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A land use management study was conducted in an area of north eastern Chitawan in central Nepal. Changes in soil properties, forest and agricultural productivity, farm management and profitability were compared among ten land use categories. The research revealed that the most intensively managed agricultural land, under annual triple crop rotations had excellent productivity with little evidence of soil deterioration (pH, organic carbon, exchangeable bases). Several soil properties (pH, base saturation, available phosphorus, compaction) under such farming systems were found to be better than those under degraded forest. The degradation of the forests, as measured by wood biomass, regeneration and soil quality was found to be widespread. A 15 to 30 percent decline in timber, fuelwood and fodder was observed between the natural and degraded forest. This removal of forest products was accompanied by changes in soil properties such as exchangeable bases, pH, compaction and exchangeable and free aluminum. Alternative land uses were evaluated using a decision making method which considered crop preferences, productivity, gross margins, resource requirements, soil quality indicators and risk factors. Data from farm interviews and from the soil study were incorporated into this micro-computer based method. The data evaluation showed that soil conserving and productive land use options were not always feasible for the small farmer because they were more risky and required more resources of irrigated land, labour and operating capital. Interesting relationships were found between soil properties, productivity, land uses and fertility inputs. The flexibility of the methodology makes this technique an attractive tool for land use decision making at the farm and village level. The mapping units used for the national Land Resource Mapping Project (LRMP) formed the basis for this study and the approach developed can therefore be applied to other areas in Nepal. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

This study explored the intercultural conflict between urban Nepalis, who believe in Western medicine, and the Jhakris, Nepalese traditional healers. Nepalis in Western influenced urban areas made traditional healing practices illegal, resulting in violent arrests and beatings of Jhakris by police and occasional violent retaliation by Jhakris. This research sought to understand the roots of the intercultural conflict between the urban Nepali society and the Jhakris, and suggest possible solutions to reduce this intercultural conflict. Interviews were conducted with eight members of each group. The data were analyzed by using a conflict styles framework. Westernized members of urban Nepali society ranked high on the Competing conflict style and the Jhakri community ranked high in Compromise and Problem-Solving styles. The perceived grievances of each group were summarized and it was concluded that people in both groups who have a choice of Western and Jhakri healing options might be best placed to begin working toward negotiation and mediation.

Nepal, a country located between India and China, is one of the world’s least developed countries.  Access to electricity is a problem throughout Nepal. Both for the grid connected areas that suffer from power cuts up to 16 hours a day during the dry season, and for remote areas where lack of money, infrastructure or even the location itself set limits for the electrification. In the eastern part of Nepal, around 100 km south of Mount Everest is Thade, a small mountain village with about 200 residents. Until 2015 the village only had an old, dilapidated school building that was in such bad condition that it could barely be used. Therefore, many of the children in the village did not go to school, and it was only the families with enough money that could send their children to a better school. Other children had to walk for hours to reach the nearest school. With contribution and support from a Swedish-Nepali non-government organisation (NGO) a new school opened in May 2015. One year later there are 42 children at the Grace Academy School. One of the main problems for the school today is that they do not have any electricity, which places limitations on both teachers and students. The purpose of this study was to investigate if it is possible, in a simple and sustainable way use a solar cell system with battery storage to meet the basic needs for electricity of the school. The aim was to build a simulation model, of the energy system, in MATLAB’s Simulink® program and then validate the result from that model to the result from the commercial solar system program PVsyst. Tilt and orientation of the panels was optimized specifically for Thade School to get as much electricity as possible from the prevailing conditions. Further, the aim was to, through interviews and conversations with the residents in the village and people connected to the school project, gain an understanding of how electrification of Thade School would affect the school, the teachers and the students, as well as the village and its residents. In general, Nepal has very good conditions for solar power, with around 300 days of sunshine annually. According to the residents of Thade, the weather is usually clear and sunny early in the morning, but after 10am it most often becomes cloudy and foggy. Hence investigation whether solar power in Thade would work is interesting. Electrification of the school would allow for easier learning and most likely increase the status of the school in the surrounding area. It would be easier for students and stuff to get information from the outside world, especially if their plan for Internet access is incorporated in the future. The interest for teachers to come to Thade would perhaps increase. Today the school has a hard time getting good teachers to come, to teach and live in the small mountain village. The children attending the school would also have a better chance to compete with other children to enter University or further educations. The advantages of electrification for Thade are clear.   Three different cases were simulated, with different assumptions of the solar radiation. The results showed that solar power could cover about 95 % of the annual demand, based on the needs that were reported as needed today. / Nepal, ett land inklämt mellan Indien och Kina, är ett av världens minst utvecklade länder. Tillgången på elektricitet är ett problem i hela Nepal, både för de nätanslutna områdena som kan ha strömavbrott upp till 16 timmar per dygn under torrperioden, men även för avlägsna områden där bristen på pengar, infrastruktur eller bara platsen sätter gränser för elektrifiering. I den östra delen av Nepal, ca 100 km söder om Mount Everest, ligger Thade, en liten bergsby med ca 200 invånare. Fram till 2015 hade byn endast en gammal sliten skolbyggnad som var i sådant dåligt skick att den knappt gick att använda. Därför gick många av barnen inte i skolan, och det var bara familjer med mycket pengar som kunde skicka sina barn till bättre skolor. Andra barn var tvungna att gå i timmar för att komma till den närmsta skolan. Med bidrag och stöd från en Svensk-Nepalesisk icke-statlig organisation (NGO), kunde en ny skola öppna i maj 2015. Ett år senare går 42 barn i Grace Academy School. Ett av de största problemen för skolan idag är att de inte har någon elektricitet, vilket skapar begränsningar för både lärare och elever. Syftet är att undersöka om det är möjligt att på ett enkelt och hållbart sätt kunna tillgodose skolans grundläggande behov av el genom ett solcellssystem med batterilagring. Målet är att bygga en simuleringsmodell, över energisystemet, i MATLABs Simulink® program och sedan validera resultatet från den modellen med resultatet från det kommersiella solsystem programmet PVsyst. Lutning och orientering av solpanelerna kommer att optimeras specifikt för Thade skolan för att få ut så mycket energi som möjligt från de rådande förhållandena. Vidare är syftet att genom intervjuer och samtal med invånarna i byn och personer med anknytning till skolprojektet, få en förståelse för hur en elektrifiering av skolan i Thade kan komma att påverka skolan, lärarna och eleverna, men också byn och dess invånare. Nepal har i allmänhet mycket goda förutsättningar för att använda solenergi, med ca 300 soldagar per år. Enligt personerna som bor i Thade är vädret ofta råder ofta klart och soligt på förmiddagen, men ungefär efter klockan 10 blir det ofta molnigt och dimmigt. Av den anledningen är det intressant att undersöka möjligheterna för solenergi i just Thade. Elektrifiering av skolan skulle underlätta utbildningen och förmodligen höja statusen för skolan. Det skulle göra det enklare för både elever och personal att få tillgång till information, speciellt om planen att i framtiden skaffa internet går i lås. Intresset att vara lärare i Thade skulle förhoppningsvis öka. Idag har skolan svårt att få bra lärare som vill komma och undervisa och bo i den lilla bergsbyn. Barnen skulle också få en större chans att tävla med andra barn om att komma in på universitet eller vidareutbildningar. Fördelarna med elektrifiering av Thade skolan är många. Tre olika simuleringar gjordes, med olika antaganden för solinstrålningen. Resultatet visade att solenergin kan täcka ca 95% av den årliga efterfrågan, utifrån de behov som sades behövas idag.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Little is known about the vegetation, forests, useful plants and their patterns of use at the gradients of climate, geography and culture in Baitadi and Darchula districts, far western Nepal. The interactions among plants-people-places were analyzed using data from phyto-sociological studies, community interviews, and literature. Ecological sampling, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and informal discussions were held between February and September 2017. We compared plant collection, use and management of two culturally distinct groups (Baitadi and Darchula), who inhabit different physiographic regions, yet share the same ecological landscape, environmental resources and livelihood challenges. We hypothesized that the salient (visible, apparent and accessible) plants and places are likely to be more frequently foraged than the non-salient ones. We also hypothesized that the elderly, native and traditional healers living in rural and remote physiographic conditions possess more diverse and detailed knowledge of plant use and conservation than young, non-native and non-healer people. A total of 18 forest types including eight from the study districts showed that the study area is rich in forests and plants. A total of 975 plant species including 82 new species records and 23 new use reports to Baitadi and Darchula districts were recorded. There were 305 (31%) useful plant species including 122 useful reported in the present study. The people of study area showed a large repertoire of knowledge that helps them execute different strategies of plant use suited to their environment and geography. The knowledge of plant use follows a pattern according to ecological conditions (availability) as well as the cultural significance (transhumance, settlement) of the landscape. However, the latter prevails. Predominate foraging by the agro-pastoral communities from the remote undisturbed forests for quality products and medicines in Darchula district was divergent from the collections from ruderal areas in Baitadi district by generalist collectors for ritual purposes. The extensive usage of plants for socio-economic reasons, livelihood and rituals indicates that the plants and culture are inseparable. Conservation measures with acknowledgement of human, cultural, geographical and environmental variables, are therefore encouraged for sustainable management of the natural resources and traditional knowledge of the Baitadi and Darchula districts. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Despite the fact that conservation ideology has led conservation practice over the last quarter of a century, the removal of local residents from protected areas in the name of biological preservation remains the most common strategy in developing countries. Its wide-ranging impacts on displaced societies have rarely been properly addressed, particularly in regard to the establishment of parks. This thesis is based on 15 months fieldwork carried out among a group of displaced park residents known as Rana Tharus in the country of Nepal. They have long lived in Royal Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in the far-western part of that nation. This thesis is largely inspired by recent academic advocacy that conservation-induced dislocations on rural communities are having a serious influence on policy implementation. Such advocacy is leading to more effective and pragmatic park policies. West, Igoe and Brockington (2006) point out that park residents are an indispensable part of protected areas and their cultural and economic interactions with parks occur in diverse ways. Without a full understanding of these interrelationships, any kind of forced conservation policies will be doomed to fail and cause severe disturbances to people’s lives. Like most protected areas in developing countries, this thesis shows that the unplanned resettlement scheme of Shulkaphanta failed to mitigate the socio-economic losses that Rana Tharus experienced due to their displacement. The ethnographic data notes that when attention is paid solely to the economic losses experienced by Rana Tharus, the social costs such as social exclusion, loss of culture, and psychological depression are rarely addressed in the dislocation program. An inadequate understanding of the links between protected areas and local livelihoods is one of the major causes for the continuation of park-people conflicts including Shuklaphanta. In this thesis, I demonstrate how the displacement and other social changes have gradually diminished the social and economic livelihoods of the Rana people. I argue that many of these social impacts were unexpected because Rana Tharus actively responded to all these changes by putting new social relations into effect. As a result, significant social transformations have occurred in contemporary Rana Tharu society. The undivided household unit was no longer their first preference when the new economic realities made themselves felt, and gender and patrilineal kin relationships became more tense. The traditional labouring system (Kamaiya) that existed between wealthy and poor Rana Tharus declined due to increasing poverty. All these had erased their ability to maintain sustainable livelihoods that they had previously enjoyed. Moreover, substantial loss of landownership had made it impossible for Rana Tharus to share equal social, economic and political status with the new migrants - the twice-born Pahaaris. These accumulated and unforseen results of conservation practices can only be well understood if a holistic analytical perspective is adopted. This thesis borrows the concept of sustainable household livelihood system and the social theories of practice, power and agency to explore the dynamic relationships between conservation, local livelihoods and culture. The stories told by the Rana Tharu provide some important lessons. I argue that dislocation programs should be put aside or at least closely reviewed if their hidden social impacts are not well understood or at least lead to some form of compensation. Such action may prevent the further expansion of park-people conflicts which are shown to hinder conservation efforts of Shuklaphanta and local sustainable livelihoods. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1369652 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2009