Nepal has come a long way in the last 35 years,” says Yam Malla, Nepal country representative for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He offers a pertinent comparison: by the same measure that Thailand’s airline industry is miles ahead of Nepal’s: Nepal’s community forestry far surpasses Thailand's. Many countries have tried to replicate Nepal’s model. Ideally, the government would have their forest resource area maintained at 40 per cent.