ADB_book_18 April.qxp - Himalayan Document Centre - icimod

Environmental Conflict in Nepal:The Overall ContextJudging from the paucity of published materials, it isclear that Nepalese scholars have not given muchattention to the issue of environmental conflict.Attention to environmental conflict has been mainlylimited to the conflict between people and protectedareas, but recently some concerns have been raisedabout the impact of political conflict on theenvironment. The issue that has attracted the mostattention is the poaching of endangered wildlife andtrade in endangered wildlife species banned byvarious international agreements (AmericanEmbassy 2005; Hakahaki 2060 [2003 ]; Murphy et al.2004).The complex interrelationship betweenenvironment and conflict makes it difficult to bringtogether relevant facts, and the scope of the presentexercise does not give the flexibility or the time todeeply analyze these critical multidimensionalaspects of environment and conflict. In manyrespects, conflicts indicate that existing socialrelationships are beginning to change (Banskota andChalise 2000; Pradhan et al. 2000). For an agrarianeconomy like Nepal, environmental relationshipsmay be at the root of changing social, economic, andpolitical interactions (Bhurtel and Ali 2003). Someforces may be on their way out, some may still beemerging, while others might have clearlyestablished their foothold until new pressures begindemanding further changes.The available evidence has been broughttogether in the following to describe the differentdimensions of environment and conflict in Nepal,bearing in mind its limitations.Nepal is and has been an agrarian economywith over 80% of the people still dependent onagriculture for their livelihood. Given thatlandholdings in Nepal have been distributed veryinequitably (Yadav 1999; Aryal and Awasthi 2003),there is a huge land hunger in the country. The poorare squeezed onto small and marginal landholdingsof less than one hectare that can barely support afamily’s needs for a few months of the year. There isintense and widespread competition for availablenatural resources, leading to conflicts for space,ownership, and control. The average size oflandholdings has decreased despite bringing largetracts of forest land under cultivation. The skewedland distribution system has remained virtually intactdespite numerous policies to bring about landreform. Acute problems of insecure tenancy haveresulted in conversion of large numbers of tenantfarmers into wage laborers. The large increases ofinstitutional credit to the agricultural sector have nothelped the poor who are still unable to access it(Bhattarai and Pradhan 2004). All these factors havecontributed to increasing pressure and conflictsregarding all the important natural resources ofNepal.The rapidly increasing population has played animportant role in this scenario because developmentefforts have not succeeded in diversifying theeconomic base of the country to the extentnecessary for its rising population. Nepal’sgeography, with its very distinct ecological belts andthe fragility of the Hill and Mountain areas, has alsocontributed to the increase in competition andconflicts. Prior to the eradication of malaria, whichwas endemic to large parts of the plains, thelowlands of Nepal were sparsely populated. Most ofthe population lived in the climatically morefavorable and less disease-ridden Hills, where manystruggled to eke out a survival often supplementedby seasonal migration to India. Malaria eradicationduring the 1950s opened the flood gates to migrationfrom the Hills to the Terai, giving many an opportunityfor a better life. However, for some it was anunending set of problems—sometimes with theGovernment and at other times with other migrantsfrom the Hills and neighboring parts of India (Panday1985).This opening of the Terai plains after malariaeradication was a politically unstable period.Frequently changing governments, each wanting totake maximum advantage of the opportunity of newland available in the Terai, established commissionafter commission to look into the problems of landdistribution and settlement. Groups of illegal settlers,landless groups, insecure tenants, and interestinglyenough “political sufferers” actively pressed theirclaims to land ownership. Depending on who was inpower, decisions favored one group and angeredothers, resulting in many demonstrations andclashes, some of which were violent (Ghimere1992). A major land reform launched in 1964 had afew notable aspects, but many later reviews (IDS1985; SEEPORT 2000) were quite critical of itsapproach. Land reform is still a hot issue and animportant agenda item of all political parties, but asin the past, despite strong rhetoric, actualachievement has been minimal.The latest case is that of the Kamaiyas orbonded laborers in southern parts of far westernNepal. In July 2000, the Government declared theKamaiya system illegal and freed the laborers of theTharus living in the Terai and inner Terai districts offar western Nepal (Global IDP 2004), an area that hadbeen the scene of many forest and settlement relatedconflicts in the past. Freeing them, however,Chapter 11: Environment and Conflict: A Review of Nepal’s Experience159