"Another Possible Cost Of COVID-19: Returning Workers May Lead To Deforestation In Nepal – Analysis", 2 September 2020

In rural Nepal, 10 years of conflict between government forces and Maoist fighters, followed by a series of devastating earthquakes, forced many young people to migrate to urban areas or overseas in search of employment. Farm sizes remained the same, but with remittance income coming in from migrants plus a sharp reduction in available labor at home, many farmers left some of their land uncultivated...

...As of mid-2019, an estimated 3 to 4 million Nepalis were living and working in India, according to the International Organization for Migration. Another 500,000 were in Malaysia, plus large numbers in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab of Emirates, and Kuwait. In addition, many young people from the rural areas moved to Kathmandu and Nepal’s other towns and cities in search of employment.

The money these young migrants send to their families back home represents a large portion of Nepal’s economy...

This extra source of income allowed families to farm their land less intensively...

...The World Bank reported that in 2020 Nepal would see remittances fall by about 14 percent.

In July 2020, we conducted phone interviews with 30 farmers... Most of the returning migrants are now working on farms.

...While our surveys suggest that the majority of migrants plan to return to their previous work once the pandemic is over, most will engage in traditional subsistence farming until then.