A postmortem of forest policy dynamics of Nepal

Evolution of public policy is governed by various factors of political change, institutional realignment, and global environmental discourse. Improved understanding of these factors is a prerequisite for policy-makers to solve forestry related socio-economic and environmental issues. In this study, we assessed the policy and institutional shifts in Nepal’s forest policy regime through discursive institutionalism framework. We conducted a literature review, including Nepal’s forest policy documents that were developed after 1950, and undertook an in-depth interview with twenty-five people representing five stakeholders groups. Based on specific features and objectives of the policies, we classified and discussed four different evolving periods of forestry sector: (1) strict protection period (1950–1975); (2) resource creation for crisis management period (1975–1986); (3) participatory forestry period (1986–2008); and (4) period of broad-based global normative discourse (2008 onwards). Our results showed that framing of ideas and discourse, and its interacting environment (dialectic space and discursive sphere) have determined institutionalization and deinstitutionalization of the country’s forest policy. In addition, Nepal’s forest policy pathways were shaped by a shift in 1) domestic political systems, 2) global environmental discourse and institution, and 3) the process of paradigmatic change and transformation. We conclude that policy durability and discursive shift in public policy are governed by how policy making-institutions embrace public aspirations and consider socio-political context of the country while framing policy discourse. We argue that articulation of discourses into discursive spheres and its ways of deliberation for discursive practices largely defines the trajectories- institutionalization and deinstitutionalization of public policy.