The Dynamics of Mountain Agriculture and Land Change in Lamjung District, Nepal

Abstract

Mountain agriculture in Lamjung has changed over the last six decades from a subsistence agro pastoralism to a mixed-farming system. This transition is significant from the perspective of land-use and land-cover dynamics, as it has resulted in alterations in forest coverage, livelihoods and overall ecosystem ser vices. This transition is also emblematic of the long-term environmental, economic and socio-cultural changes occurring in the Nepal Himalaya. Using multi-temporal spatial data (1976 to 2010) in combination with socio-economic data, this study has detected, quantified and analyzed the land-cover trajectories in Lamjung District during the last four decades, matching the time period of a highly contested debate on the Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation. The results of this study reveal two significant patterns of change: (a) trade-offs and dynamic transitions occurring among forest, agricultural land and shrubland categories, showing more complex patterns than the common story that massive, irreversible deforestation has occurred in the Himalayan region due to increased population pressure, and (b) land-use intensification significantly increasing in the irrigated lands of the lower valleys, accelerating the competition for prime lands, but disintensification and, in some cases, increasing land abandonment of the upper ridges and remote lands, emerging in recent years. Finally, using a spatiotemporal, place-based analysis of landscape level transitions, this study strove to develop a better understanding of environmental change in the Nepal Himalaya – widely considered one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world, where we lack sufficient knowledge of the extent to which agricultural land-use modifications are contributing to land-cover change and vice versa.