Improving Data and Analytics for Sustainable Forest Management
in Nepal
Seminar Recording
Nepal’s green, resilient and inclusive development (GRID) depends upon the sustainable management of forests. The Global Program on Sustainability (GPS) is working with countries like Nepal to provide a better understanding of the role of forests in providing livelihoods and sustenance, which will further lead to improved sustainable forest management in the country. A part of the ongoing GPS Seminar Series, this webinar will introduce the technical work that is being carried out as a collaboration between the National Statistics Office (NSO) of Nepal, the Ministry of Forests and Environment (MOFE) of Nepal, and the World Bank for improving data and analytics on forest resources and household dependence on forests in Nepal.
Nepal is unique in that it is transitioning to federalism in the forest sector for both forest management and revenue sharing. But their need to build evidence-based foundations for the economic contribution of forests is not unique. Improvements to the quality of forest data and analytics benefits policymaking by: (i) helping MOFE understand the contribution of forests to livelihoods in Nepal, both in the form of income and sustenance, (ii) increasing the capacity of the Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) to support provincial and municipal governments as they develop and update sustainable forest management plans, and (iii) equipping the devolution of forest revenues 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.
Chair and Moderator
- Raffaello Cervigni, Lead Environmental Economist, World Bank
GPS-Supported Activities in Nepal
- Prem Raj Pokhrel, Voice Secondee from the Nepal Ministry of Finance, World Bank
- Jihae Kwon, Environmental Economist, World Bank
Guest Speakers
- Hem Raj Regmi, Deputy Chief Statistician & Joint Secretary, NSO
- Birendra Bajracharya, Senior Geospatial Specialist, ICIMOD
Discussant
- Soumya Balasubramanya, Senior Economist, World Bank
A native of Italy, Raffaello Cervigni has led the water resource management, natural resource management, and disaster risk management communities within the Africa region. His areas of expertise are environmental economics, adaptation to climate change, low carbon development, and regional development. Cervigni has been with the World Bank for more than 21 years and prior to his current position, he was the senior natural resources management specialist in the Middle East and North Africa region. He joined the World Bank as a research assistant and has experience working in the regions as well as the central environment unit. Before joining the Bank, Cervigni worked in the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance as a coordinator in the project evaluation division. He was also a research associate at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment based at the University of East Anglia. Cervigni holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of London as well as a Master of philosophy majoring in economics from the University of Oxford.
Prem Raj Pokhrel is a Voice Secondee at the World Bank, from the Ministry of Finance, Kathmandu, Nepal. He is originally from Arghakhanchi, Nepal which is 600 km away from Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. Mr. Pokhrel has a Master’s degree in Language Education and Public Administration from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. He has worked as a Section Officer in the Ministry of Finance for 10 years. In this period, he also worked as a Tax Officer. Before joining government service, he was a teacher for 13 years with a wide range of teaching experience from primary to university levels.
Jihae Kwon is an Environmental Economist, JPO at the World Bank. She leads the forest analytics engagement in Nepal and the deep dive on the economics of green and resilient development in Bangladesh. Prior to joining the Bank, Jihae worked as an Economist in FAO where she focused on quantitative environmental impact assessments and climate-smart agriculture, forestry and fisheries policies. She also worked as a researcher in Bolivia with the Korean Rural Development Administration and Bolivia’s Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal. Jihae holds an Master’s degree in Development Economics and a BEc in Food and Resource Economics.
Hem Raj Regmi is a Statistician by profession and serves at the National Statistics Office (former Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)) of the Nepal Government, in the capacity of Deputy Chief Statistician responsible for national accounts and environmental statistics divisions. He holds a Master’s degree in Statistics and a PhD degree in Food Security Analysis from the Central Department of Environmental Sciences at Tribhuvan University. In his professional career of more than 25 years in statistics and food security, he worked with the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) and also with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations based in Bangkok (FAORAP) under the project Global Strategy to Improve Agriculture and Rural Statistics in the Asia Pacific Region. He also worked as a food security and SDG monitoring consultant for Afghanistan, LAO PDR and many other countries in the Asia Pacific region.
Birendra Bajracharya is the Chief of Party for the SERVIR-HKH initiative at ICIMOD with NASA and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for developing Earth observation, monitoring, and visualisation systems that integrate satellite and other geospatial data for improved scientific knowledge and decision-making. He joined ICIMOD in 1995 as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist. He holds an MSc in Geo-Informatics from the International Institute of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), the Netherlands, an MBA from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and BE in Civil Engineering from University of Rajasthan, India. He has vast experience in spatial data infrastructure, decision support systems, and GIS and remote sensing (RS) applications in relation to natural resources, biodiversity, conservation planning, and protected area management.
Soumya Balasubramanya is a Senior Economist at the World Bank’s Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global practice. She uses micro-econometric approaches to conduct research on poverty, development and equity challenges in Asia and Africa, at the nexus of water, agriculture, environment, energy and health. Her expertise is based on eighteen years of field research using survey methods to collect primary data in developing countries. She has collaborated with universities, governments and the private sector in low-, middle- and high-income countries to influence research, dialogue and practice on inclusive and responsible development. Her research has been used by bilateral and multilateral aid agencies to adaptively course-correct ongoing investments and programs, and by governments in the global south to design policy. Soumya’s work has been featured in news outlets including BBC News, Deutsche Welle, Economist Intelligence Unit, Financial Times, Forbes, Free Radio/Radio Liberty, The Guardian and NPR. She chairs the International Committee for Women in Agricultural Economics of the International Association of Agricultural Economics; is an Associate Editor for Agricultural Economics; and is a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report. Soumya received a master’s degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Economics and Policy from Duke University.
