Forests occupy around 44 per cent of Nepal's landmass, which is a significant achievement in maintaining the natural environment and natural habits of the wildlife. Nepal has also been able to earn millions of dollars annually under the World Bank's carbon credit programme. Despite the fact that the country has large swathes of forest or vegetation cover, the local communities have not been able to get direct benefit from the natural resources located near their settlements.

Except for the protected forests known as national parks, reserves and conservation areas, most of the forests come under community forestry, which is managed by the concerned local communities. The concept of community forestry, which came into force decades ago, has helped protect the forests, which is cited as the most successful story of Nepal.

Efforts to protect the forests and forest areas became possible thanks to the local participation in the management of forest resources. Still, much needs to be done to fully reap economic benefits from the forests and government and public lands.

In order to reap maximum economic benefits from forests and government lands, the Ministry of Forest and Environment has issued a procedure for the implementation of various programmes in all the provinces through the utilisation of federal conditional grants the provinces receive. The conditional grants can be utilised for silviculture, system-based sustainable forest management, control of forest encroachment, production of multi-year seedlings, agroforestry development and human-wildlife conflict management.

The ministry has given top priority to agroforestry, which will not only help protect the forests but also provide income opportunities to the local communities to involve in the cultivation of various forest-based products, tree plantation and livestock farming. The local communities can be encouraged to engage in planting medicinal plants in the forests, and government and public lands, without destroying the natural vegetation of a given forest.

However, the government must provide financial and technical support to the communities for agroforestry.

The ministry must first identify the forest areas where multi-year crops such as coffee, other medicinal and herbal plants, Chiraito and cinnamon, to name just a few, can be grown in the forests and on government lands under community management or individual participation. Till date, the local communities have learned a lot about the ways of protecting community forestry. But they need to know how to cultivate such kinds of herbal plants or cash crops in the forests and government lands. The local communities will be ready to engage in the agroforestry business provided that this policy remains unchanged for a long period of time. Issuing a procedure is not enough. The ministry must hold detailed discussions with the provincial governments and local levels as well as experts to see that the concept of agroforestry is effectively implemented at the grassroots level. Earlier, the government had also introduced the lease-hold forestry concept, but it did not yield any positive results in uplifting the socio-economic condition of the local communities or forest users groups because of the government's inaction.

World Stroke Day

World Stroke Day was observed on Sunday across the world, including Nepal, with the theme 'Together we are Greater than Stroke' in a bid to generate awareness towards its prevention. In most of the cases, a stroke is caused by a blood clot or blocked artery or even an injury to a blood vessel, which is a major cause of disability and even death globally. Also called a brain attack, it can lead to paralysis, putting undue to financial pressure and trauma on both the patient and family. Strokes can, however, be prevented by identifying the symptoms in time and seeking medical treatment in time.

However, the best prevention is to keep strokes at bay by paying heed to the risk factors early on. They include treating high blood pressure and irregular heartbeats in time. Physical activity, a proper diet and not smoking will also help not only prevent strokes but also a host of other diseases, such as heart diseases and cancer. Awareness does wonders in preventing diseases like strokes, heart and kidney trouble, and cancers, among others, and is definitely cheaper than the treatment. Creating awareness should, therefore, not be confined to one day on World Stroke Day as brain attacks are becoming common among the Nepalis.

A version of this article appears in the print on October 31, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.