Environmental policy and administrative management

The slash and burn land cultivation (shifting land cultivation) is traditional agricultural practice in which land plots are prepared by slashing and burning the forest. The prepared land is cultivated until the soil loses its fertility and after that the land is left for natural re-growth and the farmer shifts to next patch of land. During the fallow period, the land is used for grazing, fodder, timber and grass. As long as the fallow period is long, slash and burning agriculture system is one of the sustainable and natural farming systems. But when the fallow period is short, the soil would loose its natural regeneration capacity, induce soil erosion and trigger landslide. This shifting land cultivation is called Khoriay Phandani in Nepal. The history of Khoriya Phadani practice in Nepal is long. Dhading, Makawanpur, Chitwan, Gorkha and Nawalparashi districts and catchments of the Trisuli, Narayani and Rapti Rivers and their tributaries are the major areas of Khoriya Phadani. Mostly the most backward indigenous communities like Tamang and Chepang have been practicing Khoriya Phandani in Nepal. In those districts, more than 95% families of Chepangs depend on Khoriya Phandani. These lands are not registered land but socially the tenurial right belong to these indigenous peoples and they are often blamed for deforestation, landslide and river water pollution. The success of one of the SGP supported projects on shifting cultivation (NEP/03/11) implemented by MDI-Nepal has identified a big policy gap for legal land rights for shifting cultivation. Thus the project aims to aware these indigenous peoples regarding the laws and policies relating to land and forest and natural resources and make policy recomendations related to shifting cultivation so that a balance is maintained between the food security of the shifting cutivators and environmental protection.

Nepal