Influence of Rural Out-Migration on Household Participation in Community Forest Management? Evidence from the Middle Hills of Nepal

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Creator
  • Bista, Rajesh
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
  • Graybill, Sophia
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
  • Zhang, Qi
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
  • Bilsborrow, Richard E.
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
  • Song, Conghe
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography
Abstract
  • Rural out-migration was a rare socio-economic phenomenon when community forestry began in the 1980s in Nepal. Now, out-migration significantly influences nearly every aspect of rural livelihoods in the country. However, it is unclear how out-migration affects community forestry governance, which is essential for sustainable rural development. Therefore, this paper addresses the following research question: Does rural out-migration affect forest users’ participation in community forestry decision-making and management practices? This paper draws on data collected from an extensive survey of 415 households from 15 community forest user groups in 2 Mid-Hill districts of Nepal. The research used ordered-logit regression to model the impacts of out-migration on participation in forest management and decision-making, while controlling for a number of other socio-economic factors. The model results show that total household size and number of internal migrants, together with multiple resource characteristics and institutional attributes, were major factors affecting participation in decision-making and forest management. However, the number of international migrants did not have a significant role in determining the levels of the participation. This study provides valuable insights for future community forestry policymaking that aims to address the effects of out-migration on community forest management in Nepal.
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Resource type
  • Article
License
  • Attribution 4.0 International
Journal title
  • Sustainability
Journal volume
  • 15
Journal issue
  • 3
Page start
  • 2185
Language
  • English
Version
  • Publisher
ISSN
  • 2071-1050
Publisher
  • MDPI

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