Sudurpashchim Province Faces Forestry Crisis as Timber Rots Amid Policy Paralysis

Dhangadhi. The forestry sector in Sudurpashchim Province is currently in a state of uncertainty. While timber and firewood worth billions are rotting, burning, or being stolen from government and community forests, the province continues to spend billions annually on imports for the same resources. This situation has arisen due to the provincial government's failure to introduce a clear and long-term forestry policy.

Due to the lack of a clear policy, the provincial government has repeatedly banned the extraction of timber, leaving approximately 1.8 million cubic feet of wood abandoned in the forests of Kailali and Kanchanpur alone. According to the Forest Directorate, these two districts contain 300,000 to 400,000 cubic feet of fallen timber and about 1.5 million cubic feet of dead trees.

Provincial Forest Director Hemraj Bista stated that if this timber and firewood could be collected, it would provide enough energy for cooking for the entire Sudurpashchim region for a year. Procedural hurdles and policy ambiguity are causing this wood to rot in the forest. Consequently, the state is losing millions in potential revenue, while the public is forced to use expensive cooking gas.

Due to the rotting timber in Sudurpashchim's forests, citizens and government offices have begun choosing expensive alternatives for construction. In the absence of wood, people are now attracted to aluminum, UPVC, and imported plywood. Billions of rupees worth of such construction materials enter through the Trinagar customs point annually.

Dhangadhi local Manjari BK stated that because the region's own forest resources cannot be utilized, the trade deficit is widening, and local consumers are being deprived of their rights. 'The forest has given us everything, but the government has failed to utilize it properly,' she said.

To resolve this issue, the Sudurpashchim provincial government registered a bill to amend the 'Sudurpashchim Province Forest Act, 2077' in the Provincial Assembly 13 months ago. Even basic discussions on the bill have not progressed. Registered on 2079 Phagun 2 and presented to the assembly on Phagun 24, the bill proposes special arrangements for the collection of forest products.

Section 75 of the bill seeks to include a provision allowing the collection of timber and firewood damaged by natural disasters such as floods, landslides, storms, or fires, with the ministry's consent and in accordance with prevailing federal law. The 2077 Act allowed the Division Forest Office to grant collection and sale permits, but this provision was recently removed, making the process more complex.

Following the abolition of the Scientific Forest Management Program, community forests in Sudurpashchim are in even greater uncertainty. According to Yadav Bhandari, Central Secretary of the Federation of Community Forest Users, the lack of a sustainable forest management policy has prevented community forests from implementing their work plans.

Four months have passed since the task force formed by Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah submitted its report with recommendations to solve the problem, yet implementation remains at zero. Although the report suggested removing timber from the forest before it rots, the government has only granted permission to a few forests to extract fallen timber.

Of the 1,146,110 hectares of forest area in Sudurpashchim, 80 percent of the forest has reached maturity. In the absence of sustainable management, old trees are hindering the protection and growth of new saplings. Experts warn that if old trees are not cut in time and new saplings do not find space, the quality of the forest will decline in the future.

The current need is to immediately pass the pending bill and introduce a practical policy that links forestry with economic prosperity. Otherwise, the cycle of timber rotting in the forests while Nepali money flows out for foreign aluminum and plywood will not stop.