and cost thousands of lives.
However, neither the Royalist
Government based in the
towns and cities or the Maoist
rebels based in the countryside
were able to win a complete
victory. Following a massacre
within the royal family in 2001
and resulting political turmoil,
the monarchy was abolished
and the country declared a
federal republic; but elections
have never produced a clear
winner and there is currently
still no constitution approved
by all political factions. Maoist
occupation of the countryside
effectively made it impossible
for the central government
to
enforce
conservation
regulations in many parks
during the civil war (Baral and
Heinen, 2006). Deforestation,
which has long been a problem in Nepal, dramatically increased
across the country during the prolonged civil war (Yonzon, 2004).
In this complex political, socio-economic and environmental
context, the fragile landscape of the Himalayas is under immense
pressure. We set out to identify and analyze patterns of land use
and land cover change through time within the Everest region of
the Central Himalayas and to determine howmanagement systems
and anthropogenic activities are affecting conservation efforts in
these protected areas and livelihoods at their fringes. Remotely
sensed data should be combined with ethnographic knowledge
because while quantitative change can be measured analyzing
602
July 2014
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
Figure 3: Dr. All collecting ground data near Cho La above the
Khumbu Valley.
Figure 4: The authors collecting data with Nepalese graduate stu-
dents.
Figure 2: Nepal’s Protected Areas.
Deforestation, which has long been
a problem in Nepal, dramatically
increased across the country during
the prolonged civil war.
