ABSTRACT
This paper presents primary household-level panel data for the investigation of rural livelihoods dynamics in Nepal. The data is environmental augmented through the inclusion of information on environmental resource use allowing estimation of household-level environmental income. The main variables included are: household demographics (individual's age, gender, educational status, marital status), assets (livestock, implements, land, jewellery, saving, debt), income (from the environment, crop production, livestock rearing, business ownership, wage employment, remittances, and other sources), and household shock experiences (e.g., crop failure or livestock loss). Spanning the three main physiographic regions in Nepal, data was collected in the districts of Chitwan (lowland), Kaski (mid-hills), and Mustang (mountains) in 2006 (n = 507), 2009 (n = 446), and 2012 (n = 428), with households randomly sampled, using trained and monitored enumerators. The structured household survey is freely available in Larsen et al. (2014) that also provides complete data collection process details. In each study year, household income data were collected quarterly (using recall periods of 1 or 3 months, depending on the product), while asset data was collected twice (at the beginning and end of each year). Farm-gate prices were used to value products whenever possible; subsistence products were valued using substitute product prices or the opportunity cost of time (i.e., local wage labour rate). Basic distributional statistics indicated that estimated values have acceptable properties allowing their use as prices. The dataset can be reused for analyses across a range of topics (e.g. focused on forests or livestock), data types (e.g. income or asset), and temporal scales (static or selected years).
ABSTRACT
In this study, we investigated the impact of domestic and wild prey availability on snow leopard prey preference in the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area of eastern Nepal-a region where small domestic livestock are absent and small wild ungulate prey are present. We took a comprehensive approach that combined fecal genetic sampling, macro- and microscopic analyses of snow leopard diets, and direct observation of blue sheep and livestock in the KCA. Out of the collected 88 putative snow leopard scat samples from 140 transects (290 km) in 27 (4 × 4 km2) sampling grid cells, 73 (83%) were confirmed to be from snow leopard. The genetic analysis accounted for 19 individual snow leopards (10 males and 9 females), with a mean population size estimate of 24 (95% CI: 19-29) and an average density of 3.9 snow leopards/100 km2 within 609 km2. The total available prey biomass of blue sheep and yak was estimated at 355,236 kg (505 kg yak/km2 and 78 kg blue sheep/km2). From the available prey biomass, we estimated snow leopards consumed 7% annually, which comprised wild prey (49%), domestic livestock (45%), and 6% unidentified items. The estimated 47,736 kg blue sheep biomass gives a snow leopard-to-blue sheep ratio of 1:59 on a weight basis. The high preference of snow leopard to domestic livestock appears to be influenced by a much smaller available biomass of wild prey than in other regions of Nepal (e.g., 78 kg/km2 in the KCA compared with a range of 200-300 kg/km2 in other regions of Nepal). Along with livestock insurance scheme improvement, there needs to be a focus on improved livestock guarding, predator-proof corrals as well as engaging and educating local people to be citizen scientists on the importance of snow leopard conservation, involving them in long-term monitoring programs and promotion of ecotourism.
ABSTRACT
This paper contributes to two strands of literature: disaster literature on post-disaster mental health and economics literature on migration. Remittances are a sizable source of income in many developing countries. Evidence suggests, however, that when adults migrate in order to support their families via remittances, family members left behind often experience poorer physical and mental health. We study the effects of remittances on the mental health of victims of a disaster, the earthquake (EQ) that hit Nepal in 2015. We used three waves of data from 335 individuals in 6 villages in Western Nepal in which emigration is prevalent. The first wave of the survey was conducted one year before the 2015 EQ. In the third wave, which was conducted one year after the EQ, the respondents aged 15 and older were assessed for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms. PTSD symptoms were evaluated by the 17-item Checklist Civilian (PCL-C), and depressive symptoms were measured by the 20-question Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scales (CESD) questionnaire. In order to avoid capturing the impacts of remittances for daily expenses and reduce possible endogeneity in the remittance variables, we measured the change in remittances following the EQ. After controlling for pre-disaster body-mass index and asset holdings, we found that the increase in remittances sent to HHs reduced psychological distress measured by the PTSD and depression severity scores. The remittance variables, however, did not alleviate mental disorder as defined by the international-standard cutoff points of PCL-C and CES-D.
