Tenure arrangements and management intensity of Butter tree (Diploknema butyracea) in Makawanpur district, Nepal

Summary

This paper describes the variety of management practices for the Butter tree (locally called Chiuri) in Makawanpur district, Nepal. Chiuri is a highly valued multipurpose species which has been customarily used and managed by local communities on state forest lands and on unregistered and registered private lands. As a result of their high value of the trees to local people, in the early 1990s the District Forest Officer issued tree certificates for the trees on state forest lands to their ancestral users. In addition to this pseudo-legitimisation of private access to and use of Chiuri trees on state forest lands, private tree tenure rights exist for (un)registered private lands. As a result of the specific tree tenure conditions, the local pattern of management practices for Chiuri is different from the usual tree management patterns under different land tenure regimes. Often, on state and community forest lands indigenous tree management practices are restricted to socially-oriented control measures on resource extraction, whereas on private lands biologically-oriented management practices may also take place. The most intensive tree management practices usually occur on well-established private lands. In contrast, the management practices for Chiuri trees on state forest lands involve both socially-oriented and biologically-oriented management practices and the tree management itself is more intensive on the unregistered than on the registered private lands. The Chiuri management practices have a positive effect on forest conservation, and so the example of Chiuri user certificates on state forest lands provides an interesting alternative to the Nepalese strategy of stimulating community management as a means of forest protection.