Impact of leasehold forestry on livelihood im-provement of local poor and restoration of degraded forests in Makwanpur district, Bagmati province, Nepal

Nepal has adopted different community based forest management models for sustainable management of forest resources and fulfilling the forest products need of the local people that ultimately contribute to poverty reduction goal of the country. Leasehold forestry is among them that focuses on people below the poverty line to support them for livelihood improvement through diversified income generating activities on leased degraded forest land. Apart from the livelihood improvement, leaseasehold has laso the aim of restpration of degraded forest land through plantation of multipurpose tree species. Present study was carried out in two leasehold forest user groups in Bagmati Rural Municipality of Makwanpur district, Bangmati Province Nepal focusing on the research questions; whether leasehold forests being success to bring a significant change on local people’s livelihood and restoration of the degraded forest areas? Relevent information was collected through household survey (n= 18), key informant interviews (n=5) and direct field observation in both leasehold forest user group during September-October, 20220. The result revealed that leasehold forest has contributed positively for the restoration of degraded forest land through plantation of broom grass, fruit trees and other multipurpose tree crops. Similarly, livelihood capitals have been genereted in both of the leasehold forest and found effective for livelihood improvement of local poor.