower altitudes are having a beneficial effect on the balance of land use as part of a broader process of agrarian change. Shrublands and grasslands are bei ng converted to more productive categories of forest land, reflecting the care of communities in managing and conserving their own forest re sources. The same cannot be said for the upper slopes where there is e vidence that the forest cover is being denuded rapidly and that the sh rubland and grassland areas are expanding at the expense of forest cov er. Many current land-use practices need to be abandoned or modified. Use of land for agricultural purposes appears to be stable. Recent evi dence suggests that reliance on subsistence farming is declining as op portunities increase for off-farm income, but whether this has allowed population pressure on land resources to be contained is debatable. W hile it appears that community forestry has reduced the pressure on la nd at the lower altitudes of Sindhu Palchok and Kabhre Palanchok, sust ained population pressures, combined with a lack of coherent and coord inated land management policies and practices, have resulted in a rapi d decline in forest resources on the upper slopes together with loss o f catchment stability.