Linking Attitudes, Policy, and Forest Cover Change in Buffer Zone Communities of Chitwan National Park, Nepal

Jared R. Stapp, Robert J. Lilieholm, Jessica Leahy, Suraj Upadhaya
2016 Environmental Management  
Deforestation in Nepal threatens the functioning of complex social-ecological systems, including rural populations that depend on forests for subsistence, as well as Nepal's biodiversity and other ecosystem services. Reliance on forest resources, coupled with high population densities and rates of growth, highlights the importance of studying the relationship between human communities, forest cover and trends through time, and forest management institutions. A Master Plan for Nepal's Forestry
more » ... ctor (MPFS), enacted in 1989, laid the foundation for modern community-based forest management in Nepal. In 2014, the MPFS reached the end of its 25-year lifespan, after successfully ushering in significant institutional changes that fundamentally transformed the management of Nepal's forests, mostly through devolving management and benefits from the national level to local communities. My time as an M.S. student has helped me improve in all aspects of being a good scientist, and I attribute this to the people I have worked with at UMaine. My adviser, Dr. Rob Lilieholm, has been my biggest supporter along the way. Rob has always patiently helped me whenever I was having difficulty and encouraged me to push myself, take advantage of every opportunity available to me, and to pursue the ideas I am genuinely interested in. There has never been an instance when he wasn't readily available as a mentor to me, and I am very grateful for the experiences I have had while working alongside him-from floating the crocodile-filled Rapti river in a tipsy dugout canoe, to spotting One-horned rhinos while riding elephants in Chitwan, to drinking beers on rooftops in Kathmandu, to reminiscing about our shared appreciation for the simplicity of the Utah desert. I look forward to working closely with Rob throughout my research career, and wish him and his family all the best in their upcoming transitions. My other committee members, Drs. Jessica Leahy, Tim Waring, and Chris Cronan, have all been immensely helpful in the last two years as well. I took Jessica's Rural Communities course during my first semester at UMaine, and it is perhaps my favorite classroom experience I have had in my M.S. I have great admiration for the critical and thoughtful way Jessica thinks about and studies human dimensions of natural resource management-such as poverty, social capital, diversity, and resource dependence-which is evident in the following manuscript. She has continually helped me beyond the typical obligations of a graduate committee member, and I am grateful for her time, honest feedback, and caring advice. Among other components, the success of our household survey and the statistical methods used in its analysis are largely due to her iv expertise. Tim has gone above and beyond in helping me since I have been at UMaine as well, and since working with him, my understanding of complexity theory, human behavior and decision making, and the ways in which social systems evolve, have grown dramatically. Before beginning my M.S., I had never used agent-based modeling, or any type of modeling beyond basic statistics, and I have gained a vast appreciation for the discipline. As I continue my career, I look forward to working with both Jessica and Tim, and learning all that I can from them.
doi:10.1007/s00267-016-0682-6 pmid:26920157 fatcat:4jtwmgarlnczvpl35qltrzzxi4