Landslides are an increasing problem in Nepal's Middle Hills due to
both natural and human phenomena: mainly increasingly intense monsoon
rains and a boom in rural road construction. This problem has largely
been neglected due to underreporting of losses and the dispersed
nature of landslides. Understanding how populations cope with landslides
is a first step toward developing more effective landslide risk management
programs. The present research focuses on two villages in Central-Eastern
Nepal, both affected by active landslides but with different coping
strategies. Research methods are interdisciplinary, based on a geological
assessment of landslide risk and a socio-economic study of the villages
using household questionnaires, focus group discussions and transect
walks. Community risk maps are compared with geological landslide
risk maps to better understand and communicate community risk perceptions,
priorities and coping strategies. A modified typology of coping strategies
is presented, based on previous work by Burton, Kates, and White
(1993) that is useful for decision-makers for designing more effective
programs for landslide mitigation. Main findings underscore that
coping strategies, mainly seeking external assistance and outmigration,
are closely linked to access to resources, ethnicity/social status
and levels of community organization. Conclusions include the importance
of investing in organizational skills, while building on local knowledge
about landslide mitigation for reducing landslide risk. There is
great potential to increase coping strategies by incorporating skills
training on landslide mitigation in existing agricultural outreach
and community forest user group training.