In my opinion, the starting point should be an inventory of the demands of the local populations, as far as it concerns the forests. When these demands can be fulfilled in a sustainably way, the problem largely will be solved. Anyway, the local population has many possiblities to circumvent any regulation, which is established by the authorities against their interests and demands.

A first step would be to create clear information about the forests: their biodiversity and state of conservation, causes of deforestation and degradation, benefits from forest products and ecosystem services, etc. Probably a lot is already known, but not all information is neccesarily available to all stakeholders, especilly local users and decision makers. Moreover, It's probable that information is biased: for instance economic benefits from forests is often well documented for formal timber and can even be extrapolated for illegal timber, but is often very understudied and underestimated for more informal markets of non-timber forest products, and even less so for products consumed by local households (e.g. bushmeat). Similarly I find studies generally don't pay much attention to the value locals assign to ecosystem servicios such as the conservation of biodiversity, the regulation of local climate, or even the estethical value of forests for locals. Finally, results can be biased towards a certain type of stakeholders: e.g. when dealing with degradation because of fire projects often deal with smallfarmers rather than working with relatively large cattleranches.  I believe a clear comprehension of these aspects is fundamental for understanding the dynamics related to deforestation and forest degradation and thus when defining policies. Even if detailed holistic studies are available I suggest any proposal should pass through a filter based on a participatory analysis of the proposal and its asumptions, to reduce the chance of errors. 

Deforestation and forest degradation are due changes because of population growth, unsustainable harvesting and climate changes. Sometimes, the market and price differential between wild and cultivated products, which reflect the demand for wild crafted ones, encourages overexploitation of forests and forest products. Secondary forests are gaining credentials in extent and importance over time as old growth forests become overexploited. In-situ conservation is more emphasized in this context because it assures the quality of forests and products which are fundamentals of both indigenous people and indigenous medicine. 

To my experience in the Qilian Shan (NW China) the main threat for frests in high elevation areas of this region is the concurrence between different land-use interests - predominantly the concurrence between herdsmen and forest conservation. This conflict can only be solved if a win-win situation will be generated in the sense of an integrated land-use concept including and optimising factors like aktive enhancement of pasture quality, active erosion control,  active measures of forest conservation and recovering of damaged forests, preservation of forest areas. None of these factors should be dominant, thus accounting for the needs of all people living in the region.

Perhaps the PhD of Pawan Datta (Univ. Freiburg, Germany) would be of interest for you: Datta, P.S. (2012): Soil Erosion in the Lesser Himalayas – A Critical Review on Parametrization of Soil Erosion Models Ph.D dissertation Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany

Thought-points from my side: 1.Promoting agro-forestry country-wide and establishing quickly growing large-scale multi-purpose-tree-plantations so as to reduce the ecological pressure on the forests; 2.Promoting vegetative-propagation wherever possible / adequate: much faster, much cheaper; 3. Strict protection-rules for newly planted trees / areas; 4. Never forgetting the real reasons of degradation; 5. Disregarding charcoal-production; 6. Protection of areas, incl. by thorny plants / shrubs; 7. Promoting perma-culture; 8. Full community-participation; By the way: the term "Sustainability" was first used in German and Austrian forest-papers 300 years ago.

My country is faced with the problems of natural forests.What do you have to say probably not realistic.According to the people working in the management of these forests is the ultimate solution.

Considering the number of Community Forest User Groups in Nepal, we should hope that they are effective to protect forest. We're currently working on that. Up to know, from household survey data, it is clear that population growth and livestock rearing increase pressure on forest. In the Indian Himalayas, a study shows that relatively small LPG subsidies might help to reduce deforestation. It's not sure that it is fully applicable in Nepal since many villages are quite remote. Delivery of LPG as a substitute for firewood as main cooking fuel might be difficult.

The first link points at a survey of different studies on forestry in the Himalayas, the second one to a more policy oriented paper.

https://ideas.repec.org/p/ess/wpaper/id6143.html

https://ideas.repec.org/a/bin/indiap/v3y2006i2006-1p125-277.html

Deforestation and degradation are caused by various factors. Its well known that the climate change curtail the DD effect. Invasion of exotic plant species is also worth considering for studying DD effect. The most important about DD study is topography, physiography of a particular area. Based on the landscape, combating DD may differ. Mahabharat/Siwalik is fragile, vulnerable and young, so massive plantation and cover of dense vegetation may outweigh the capacity of hills to afford. Second, the most areas of Nepal have long been inhabitated by people for their livelihood and forestry/livelihood are inseparble at the outset of civilization. Participatory conservation considering soil factors and biological invasion and use of secondary resources with caution may complement the management initiatives of DD. Since we are at the era transformation (climate, socio-cultural, land-use), the use of secondary resources is gaining ground as old-growth forests become overexploited, indigenous species declined and traditional knowledge effaced. In this context, it is worthwhile to state Burnett (1911): “At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done. Then they begin to hope it can be done. They see it can be done. Then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago (Burnett 1911, The Secret Garden)”. 

One key feature is peoples participation, and taking into account needs of people and accommodating them. Usufruct rights to local communities helps in better care being taken of forest resources.