Regional Expert Workshop on Land Accounting for SDG Monitoring and Reporting

25-27 September 2017

Bangkok, Thailand

Tulasi Prasad Paudel

Statistics Officer.

Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal

Abhasha Joshi

Geomatic Engineer/Survey Officer

Survey Department,

Nepal

Country Presentation

Nepal

Outline • Introduction: Location, Physiography, Landuse

• Current Situation

• Land & Forest Account of Nepal

• Data Availability

• Land Resource Data

• Progress

• Challenges

• Future Work

Nepal • Area: 147181 sq. km(0.1 %

of the earth’s surface,) • Population: 28.98 million • Biodiversity:

• 118 ecosystems, 75 vegetation types and 35 forest types, 5,100 flowering plants, 1,600 species of fungi, and over 460 species of lichen.

• Over 2% of the world’s flowering plants, about 9% of the world’s birds species and 4% of the world’s mammalian species (FAO 1999).

Landscape of Nepal

Mountain

High Himalayas

Terai

N

Land Use

Agriculture 27%

Forest 39.6%

Pasture Land 12%

Snow and Rock

17.2%

Water 2.6%

Source: National Land Use Project(2010)

Current Situation

• 2/3 of the population of the country engaged in agriculture.

• 1/3 of the GDP from agriculture sector

• Low investment & incentives

• Cultivable land stands idle due to internal & external migration

Current Situation • Urbanization is in rapid process • Unplanned practice in terms of land use • Rapid conversion of fertile farm lands to

concrete jungles • Scarce land resources, • Severe threat to food security, • Threats to sustainable development

Current Situation Environmental Concerns Degradation of Farmland and Erosion (Biological and Human Causes) Desertification of Land Landslide, Flood

Current Situation

• Based on the land capability analysis (LRMP,1986) • In Terai : Forest are occupying good agricultural land

• In Mountain: Large part of agriculture is more suitable for forestry

• Degraded grazing and shrub land

• Landlessness and unequal distribution of land

• Growing encroachment of State land, especially forest land

• Scatter settlements :Misusing public lands.

Land & Forest Account of Nepal

• UNESCAP Identified need and interest of Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) to implement SEEA in Nepal

• Letter of Agreement (4th Sep 2016) between CBS and UNESCAP to support the implementation of the SEEA as a pilot project to develop Land & Forest Account

Data Availability

NSDI

• National Geographic Information Infrastructure Division(NGIID)

• Draft National Spatial data Infrastructure (NSDI) Policy 2017

• Developing Clearinghouse and Geoportal

www.ngiip.gov.np

Data Source • CBS

• Ministry of Agriculture Development

• Survey Department

• Department of Urban Development and Building Construction

• ICIMOD

• National Land Use Project

• Water and Energy Commission Secretariat

• Forest Department

• Department of Forest Research and Survey

• Local Bodies

Land Resource Data

Land Cover Data(1990,2000,2010) Producer : ICIMOD

Forest Cover Data Producer: DFRS

Land Use Data(2010) Producer : NLUP

Land Utilization Data:1985-1986) Producer : Survey Department(LRMP)

Land Cover Data(1990) Producer : Survey Department

Built up

Cultivation

Forest

Sand

Barren Land

Water

Glacier and Snow

Progress

• Formation of task force team

• Terms of reference for task force team

• Meeting of the Task Force Team

• Stakeholder’s Workshop

• Developed the Workplan (calendar)

• Data Selection

• Land cover change matrix and physical account for land cover for the three reference period 1990, 2000 and 2010

• Work initiated to create Forest Account

Key Findings

In 20 years period of time(1990- 2010) • Forest area has decreased by 7 percent

–To agriculture

• Grassland has decreased by 10.8 percent

–To barren area & snow/glacier

• Barren area has increased by 25.1 percent

–From grass land, snow/glacier

• Water body has decreased by 3.2 percent

–To agriculture & barren area

• Built up area has increased nearly 65 percent

–From agriculture

Land Accounting Support on SDGs

Challenges

• Heterogeneous Data source: Inconsistent Data of different Time

• Accuracy, validity, reliability, Interoperability and timeliness of data

• Data Sharing

• Inter-agency coordination

• Lack of skilled human resource

• Limitation of resource

Future Work

• Capacity Development • Professional capacity enhancement of

• Governmental staffs

• Stakeholders

• Produce policy-relevant indicators for the management of land and forest resources in a sustainable manner

• Technical Support for creating Water and Energy Account

• Experience Sharing

Thank You !

abhashjoshi@dos.gov.np tp.paudel66@gmail.com