Forest fire policy efforts in Nepal: Present status and future vision

Abstract

In Nepal, forest fires are a growing environmental and socioeconomic disaster fuelled by complex socio-ecological forces, land-use dynamics, and climate change. Nepal’s governance response remains fragmented and largely reactive, despite the increasing frequency and intensity of fires. This paper provides a policy review of Nepal’s forest fire governance landscape by analysing 18 primary government instruments comprising Acts, Rules, Strategies, Guidelines, Plans, and Policies across federal, provincial, and local governance levels, alongside peer-reviewed and grey literature. The review provides the development of Nepal’s institutional and legislative frameworks, from early conservation laws to modern climate adaptation and community forestry instruments, by evaluating each for its institutional mandates, implementation efficacy, and provisions related to forest fires. The results show that Nepal’s governance system is vast in scope but is limited by dispersed institutional responsibilities, persistent underfunding, poor interagency coordination, and unequal implementation capacity across the country’s federal structure. Nepal’s sole comprehensive and specialised policy tool for managing forest fires, the Forest Fire Management Strategy 2010 has been recently upgraded with the release of the Forest Fire Preparedness and Response National Action Plan 2026. Nepal’s Community Forest User Groups are among the most significant governance assets for local fire prevention, though their capacity remains inconsistent. The paper concludes with recommendations for consolidating Nepal’s governance framework through a unified legal instrument, dedicated financing, strengthened community engagement, technology-enabled monitoring, and cross-border collaboration with neighboring Himalayan countries.