Reliable data on land and forest cover is essential for environmental management and policy. Land cover and forest maps serve as decision-support tools, informing forest restoration laws and land management approaches, reporting against international climate commitments and accessing climate finance. Although Nepal has a long history of mapping its lands and forests, the production of consistent, comparable land cover maps has been hindered by varying methodologies.

ICIMOD has supported Nepal’s Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) to develop and operationalise its new National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS). One key strength of the NLCMS is its ability to integrate ground-level with satellite data and bridge data gaps. Another feature is its adaptability to different reporting standards, including the categories used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Global Forest Resources Assessment and others.

Using NLCMS forest statistics, the Government of Nepal is able to generate national land cover maps annually and monitor land use change dynamics, to inform national land use policy and international reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Sustainable Development Goals. The forest statistics are also key for the country to receive international funding for forest restoration: already the country is set to receive NPR 1.06 billion (nearly USD 8 million) from carbon trading for reducing forest carbon dioxide emissions in the Terai region.