Nepal has a highly rural agrarian population. In the middle hill region, the rural areas are experiencing depopulation and feminization as men migrate overseas for work, leaving women, children and elderly behind. As a result, agriculture is abandoned and the land returns to forest. In this project we investigate the dynamics of forest regeneration, explore the dependency of rural households on regenerating forest, and use modern modelling techniques to analyze the potential benefits of forestry versus mixtures of trees with cash crops across the middle hills. The project is exploring the potential for new tree and cash crop species to generate income.

2023

2027