Providing Alternatives to Fossil Fuels in Nepal

Inadequate energy supply continues to hinder social and economic development in Nepal. Despite a wealth of renewable energy potential – particularly with hydropower but also solar and biomass – sustainability and access remain major challenges. A research project, led by the University of Leeds, with partners in Nepal and the UK, identified indigenous oil seed plants as an alternative, more environmentally friendly energy source than fossil fuels.ESRC-DFI

Energy Gardens for Small-Scale Farmers in Nepal Institutions, Species and Technology. Field Work Report

The Nepal Energy Garden forges new links across disciplines by integrating research on the institutional economics of energy and technology transfer with the knowledge of botanists and engineers. The objectives are fourfold: to investigate the institutional economics of energy biomass and biofuel production from local to national and global scales to undertake a technical assessment of resources and conversion routes to combine the institutional and technical analyses to devise ways for community cooperation on sustainable energy production to transfer the knowledge gained to a wide international audience. The energy garden concept originates from an idea developed by the Hassan Biofuels Park in India and will follow their approach for using local plant species as the source of biofuels, thereby avoiding loss of biodiversity as much as possible, and using marginal land to avoid competition with food crops. The project is a partnership of four organisations in Nepal and the Hassan Biofuels Park. The objectives will be achieved through a combination of policy analysis, reviews of plant species, analysis of technical options and field work in the villages. The aim is to test the feasibility of expanding the successful Energy Garden approach to Nepal and worldwide

Dalit identity in urban Pokhara, Nepal

Urban migration by Nepalese Dalits has not only provided them with social, economic and educational opportunities, but also the possibility of escaping traditional caste-based discrimination. However, despite making the most of opportunities provided by the city, Dalits have not been able to pursue their political agenda to the extent of other ethnic communities. This study in the city of Pokhara, Nepal, explored Dalit identity using two rounds of focus group discussions involving a total of 23 individuals drawn from a range of Dalit caste groups with a variety of livelihoods. The results describe the caste-based discrimination experienced by the participants and the different strategies they employ to either reinvent themselves by changing names; or embracing their caste-heritage and taking advantage of affirmative action programmes. Whilst urban migration can provide some relief from discrimination, the study reveals that caste still remains prominent in the lives of Dalits in Pokhara. The paper argues that Dalit unity and elimination of intra-Dalit caste-based discrimination are needed in order to institutionalise their citizenship rights in post conflict Nepal

Property Rights Or Property Wrong: Do Property Rights Matter In Household Access To Irrigation Water? Evidence From Mid-hills, Nepal

Whilst the development of irrigation infrastructure has been proposed as a vehicle for poverty reduction in many developing countries, the distributional aspects of irrigation interventions, particularly households’ level of access to irrigation water have rarely been explored. Furthermore, previous empirical studies on irrigation performance have been overtly objective and technical with little regard to farmers’ needs and concerns. The premise of this is that ‘objectivity’ is a necessary but insufficient measure of access to irrigation water. In addition to this, whilst irrigation interventions have had some success in ensuring access to water for crop cultivation, the impact of such interventions have been varied amongst irrigation governed by different property right regimes. In response to these concerns, this multidisciplinary study uses mixed methodologies of data collection and analysis to explore a subjective measure of households’ access to water from irrigation systems managed by different property right regimes. Using a case study approach, an in-depth institutional analysis of the three irrigation systems has been carried out to identify institutional factors which contributed to unequal level of access to irrigation water. The findings demonstrate that households’ level of access to water is influenced by socio-economic status, the physical nature of the canal systems and institutional characteristics of the management regimes. The results from the quantitative analysis reveal a clear pattern of differentiated access to water in irrigation systems under different property right regimes. The results indicate that the tail-enders, female-headed households, dalits and small farmers appear to have weak access to water from the canals. However, farmers along these heterogeneities have different levels of access to water in irrigation systems governed by different property right regimes with farmers in the farmers managed irrigation system performing significantly better than the agency managed and jointly managed irrigation systems. The thesis concludes that institutional dimensions should be taken into consideration by policymakers in order to ensure better access to water in irrigation interventions

Nepal Energy Gardens Qualitative Dataset and Quantitative Survey Dataset. University of Leeds. [Dataset]

Biofuels and biomass are important sources of renewable energy, yet implementation of bioenergy programmes has attracted considerable controversy for displacing food production, land-grabbing, loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions. Creation of large industrial biomass and biofuel production has an important role to play in sustainable energy provision, but the real strengths of using plants for energy is that they can be grown in a wide variety of situations and thousands of different species can be used. These datasets present household survey data and qualitative data- focus group discussions and key informant interviews carried out in three rural villages in mid-hills, Nepal to investigate the possible to establish community-based biofuel production, thereby overcoming environmental and social concerns about biofuels. A stratified random sampling procedure was used to sample the households for quantitative data to ensure that its representative of the villages where research was conducted. The research participants were drawn from different landholding categories, castes, gender and local development experts to obtain views of different section of the community in three project villages viz. Hamsapur (Gorkha), Lakuri Danda (Dolakha) and Khudi (Lamjung) in the mid-hills region of Nepal. Data collected through qualitative research complements those quantitative data collected through household survey. The qualitative research covered aspects such as forest status, local institutions for forests and biomass uses, communal and social capital, and various issues pertinent to local development and how experience from those can be utilised for community-based biofuel projects such as energy gardens. Data generated through qualitative methods will help to explain the differences in the level of fuel consumption, determining local fuel demand and supply and other local level institutions necessary for creation of energy gardens project

Pedalling Out of Sociocultural Precariousness: Religious Conversions amongst the Hindu Dalits to Christianity in Nepal

Christian conversion has become a major topic of discussion amongst academics, religious leaders, and policymakers alike in recent decades, especially in developing countries. Nepal has witnessed one of the highest rates of Hinduism to Christianity conversion in South Asia. Whilst there are no legal restrictions for religious conversion in Nepal, the conversion from Hinduism to Christianity appears to be disproportionately higher amongst Dalit communities in Nepal. However, religious conversion amongst Nepalese Dalits is yet to be fully understood. This research uses mixed methodologies of data collection and analysis to explore various issues related to religious conversion amongst Hindu Dalits into Christianity in Nepal. Results indicate whilst elderly and female Dalits tended to convert to Christianity, a range of factors specific to personal and communal biographies including social, cultural, emotional, and spiritual interplay together to shape the process of religious conversion amongst the Dalits. The paper concludes that the study of religious conversion should consider a range of sociocultural factors to fully understand the dynamics of religious conversion amongst Dalits

Public policy for social and solidarity economy: a case study from Nepal

Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) has been embraced in Nepal as a source of decent jobs/enterprise for social economy (larger than household economy) as well as for national economy. The social solidarity economy has recently emerged in Nepal; however, its application dates back to the ancient past entrenched with indigenous institutions/cultures. It has been rooted particularly in rural and suburb areas as a resilient response against prevalent poverty, subsistence economy and casual hegemonies. Informal ways of exchanging goods and services (barter system), extending unconditional help to helpless, free-of-interest-borrowings among kith and kin, collective responsibility of performing rituals such as marriage, funerals and some unavoidable cultural and religious functions are still prevalent in various parts and among various ethnic and tribal groups of Nepal. Most of these practices have now institutionalized into SSE organizations as cooperatives, fair trade groups, user groups, federations and social enterprises, however almost of them are in infancy stages and sought to be capacitated. Strengthening partnerships between social and solidarity economy actors, civil society movements and government has largely been recognized and urged globally as a smooth pace for social and solidarity economy to reach its potential. In this context, an attempt to catalogue the social solidarity economy attributes of Nepal is important before aims at capacitating and strengthening them

Habitat suitability of four threatened Himalayan species: Asiatic black bear, common leopard, musk deer, and snow leopard

Background Biodiversity conservation is becoming challenging day by day. For this, it is essential to understand the distribution, habitat, and impact of anthropogenic activities on animals at risk. We assessed the suitable habitats and anthropogenic impacts on Asiatic black bears, common leopards, musk deer, and snow leopards in and outside the protected areas of Gandaki Province, Nepal. Methods We collected the presence locations of Asiatic black bears, common leopards, musk deer, and snow leopards based on scats and other signs. We employed the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) tool to identify suitable habitats of our studied species and their anthropogenic impacts on them. Results The total suitable habitat of the common leopard was found to be 6,052 km2, followed by the Asiatic black bear (5,819 km2), snow leopard (4,447 km2), and musk deer (1,690 km2) in Gandaki Province. Most of the areas of suitable habitat for common leopards and Asiatic black bears were outside the protected areas, and for musk deer and snow leopards were inside the protected areas. Elevation was the most important variable determining habitat suitability of Asiatic black bear, common leopard, and musk deer, whereas the distance to water was the most important variable determining habitat suitability of snow leopard. Asiatic black bears, common leopards, and musk deer face significant anthropogenic impacts, but snow leopards face some anthropogenic impacts. Conclusion Managing these animals’ habitats inside and outside protected areas is essential. Hence, biodiversity conservation and livelihood opportunities should be balanced in the Himalayas on a win-win basis