Alton C. Byers Pens an Article About Re-Forestation in Himalaya
Alton Byers, who was a Visiting Scholar at CAS in 2019-2020, has written an article about the dramatic re-growth of forests in Nepal:
The greening of the Khumbu
What are the reasons for such a dramatic re-growth in trees in Nepal’s Everest region?
During the 1970s and early 1980s, it was commonly assumed by the development community that the Himalaya was approaching catastrophic levels of environmental degradation, linked primarily to growing human and livestock populations.
Landscapes throughout the mountain world were said to be experiencing unprecedented deforestation, overgrazing, and the terracing of marginal land. In turn, these phenomena were claimed to be responsible for promoting near-crisis levels of fuel-wood shortages, soil erosion, slope instability, geomorphic hazards, and siltation of water courses. Catastrophic consequences were predicted within 20 years, including the loss of all forest cover in Nepal by the year 2000.