Evaluating Nepal’s forest management regimes

Policy Brief 104-17

A majority of rural, agricultural households in Nepal rely on forests for firewood and fodder. Therefore,access to nearby forests for collecting non-timber forest products is crucial to the wellbeing of ruralhouseholds. A study led by Mani Nepal, Senior Environmental Economist at SANDEE, compared how muchrural households value access to government and community forests compared to private forests.1 Thestudy used the hedonic pricing method applied to data from two rounds of the Nepal Living Standards Survey(2003-04 and 2010-11). This method compares the prices of otherwise similar houses that offer access toprivate forests, government forests, community forests, and ‘Other' forests for collecting firewood to inferhow much value rural households put on these forests as compared to the private forests.