REGISTER
The World Bank is supporting the Government of Nepal’s transition towards Green, Resilient, Inclusive Development (GRID) through a strategic forest landscape program with over US$100m of financing plus additional budget support through the Programmatic GRID Development Policy Credit Series. Together, the forest program encompasses a set of projects, policy and carbon financing, and advisory services. Under this strategic forest landscape program, the World Bank through the support of GPS is working towards bridging the gap in robust evidence on the biophysical conditions and economic contributions of forests at national and subnational levels, which is critical to Nepal’s transition towards federalism in the forest sector and GRID.
As part of the ongoing GPS Seminar Series, this hybrid Brown Bag Lunch (BBL) will feature guest speakers from the Government of Nepal, specifically from the National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Forests and Environment (MOFE), and the Forest Research and Training Center (FRTC), who will share their experience in producing policy-relevant forest data to support evidence based sustainable forest management in Nepal. Two major activities are being implemented as part of these advisory services: (i) Production of subnational biophysical forest extent and condition statistics through the FTRC under the leadership of MOFE to support planning at the national, provincial, and municipal levels; and (ii) Collection and analyses of nationally representative official household data related to forest-based livelihoods in collaboration with the NSO. Among many policy uses, one important contribution of the improved forest data will be equipping the devolution of forest royalties from federal to provincial and municipal governments with refined data to better reflect the performance of provinces and municipalities in terms of forest management and forest livelihood dependency.
Guest speakers:
- Toyam Raya, Secretary, Nepal National Statistics Office (NSO)
- Badri Raj Dhungana, Joint Secretary & Chief of Planning, Nepal Ministry of Forests and Environment (MOFE)
- Tirtha Raj Chaulagain, Director, Nepal NSO
- Bimal Acharya, Senior Remote Sensing Officer, Nepal Forest Research and Training Center (FRTC)
Agenda:
Moderator: Jihae Kwon
11:00-11:05 – Welcoming remarks, Bekele Ambaye Shiferaw, Senior Environmental Economist & Program Coordinator of GPS, World Bank
11:05-11:10 – Importance of forests for GRID in Nepal, Badri Raj Dhungana, Joint Secretary & Chief of Planning, Nepal Ministry of Forests and Environment (MOFE)
11:10-11:15 – Introduction of GPS-supported activities in Nepal, Soumya Balasubramanya, Senior Economist, World Bank
11:10-11:25 – Enabling federalism in the forest sector: production of subnational biophysical forest indicators, Bimal Kumar Acharya, Senior Remote Sensing Officer, Nepal Forest Research and Training Center (FRTC)
11:25-11:40 – Interface of households and forests: first forest module of the Nepal Living Standards Survey, Tirtha Raj Chaulagain, Director, Nepal National Statistics Office (NSO)
11:40-12:10 – Q&A
12:10-12:15 – Closing remarks Toyam Raya, Secretary, Nepal NSO