POPULATION GROWTH, POVERTY INCIDENCE AND FOREST DEPENDENCY IN NEPALESE TERAI

  • Panta, Menaka (Department of Geoinformatic Engineering, Inha University) ;
  • Kim, Kye-Hyun (Department of Geoinformatic Engineering, Inha University) ;
  • Neupane, Hari Sharma (Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Crop Diversification Project) ;
  • Joshi, Chudamani (Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology) ;
  • Park, Eun-Ji (Department of Geoinformatic Engineering, Inha University)
  • Published : 2007.06.15

Abstract

Since the human civilization, people's livelihood is dependent on natural resources primarily on forest. Human dimensions such as population, poverty, agricultural expansion and infrastructure development are some of the underlying factors and their interrelated associations which could play a vital role in deforestation and forest degradation. This process is not only related to the human population but also connected to the various socioeconomic factors. This paper focuses to link the spatio-temporal extent of population, poverty incidence and forest dependency and their severity on Terai forest of Nepal. Secondary data on censuses were used. ArcGIS and descriptive statistics were also used for data analysis. Based on analysis & literature review we concluded that population, poverty and forest dependency have largely expanded over time in Terai and their interrelated associations substantively influence on deforestation. However, the direct relationship of such factors with deforestation and forest degradation found to be incompatible, complex and hard to perceive with fragmented and inconsistency censuses data. So, deforestation and forest degradation issues intertwined with socioeconomic factors need detailed analysis to comprehend where these linkages are still unravel.

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