The Practice of Resilience in Mountain Landscapes: Exploring risk and landscape investments in rural Nepal

Last changed: 11 May 2023

This project investigates long-term landscape investments in order to understand how people’s landscape use and economic and social structures are mutually constituted with very different outcomes for different social groups in a hierarchical society such as Nepal contributing to the growing body of socio-political nuanced understandings of resilience and adaptive capacity, as well.

Mountain areas are central to ecosystem functions and biodiversity hotspots. They are also inhabited by deeply impoverished populations. People in the Himalayan landscapes have long lived in contexts of chronic structural risks generated by climate change and deeper socio-political factors in Nepalese society. One strategy has been large collective and individual labour investments in the landscape.

This research investigates such long term landscape investments in order to understand how people’s landscape use and economic and social structures are mutually constituted with very different outcomes for different social groups in a hierarchical society such as Nepal. It does so in a situation where patterns of outmigration creates a situation of rural labour scarcity, which has relatively unknown consequences for land uses and landscapes.

The interdisciplinary research team use the own developed method ‘ES-walks’, in combination with various forms of interviews and collaborative activities in three contrasting mountain landscapes.

The project contributes to the growing body of socio-political nuanced understandings of resilience and adaptive capacity, as well as analyse and reflect on development and environmental changes in an integrated manner. Such knowledge of human-environmental relations is crucial for supporting and improving smallholders’ rural livelihood opportunities.

A map showing the two study areas: Rampur. Ramechhap och Silame Sakhajor, Sindhuli. Illustration.

Figure above: A map showing the study sites in Nepal.

RESEARCH PAPERS FROM THE PROJECT

Scientific publications from the research project and papers soon to be published or submitted:

Khatri Dil, Marquardt Kristina, Fischer Harry, Khatri Sanjaya, Singh Devanshi and Dilli Poudel (2023). Why is farming important for rural livelihood security in the global south? COVID-19 and changing rural livelihoods in Nepal’s mid-hills. Front. Dyn. 5:1143700.doi:10.3389/fhumd.2023.1143700
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fhumd.2023.1143700/full

Poudel Dilli, Marquardt Kristina, Pain Adam and D il Khatri (in review). Changing role of community forests in rural livelihoods: Shifting forest management practices and the future of community and forest relationships.

Poudyal Bishnu, Khatri Dil, Paudel Dinesh, Marquardt Kristina, Khatri Sanjaya and Dilli Poudel (in review). De-agrarianisation and re-agrarianisation in patches: understanding microlevel land use processes in Nepalese smallholder landscapes

Pain Adam, Khatri Dil and Kristina Marquardt (in prep). Dancing with Uncertainty in the Himalayas in times of climate change.

Marquardt Kristina, Khatri Dil and Adam Pain (in prep). Going green: labour availability dynamics, landesque capital transitions and smallholder futures in the Nepalese mountains.

Dil Khatri, Dinesh Paudel, Bishnu Poudyal, Sanjaya Khatri, Dilli Poudel and Kristina Marquardt (in prep).Wild animals are becoming pests: Socio-ecological transitions and new human-wildlife relations in the Nepal Himalaya.

Bartholdsson Örjan, Poudel Dilli, Dil Khatri, and Kristina Marquardt (in prep). The anxiety of mobility in rural Nepal: The role subsistence agriculture plays for the strategies of economic and social mobility among smallholder households in the mid-Hills.

KEY REFERENCES

Blaikie P and H Brookfield (1987). Land Degradation and Society. New York. Routledge.

Börjesson L (2014). The antithesis of degraded land: toward a greener conceptualization of landesque capital. In: Håkansson T and M Widgren (eds). Landesque Capital: The Historical Ecology of Enduring Landscape Modifications. Taylor & Francis, NY, pp. 251–268.

Caravani M, Lind J, Sabates-Wheeler R and I Scoones (2022). Providing social assistance and humanitarian relief: The case for embracing uncertainty. Policy Rev 40:5, e12613.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dpr.12613

Gautam A P, Webb E. L, Shivakoti G.P and M A Zoebisch (2003). Land use dynamics and landscape change pattern in a mountain watershed in Nepal.Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 99(1–3), pp 83 96. 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880903001488

Håkansson T and M Widgren (eds). Landesque Capital: The Historical Ecology of Enduring Landscape Modifications. Taylor & Francis, NY.

C Lawrence M, Sanzwood S and T Homer-Dixon (2022). What is a Global Polycrisis And how is it different from a systemic risk? Version 2.0. Discussion Paper 2022-4. Cascade Institute.
https://cascadeinstitute.org/technical-paper/what-is-a-global-polycrisis/ .

Maîtrot, M., Wood, G. and Devine, J. (2021) Understanding resilience: lessons from lived experiences of extreme poverty in Bangladesh. Development Policy Review, 39 (6), pp 894-910. doi: 10.1111/DPR.12543
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dpr.12543

Niraula R R, Gilani H, Pokharel B K. And F M Qamer, (2013). Measuring impacts of community forestry program through repeat photography and satellite remote sensing in the Dolakha district of Nepal.Journal of Environmental Management, 126(0), pp 20-29.
 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301479713002429

Rosa H (2014). Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. New York, Colombia University Press Scoones.

Scoones I (2019). What is Uncertainty and Why Does it Matter? STEPS Working Paper 105, Brighton: STEPS Centre.

 

Facts:

Project leader

Kristina Marquardt, Researcher, Division of Rural Development, SLU

Project participants

Lila Nath Sharma, Biodiversity Conservation and Vegetation Ecology Specialist, Forest Action Nepal

Örjan Bartholdson, Senior Lecturer, Division of Rural Development, SLU,  +4618673395
Read more on Örjan Bartholdson's CV page 
Send an e-mail to: orjan.bartholdson@slu.se

Dil Bahadur Khatri, Researcher, Forest Action Nepal

Adam Pain, Researcher, Division of Rural Development, SLU, +4618671140 
Send an e-mail to: adam.pain@slu.se

Project time

2019-2025

External funding

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)

Related pages:

Article published in the project

Marquardt. K, Pain, A. and Khatri, D. B. (2020). Re-reading Nepalese landscapes: labour, water, farming patches and trees. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, published online September 8. doi:10.1080/14728028.2020.1814875.