Grasslands, shrublands, and pastures cover about 12 percent of the country’s land area. Nearly 79 percent of these pasturelands are located in the high mountain and high Himalayan regions, while another 17 percent lie in the middle mountains.
A Tradition Built on Movement
Transhumant pastoralism — the seasonal migration of livestock and humans across multiple agro-ecological zones — is an age-old practice in many mountain regions. During the monsoon, herders drive animals to alpine pastures as high as 5,000 metres, where grasses flourish. As winter closes in, herds descend, drawing on forests, shrublands, and cropland. In recent years, however, high-altitude pastoralism in Nepal has faced complex challenges.
Forests and Herders Drift Apart
A further complication is the shifting relationship between pastoralists and forests. Nepal’s community forestry programme is a genuine conservation success, restoring degraded land and expanding forest cover. Yet in some areas, this has come at the cost of livestock grazing, as forests are managed primarily for tree protection. Reduced uncontrolled grazing helps forests recover, but cutting livestock off entirely raises an uncomfortable question: where will animals find winter forage? When livestock lose access to forest areas, the burden does not vanish — it shifts onto remaining rangelands. Herds crowd into smaller areas, intensifying pressure on already fragile pastures. Under a changing climate, this accelerates degradation and deepens winter shortages rather than solving them.
Winter’s Hard Arithmetic
Sano Paila is feeding thousands of poor people, and the Covid-1...
Winter is the hardest season for livestock herders in Nepal’s mountains. As snow blankets alpine pastures and grasses dry out, forage for cattle, yaks, chauries, sheep, and goats declines sharply. For pastoral households, this is not merely an ecological inconvenience — it is a food-security crisis. When animals lose condition, milk yields fall, disease risks rise, and household income and nutrition suffer along with them.
A System Under Strain
Climate change is further exacerbating winter food insecurity, with extremes such as abrupt rainfall and prolonged droughts affecting the timing and growth of pastures. This reduces forage availability and places additional pressure on already fragile rangelands. These changes are also reshaping mountain communities, with some pastoralists abandoning traditional livestock-based livelihoods in search of more stable sources of income.
Silvopasture as a Practical Bridge
This is where silvopasture could offer a practical way forward. Selected areas of community forests could be managed to produce fodder alongside trees. Fodder trees, shrubs, and grasses could provide an additional source of winter feed while maintaining tree cover and protecting the wider forest ecosystem.
This does not mean opening every community forest to grazing or turning forests into pasture. The aim is to identify areas where livestock access and fodder production are suitable, while keeping forests with important conservation value protected. Community forests could then be managed according to different purposes — conservation, forest regeneration, timber production, and silvopasture.
In suitable areas, communities could plant and manage fodder species and allow livestock to graze at specific times of the year. Rotational grazing would give vegetation time to recover while providing animals with feed when natural pastures are least productive. In this way, community forests could help fill the winter fodder gap and reduce pressure on high-altitude rangelands.
Such a system offers gains beyond winter feed alone. Fodder trees and shrubs protect soil, moderate microclimates, recycle nutrients, and store carbon, while livestock manure returns nutrients to the land. Producing fodder closer to settlements and winter grazing grounds would also reduce the need to haul feed from distant sources.
Reconnecting Two Separated Systems
Most significantly, this approach could reunite two systems too often managed apart: community forestry and pastoralism. Historically, mountain communities treated forests, pastures, and livestock as interconnected resources, with local institutions regulating grazing to balance livestock needs against recovery. Modern land management can draw on this wisdom while adding scientific understanding of carrying capacity and climate resilience.
A Principle Beyond Nepal’s Borders
The idea resonates beyond Nepal. Pastoralists across the Andes, East African highlands, and elsewhere in the Global South face comparable pressures: shrinking forage, climate variability, land-use change, and eroding livelihoods. Species and practices will differ by region, but the underlying principle travels — use appropriate forest landscapes to complement, not replace, natural rangelands.
Herders Must Lead, Not Just Benefit
For this to succeed, herders must be central to decision-making. Community forest user groups, pastoralists, local governments, forest authorities, and researchers should jointly identify suitable areas, set grazing rules, and monitor outcomes. Herders should shape the programme’s design, not merely receive its benefits.
Strengthening Mountain Food Security
By providing additional winter forage, suitable community forests could reduce pressure on fragile pastures, strengthen livestock production, and improve food security for mountain communities — while bringing community forestry and pastoralism together as complementary parts of the same landscape.
