<
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepal-a-eucalyptus-boom-became-an-ecological-cautionary-tale/>
"SARLAHI, Nepal — In 1984, Bharat Kumar Pokhrel was a young forester with a
mission to turn theory into practice. Fresh out of forestry school, he joined
Nepal’s Sagarnath Forest Development Project.
Primarily based in Sarlahi district and extending into neighboring Mahottari in
the southeastern Terai landscape, the project’s star crop was red river gum
(
Eucalyptus camaldulensis), a fast-growing, low-maintenance eucalyptus
species that’s a popular source of easy fuelwood. It’s also not native to
Nepal, hailing from far-flung Australia.
“Eucalyptus grows rapidly, ready for harvest in five to 10 years,” Pokhrel told
Mongabay. “Once established, it requires minimal replanting for decades. It
seemed ideal.”
Nearly four decades later, Pokhrel watches on as farmers across the plains
uproot these very trees, calling them a mistake that drained their soil, killed
their crops, and left them worse off than before. What he thought was an
exemplary means of reforestation has now become a cautionary tale of how
imported solutions can fail when local conditions are ignored.
Launched in 1977 with a budget of $13.2 million, and later revised to half that
amount, the Sagarnath project aimed to reforest 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres)
of degraded land. (This, too, was later revised down to 4,150 hectares, or
10,250 acres.)
The project was spearheaded by Australian forestry expert Kevin Joseph White,
whose team recommended eucalyptus for its resilience in arid regions.
The initiative came as Nepal’s forestry sector faced a crisis following the
nationalization in 1957 of all forests within the country. Although that policy
was meant to protect trees from private landowners, it resulted in unintended
consequences. Private owners cleared their forested land to prevent their land
being nationalized, leading to massive deforestation across Nepal, which saw
forest cover shrink by at least 1.7% annually."
Governments love large-scale projects and quick results, the bigger and
quicker the better. This significantly increases risk.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
