According to the National Forest Inventory (NFI), forest and shrub together covers about 5.83 million ha, which is 39.6% of the total land area of the country. The rate of forest area decrease was 1.7% per annum, whereas the rate of forest and shrub depletion was 0.5% per annum. The recent studies from 20 Terai districts revealed the rate of forest cover change was as an annual rate of 0.06%.Macro level studies and visual interpretation revealed that Nepal's forest coverage and condition is significantly improving due to the Community Forestry(CF) intervention.

    There are 35 major forest types and 118 ecosystems found in Nepal. The major tree species in terms of growing stocks are : Shorea robusta, Quercus spp, Terminalia alata, Pinus roxburghii, Abies spectabilis, Rhododendron spp, Alnus nepalensis, Schima wallichi, and Tsunga dumosa. Nepal is divided into five ecological region the Mid- Mountain region has the highest percentage of forest coverage (33%) followed by the High mountains, Siwaliks, Terai and High Himal region respectively.