Shifting paradigms in Wetland Governance in Nepal

Wetlands represent a complex multifaceted domain due to complexity of resource users, diversity of uses and stakeholders. They continue to degrade rapidly across Nepal as its management has remained fragmented and centralized. Numerous agencies claim the ownership but no one manages it. There are numerous laws with overlapping jurisdictions where most of them do not acknowledge each other and are formulated in isolation. Local fragmented management clearly lacks a common objective to co-manage. Formation of coordinating bodies at central level and a multi-stakeholder forum at the district level are positive initiatives. But a drawback is that they function to be more of an advisory body and less of a power sharing mechanism. The term 'multi' should refer to the diversity of stakeholders in a resource rather than their diverse stakes. The current status of institutional arrangements expanding across ministries to local practices and laws to plans needs to streamline as a separate wetlands law could only be more ambiguous. The institutionalization process of the multi-stakeholder bodies is crucial but paradoxically uncertain under current political pandemonium.