Environmental policy and administrative management

Nipane VDC is situated at the Churiya Range, and is one of the sub-watershed of Kamala River Basin of Sindhuli District. It is located at East of District headquarters (at the distance of 40 Km) and is 21 Km far from the nearest road head. From the land degradation and heavy soil erosion perspectives, ward number 1 and 3 are most crucial. The total households of these two wards are 683 with male-1780 and female-1735 population. These wards are dominated by indigenous Danuwars and Dalits with few population of Brahmin/Chhetri. The farmers of Nipane face resources constraints and problems those are similar to the other fragile ecosystem of Churiya. Extremely high rates of soil erosion, marginal conditions of biomass production dominated by subsistence agriculture, a distinct dry season, population pressure and lack of employment opportunities have exerted extreme demands upon the existing natural resource base. Farmers of Nipane like other farmers have adopted their farming systems to these difficult conditions for generations. But due to increasing population, farmers have to cultivate in marginal land increasing soil erosion and landslides. This has negative effects at the downstream as well. Landslide, heavy flooding, river bank cutting, widening of river bank and riverbed rising are common problem. It has been reported that the bed of the Kamala Rivers are raised by 0.20 m per year in recent years (DDC, 2001) Thus the project aims to introduce agro-forestry initiatives in the degraded and soil erosion prone areas, reclaim flood plains, promote alternative energy and to improve local livelihoods.

Nepal