Indigenous Peoples and Right to Natural Resources: An Assessment of Changing Paradigms of Forest Tenure Rights in Nepal

Abstract

This article sheds light on how the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities to access and control forest resources have been changing over the time in Nepal. The rights of the indigenous populations to their traditionally used resources have been changed through various state interventions policies, regulations and practices. In the past, they had their own system of property ownership and inheritance. The indigenous peoples have nowadays perceived that their whole life and livelihood security have been threatened because of restrictions on the use of their traditional resources, evictions from their ancestral lands, and due to lack of proper policies and legislations to ensure their traditional and alternative livelihood opportunities. Despite several initiations, advocacy and lobbying and demands of indigenous peoples, constitutional and statutory provisions including sectoral laws, policies and schemes do not provide adequate space to recognize customary rights and laws. The land tenure and forest rights defined without recognizing customary laws and practices can reduce the incentives for local or national forest protection and facilitate the over-exploitation of forest resources. For such reasons, statutory provisions should ensure the rights of local forest-dependent communities including indigenous peoples and Dalits to ownership, use and customary management of their forests.