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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................4
2. Material and Methods..............................................................................................................................5
3. Results.......................................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Forest Area Distribution......................................................................................................................7
3.2 Forest Area Distribution by Size and Proportion Categories..............................................................8
4. Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................11
Annex 1: Forest Area Statistics of Province 1 .............................................................................................12
Annex 2: Forest Area Statistics of Province 2 .............................................................................................16
Annex 3: Forest Area Statistics of Province 3 .............................................................................................20
Annex 4: Forest Area Statistics of Province 4 .............................................................................................23
Annex 5: Forest Area Statistics of Province 5 .............................................................................................26
Annex 6: Forest Area Statistics of Karnali Province ....................................................................................29
Annex 7: Forest Area Statistics of Province 7 .............................................................................................31

Forests of Nepal have been a long standing key natural resource supporting nation's economy in many ways. Forests resources have a significant contribution to ecosystem balance and livelihood of a large portion of the population in Nepal. Sustainable management of forest resources is essential to support overall development goals. One key requirement to guide policy formulation, strategic planning, and sustainable forest management is the availability of reliable and up-to-date information on forest resources. Government of Nepal has formed new local level bodies to implement the federal structure of Nepal envisaged by the new Constitution of Nepal, 2072 B.S. The 753 local levels comprise metropolitan cities, sub-metropolitan cities, municipalities and rural municipalities. The new constitution has also promulgated different roles of each category of local levels. Powers relevant to forests and natural resources are delegated to each of those local levels as well as concurrent powers to State and Federations. For any planning and policy formulation initiative to support forest management in each of the new local bodies, the information of the existing extent of forest resources is very essential. With the realization of the significance of this information, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation formed a taskforce to prepare forest and watershed profile of local level bodies. I am confident that the maps and reports prepared by the taskforce have been made available at a highly relevant time. The Department has published the maps online through its website and we are very encouraged by the appreciation, interests and large number of downloads of the maps and report. I would like to thank all the taskforce members for timely completion of the work. Also, I am very thankful to the Secretary of Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation as well as senior officials at the ministry for providing feedback on the work of taskforce.