Elvira Graner (Heidelberg)
Wälder für wen? Eine Politische Ökologie
des Waldzugangs in Nepal
Pages 202 - 212
Sustainability has for a long time been understood as ecological
sustainability. On the other hand social sciences - as human geography
- have played a most crucial role in pointing out social dimensions of
sustainability. This change in focus has also been taken up by the World
Bank (see SERAGELDIN 1996), who has recently defined "environmentally
sustainable development" as a sustainable development in terms of
ecological, economical, and social dimensions (ibid.:2). Such an understanding
of sustainability has also been the underlying principle for this workshop,
as "sustainable development" focusses upon (development) processes
which find there expression in space, and thus upon people who are at
the core of these processes. For such a topic Nepal is a perfect setting
for at least two reasons, on the one hand the Himalayas are one of the
earth´s most critical regions in terms of sustainability, a matter
which has even been termed a crisis, (for instance ECKHOLM 1976; IVES
& MESSERLI’s "Himalayan Dilemma" 1987). Secondly, Nepal
is the conutry with the world´s highest precentage of populaiton
still engaged in agriculture (UNDP for 1990: 94 %; ibid. 1997: 183), und
thus "environment" has to be seen as a vital resource, as BLAIKIE
& BROOKFIELD´s expression pinpoints, a resource-in-use ("landesque
capital"; ibid.: 1987: 9). This paper is based upon a study which
focusses upon whether or not the new Forest Act (1993) is a contribution
to a sustainable utilisation of local forests of the Nepalese mountain
forests. As an introduction a short summary of the forest legislation
of the last 50 years is given, in order to show the major changes of the
recent years. The second part will then give two case studies and exemplify
the problems and conflicts arising in rural contexts when the new forest
act is implemented locally.
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