Flood Impact on Livelihood of Local Community in Shankarpur VDC

Flood Impact on Livelihood of Local Community in Shankarpur VDC
Ek Raj Sigdel
Western Terai Landscape Complex project

Referring to his body height, Mr. Kanja Rana said, when the slope of the rain was up-to three feet, it was usual to him. However, when the height increased gradually and reached up-to five feet, then they started to rescue children and old aged people. In no time, some household and livestock shed which were located near to the edge of river and fertile low lands were washed away. Then, turn of livestock came, the time has already late, they lost about 40 cattle, 50 pigs and 35 ducks to the flood, recalled Mr. Rana. Luckily, the flood was happened during the morning and hence no human casualties happened. This was a case of an unusual flood and its impact in Shankarpur VDC, Kanchanpur district, Nepal. Referring to the 36 hour continuous rains and 12 hour flood of September 30, 2008, this flood was the second of this type in my 80 years age, said Natthu Rana, a local inhabitant. According to him, similar kind of devastating rainfall was noticed 42 years back in the village.

Objective: To analyze the impact of the flood on livelihood of local communities a detailed study was carried out in ward number one, two and three of Shankarpur Village Development Committee, a smallest unit of local government. Specifically the objectives of the study were to analyze the type of people who got hardest hit from the flood and to make recommendations for adaptation measures.

Mthodology: Initially, the flood hazards scenario and vulnerability contexts of the Kanchanpur district were overlapped. It helped to identify Shankarpur VDC as one of the flood disastrous areas in the district. Based on the field observation and community consultation, three wards of the VDC were found badly affected from the flood. Focus group discussions were held separately with women group, men group and old aged people in the affected wards. According to the local people, land holding size was a prime indicator of the well being of the local people in Shankarpur VDC. Therefore, to understand the people who got badly affected, household survey was carried out in the entire household (91HH) of ward no 1. The data were analyzed by using Microsoft excel and a conclusion was drawn. The result was shared with district based stakeholders as well. Then recommendations for climate adaptation were elicited.

Livelihood context
Shankarpur is one of the 19 Village Development Committees of Kanchanpur District, which is located in the Far Western Development Region of Nepal. Out of the four categories, the VDC falls under third rank in human development index, and first in human poverty index (DDC Kanchanpur, 2005). Average rainfall and temperature per year in the district is 1575mm and 230 Celsius respectively.

The area is located towards east from Doda River that originates from Churia range, a fragile hill and traverse through the middle of Shankarpur VDC. There were a total of 288 household with 2,429 people of which, 48% women and 52 % man in the study area. Over 95% household were Tharu, local inhabitant of this area as against the only 23% Tharu in the district as a whole, and the rest of people were hill migrant. Rain fed agriculture is the main source of income to over 85% people of this area. In an average, a household owns 1.5 hectare agriculture land. Crops and livestock are two major source of income of the local community. Rice, wheat and maize are major staple foods and pulses, turmeric, ginger, sugarcane and off season vegetable are some other cash crops. The livestock includes cattle, pig, poultry and ducks. Annually, about 50% youth goes to India for seasonal work. Less than one percent people are service holder and 15-20 household make money from small business.

Fire wood is the main source of energy for over 90% people of this area. They collect firewood from proposed community forests, which are located at the fringe area of a big chunk of forest called Laljhadi Corridor. According to local women, the time for collecting a head load of firewood has increased significantly over the years. With the support of some local NGOs and other government projects, a few social groups like women groups, cooperatives, community forests coordination committee etc were formed and functional in the village.

Flood and impact
A heavy rainfall followed by an unprecedented amount of flood was appeared after 42 years period in Shankarpur VDC. The rain was continued until 36 hours and flood was started to appear after 12 hours rainfall. The flood was started from four o’clock in the morning of September 30, 2008. Pouring of heavy rain, strong wind, heavy flood, and cold wave combined together and made the life very jeopardous, said local. The impact was noticed mainly in natural, physical and social capitals.

Impact on natural capital
The questionnaire survey of the 91 household revealed that in an average a household own1.5 hectare agricultural land. Out of the total, 0.1 hectare was washed away and the remaining 0.5 hectare agriculture land was covered totally by sand and boulders. According to local inhabitants, one hectare land costs Rs. 20, 00,000 (1$ = Rs.68). According to this estimate, each household had to lose Rs. 120,000 in a year. The land holding size was ranged from 8 hectares to no land in the sampling households.

In another way, while calculating the loss in terms of rice grain, it comes around Rs. 7,500 per person. (1 Hectare produces 3000 Kg rice and 1 Kg costs Rs. 20 in local market, the average family size of the area is 8.4)). Per capita income of the local community in Kanchanpur District was Rs. 13695 (DDC Kanchanpur 2005). This estimate implies that significant proportion of per capita income has already been lost by the flood. The challenge now is how to sustain the local community at least in the flood impacted year.

The entire household, irrespective to the lands holding size lost land for the flood. Further, while analyzing the primary data it was revealed that the loss of land was directly proportional to the land holding size. It could be due to presence richer people’s land in fertile low land. About 50% of the total standing crops were lost by the flood. Also, significant amount of stored grains were washed out. Similarly, local people lost considerable number of goat, pig, cattle, and ducks to the flood.

To safeguard the life, almost all the households resettled in nearby Laljhadi Jungle, a prime habitat of wildlife species, including tiger and wild elephants. The area has been identified as one of the bottlenecks area of Terai Arc Landscape Complex that spread over the transborder areas of India and Nepal. With the aim of conserving globally significant biodiversity of the bottleneck area, WTLCP has implemented conservation and development programs for three years in and around Laljhadi Forest. The project is supporting the communities with bio-gas, plantation of timber and non timber species in degraded land, seed money for income generation activities, formation of forest user groups and committees, saving and credit groups, among others.

Impact on physical assets
The flood significantly affected the physical infrastructure of the village. Five wooden bridges were completely destroyed while one suspension bridge was dilapidated. Similarly, 198 drinking water pumps, and 5 Km graveled road was washed away. However, because of the presence of Saccharum munja, banana, bamboo and Bombax ceiba in some part of the river bank, some 15 households were saved.

Impact on social capital
People Moving Towards Safe Place (Photo by A. Gurung)The flood affected all sections of the society, irrespective to income group, aged group and gender. Men were involved more in rescuing children and old aged people, while women had to spend considerable time for safeguarding immediate need of food and clothes. According to Bhagawati Rana, a local woman, in the absence of swimming skills, the women were in more dangerous situation than men. As of the women, similar situation was applied in children and old aged people. Though a total of 14 human casualties were recorded in the entire district, luckily no human casualty was witnessed in the entire VDC. About 40-50 people saved their life by clinging on sparsely distributed trees in the study area. Similarly, due to the tradition of keeping hanging baskets, made up of by Saccharam munj, some households saved enough food for two-three days.

Recommendations
Livestock Casualties in Shankarpur (Photo by A.Gurung)To ensure the long term survival of this community in this locality and safeguarding biodiversity resources of the area for along run, immediate and long term measures should be explored. Similarly, scope of work should be extended from local level to regional level.

• In a short run,
  Rescue package, including construction of dilapidated household and basic infrastructure facilities, like huts, drinking water pump and livestock sheds needs to be maintained
  Low cost bio-engineering with mass scale plantation of Saaccharam munja, bamboo and Bombax ceiba in river belt needs to be promoted
  Human injuries, livestock, crops, and loss of households needs to be compensated
  Awareness program on upstream downstream linkage should be implemented and they should realize the importance of conserving watershed area for safeguarding their life in a long run
  Short term cash crops like cucumber, tomato and watermelon needs to be cultivated in the river bank during winter seasons
  
  In a long run,
  An embankment, that spreads almost 200 meter needs to be constructed
  An integrated plan at regional level, addressing watershed and plain area needs to be prepared and implemented
  
  Conclusion: In a nut shell, the flood was unusual in the study area. It impacted natural, physical and social life of local communities. All the communities, irrespective of income groups, gender and aged group people were badly affected by the flood. Considering the gravity of the problems, immediate as well as long term measures are proposed from local scale to regional level.
  
  References
  DDC Kanchanpur, 2005; Periodic District Development Plan, Kanchanpur.

Good governance: Best practice of WTLCP

Ek Raj Sigdel

Introduction
Transparency, social inclusion, making implementing partners accountable to local communities, bottom up planning process, and maintaining close coordination amongst stakeholders are considered as major ingredients of good governance. The Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) which is in implementation in the Far Western Terai for about two years has integrated the aforementioned elements in project cycle. The project is the joint undertaking of the Government of Nepal, UNDP, GEF, SNV Nepal, WWF, Bioversity International, NARC and LIBIRD.

Transparency
WTLCP has given utmost importance for making each and every project activities a transparent to its wider stakeholders, ranging from field to policy level people. It implements its activities through three major windows such as the government line agencies, local authority and civil society. The role of the project has just been seen as a facilitator. To maintain transparency, before and immediately after implementation of each and every activity, implementing partners are encouraged to make the budget public. In addition, implementing partners have been advised to display the agreed activities and associated budgets in their office premises, so that every citizen can have access of information. Even, some of the implementing partners have initiated the practice of handing over of the pay cheque to the beneficiary communities by organizing mass meetings in the project sites.

Similarly, WTLCP updates regularly its objectives, implementation and progress status to its stakeholders including, District Forest Coordination Committee - a mini parliament - that includes some 30 members, representing political parties, line agencies, local authority, civil society and individuals. Interaction and open communication with implementing partners and other stakeholders have been maintained. As far as possible, each and every meeting / workshops related to the project have been used to disseminate WTLCP objectives and implementation approaches. It is believed that the project has been introduced to about 80% of the total of about 20,000 households in the project sites thus far.

Social inclusion
To ensure participation of women, dalit, indigenous communities and marginalized people, the project has adopted a positive discrimination approach. In this process, at the Village Development Committee (VDC) level, the local communities are ranked into four well-being groups. Based on the indicators developed by the participants themselves, local people are differentiated into rich, medium, poor and very poor categories. To ensure the access of project benefits to the poorest of the poor communities, the project supports them with nine day entrepreneurship development training. The training helps developing their confidence on micro enterprises development. Then, to attract the trainee in their desired business, the project supports them with some soft loan through forming cooperatives at VDC level. An arrangement has been made with the cooperative so that the poorest of the poor people can have access of the loan in lower interest rate compared to the other share holders.

Similarly, the project has conducted various training on good governance, leadership development and alternative livelihood opportunities for its implementing partners. Roster of the implementing partners, especially local NGO have been established and updated regularly. In this regard, WTLCP invites letter of interest including introduction and experiences of potential NGOs through local News Papers. Based on the financial and technical proposals, project identifies the implementing partners.

The management responsibilities of the project activities have been gradually handed over to the local community based organizations. To make them accountable in their activities, the local community representatives are encouraged participating in District Forest Coordination Committee (DFCC) meetings. And any query related to the performances of those activities; have to be answered by the community representatives themselves.

Participatory planning and implementation
The project has adopted participatory planning and implementation approaches from the very beginning of its implementation stages. It has been realized that the involvement of the local communities in the project planning process creates ownership of local people on the planned activities. It ultimately helps smooth implementation of the project. The exercises also make them accountable on the outcome of the project activities.

While preparing the participatory Annual Plan 2008, the project underwent a series of consultation processes with various tiers of stakeholders. Firstly, by organizing pre planning meetings in Kathmandu, following the project document, a participatory planning guideline - 2008 was prepared. After that, based on the guideline, in consultation with the WTLCP field staff members, site specific planning guidelines were designed. Then, a preplanning orientation workshop of VDC level stakeholders, including political party, line agencies, local authority, forest user groups, committees and coordination committees and civil society were held. Then, a two day planning workshops were conducted in each it's working VDCs. To aware the planning process and importance, the project mobilized some of the district political party leaders as Resource Person. In addition, to avoid duplication, the project utilized the expertise of District Development Committee Program Officer as Resource Person in some WTLCP working VDCs. After undergoing a thorough discussion on each and every proposed activity, the plans at VDC level were prepared. Finally, the plans were forwarded to the DFCC meetings for approval. During the DFCC meeting, the community representatives themselves were encouraged to present their plan to the DFCC members. As the DFCC meeting represents district based stakeholders, it creates an opportunity of making aware district based political party on the importance of conserving biodiversity resources and participatory planning.

To maintain consistency in the planning process, all the project staff members attended the first VDC level planning workshop. Then, the staff members were mobilized in group as well as individually in all the planning workshops. It has been realized that the participatory planning process undertaken at VDC level enhanced the capacity of staff members as well as local communities. It developed confidence of the staff members as well as local communities on the participatory planning process.

The project has adopted Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action (APPA) tool to prepare the settlement based plan. To ensure the effective implementation of the community based plan, the project has encouraged forming a monitoring committee at VDC and DDC level. In this regard, a project monitoring committee representing political party, community based organization, women and Dalit at Godawari VDC of Kailali District has already been proposed. Likewise, the initiation of forming monitoring committee at district level has been taken by forming a monitoring and evaluation committee in Kailali District. The 7 member committee represents political party, FECOFUN, and District Forest Office, Kailali.

Coordination
As the landscape approach to conservation demand establishing functional linkages in various land uses, it is equally important to establish a connection amongst the stakeholders at organizational level. In this regard, the project has given utmost importance for establishing and functionalizing District Forest Coordination Committees (DFCC) at district level. DFCC has already been established in Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur. The DFCC discusses on the various conservation and development issues regularly. The project updates the DFCC on plan and progress regularly. As the meeting demands presence of district line agencies, civil society and local authority representatives in a place, it creates an opportunity of discussing various issues and activities. It facilitates inter sectoral coordination in the district level. In order to establish strong coordination between fields based community organizations and district based government line agencies, the WTLCP has initiated the practice of preparing and presenting community and line agencies plan for WTLCP in the DFCC meetings. The practice creates an environment for government line agencies to understand community initiatives and giving feed back on the community plan.

Mobilizing district based political party leaders, District Development Committee Program Officer and line agencies representatives as resource persons for facilitating the village level planning helped a lot in avoiding any duplication on community activities. Also, most of the village level meetings were undertaken in the VDC offices premises so that the community had the opportunity of knowing VDC plan and exploring possibilities of establishing partnership with the VDC programs.

Moreover, to strengthen the coordination amongst the stakeholders, the project has carried out various interaction meetings and open communications. It has helped to establish a trust, which is considered a prerequisite for successful implementation of the project activities.

Challenges
There are many challenges to institutionalize the practice of good governance participatory planning, and coordination. Firstly, the expectations of local communities have been increased greatly, mainly after advent of the democratic republic regime in the country. People think that the project should have dealt with all the development issues instead of paying attention more on conservation related activities. Secondly, the policy makers and local communities, especially forest dependent marginalized people want to see immediate benefit of the project, which is not possible to show within one or two year's period. Likewise, absence of elected body in VDC and DDC level causes many obstacles to ensure smooth running of VDC and DDC based coordination meetings. Moreover, in the changing political context the existing DFCC guideline is not acceptable to the DFCC members. As the landscape approach to conservation is an evolving science, the project has to gain knowledge by experiencing itself.

Opportunity
Based on the experiences, to institutionalize participatory planning process, to strengthen the coordination, and to maintain transparency a platform of local stakeholders is also necessary at the VDC level, which is not provisioned in the project document. To attract politician and other stakeholders' involvement in the natural resource conservation, it is imperative to show them the higher value of the natural resources in monetary term. The DFCC guidelines should be reviewed timely, so that the project can attract suggestions from various quarters of society. In addition, a joint monitoring system should be institutionalized in the project implementation processes. Finally, if all the disintegrated activities are synchronized, then it would open an avenue for addressing need of many local people.

Conclusion
Within a short span of time, despite having many challenges, the project has been able to attract the attention of wider stakeholders in the front of good governance, participatory planning and coordination. As the landscape concept as such is new to the world, sharing of the learning gained within the short period with broader communities would save their time and resources. The project should focus its upcoming activities to institutionalize and disseminate the best practices, so that it contributes to the landscape level planning.

Veterinary Program in Chitwan: model for integrating livelihood in biodiversity conservation in Nepal.

Ek Raj Sigdel

If communities are consulted and involved from the very beginning of any projects, then the possibility of attaining success remains always higher. On top of that, serving people at their household level makes life difference and the chance of getting sustainability in such projects remains bigger. Sometime, small scale projects if implemented very cautiously and sincerely, makes easy in the life of local community, particularly poor, women and disadvantageous group. Wildlife and Domestic Veterinary Programme in Chitwan National Park Buffer Zone could be one of such examples that have been raising locals' income and biodiversity conservation initiatives simultaneously in Chitwan.

The Wildlife and Domestic Veterinary Program (WDVP) was implemented by Royal Chitwan National Park with the technical support of the Zoological Society of London in the Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) and its Buffer Zone (BZ) between 1997 and 2001. Its aims were to address the veterinary needs of the RCNP and those of its immediate neighbors. During the project period, a total of four veterinary service centers were established in the BZ of the Royal Chitwan National Park. The WDVP provided the initial veterinary medicines, local technicians, an infrastructure; including office buildings and motorcycles, and a float of money to the local communities they served. The project evaluation report carried out in October 2002 one year after the end of the programme found that all the WDVP created VSCs were still running very smoothly. While consulting local people, it has been reported that, these services centers are in operation heretofore.

Most projects in Nepal do not continue much beyond project period. This would be the main reason why most people in Nepal believe that donor-funded projects are run for the benefit of a very few elite people ranging from the central to the local level. It is widely believed that, because of a project’s activities, the recipients’ creativity is reduced, particularly in undertaking collective actions. Unlike this, the WDVP has been serving its local communities smoothly even three years after the end of the project period. It has been found that the project’s objectives of encouraging a shift towards improved breeds of livestock, reducing grazing pressure on the Park, reducing park-people conflicts and improving the locals’ income has been achieved.

These were the main reasons why the project was a success in its endeavors: Firstly, stakeholders, particularly local users, were consulted about their needs from the very beginning. Their views were considered while hiring technicians, before the placement and during the building of the physical infrastructures of the Veterinary Service Centres (VSCs), by creating management committees, and developing a competent system for the management of the clinical service.

Secondly, the project was able to establish a strong institutional framework through coordinating various organizations that were active in the Buffer Zone of the Royal Chitwan National Park for several years. Based on their experiences, the project put emphasis on adaptive management. Realizing the need of garnering organizations’ support, the major institutions, including the King Mahendra Trust For Nature Conservation, the UNDP-supported Park and People Project later called Participatory Conservation Project, the Buffer Zone User Group, Buffer Zone User Committee and Buffer Zone Management Committee were consulted and their suggestions and comments were incorporated into the project from the early on. These partners also made various contributions to support the project and make it a success. The King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation provided some financial support for the trust fund for Bachhauli VSC, one of the four clinics. The Park and People Programme / Participatory Conservation Project - trained technicians were hired and trained as Junior Technicians of the VSCs to run clinical activities smoothly. The Bachhauli Buffer Zone Management Committee provided the VSC with some land and furniture. Similarly, the Buffer Zone Management Committee has allocated some money to support BZVSC’s technicians’ salaries. The District Veterinary Service Center, Chitwan and WDVP have jointly implemented some activities in the buffer zone. For instance, a joint initiative of the Bachhauli VSC and the District Veterinary Service Centre undertook a vaccination programme for flood victims’ livestock at Bachhauli a few years ago. The scheme has helped to develop ownership of the different actors towards the VSCs.

Furthermore, the project has been able to transfer the entire management responsibility gradually to locals. In order to make that happen, people were informed about the objectives and scope of the project from the very beginning. They were convinced that the project was for them and hence they should be involved in managing it for the benefit of them as well as the National Park. The message was articulated to the local users formally as well as informally through organizing meetings and discussions at settlement and household levels.

Additionally, from the very beginning, politicians were discouraged from becoming members of the management committees. The local user groups elected all the management committee members themselves. The management committees include social workers, women groups, local farmers and other local organizations. However, the committees would work better if provision were made to include some people owning higher numbers of improved breed livestock in the management committee. This would be one of the main ways of preventing the prevailing political problems posing any obstacle to the project.

Moreover, all the decisions made by the project management committees were made transparent to the local people from the very beginning. For instance, the committees increased the price of services and medicines on an ad hoc basis on the grounds of making their clinics sustainable. No people objected to such an unpopular decision. People were informed from the very beginning that the project was not a donation to the local community; rather it was for the benefit of the Park. The Park officials as well as project staff asked people to find alternative sources of revenue so that the project could run even after the project period. It would be the main reasons why the people appreciated and supported the scheme of raising funds by increasing the costs of medicines and the services provided. It is worth mentioning here that no alternative veterinary services, such as those provided by government and private clinicians, have suffered due to the presence of WDVP created clinics.

On top of that, the project staff members were very committed and competent in their assigned tasks. The project staff members have the capacity of establishing a good rapport with their local communities and other organizations. All the technicians were trained on-the-job, not just with college courses. The training helped to develop their confidence to perform their tasks. However, the project staff needs to be further acquainted with modern tools and techniques for the smooth running of the project.

Finally, the project has been able to change to some extent people’s negative attitudes towards the Park. The project has been providing clinical benefits at household levels as against those most of the other projects in the buffer zone are active at settlement level. The home service has created the opportunity of disseminating Park’s benefits to the local people effectively too.

To date, all the clinics are doing fine. The clinical performances are well received by the local communities. Local user groups through their representatives are managing all the clinics smoothly. It seems that all the clinics are enriched with office buildings, adequate medicines and basic laboratory facilities. All the technicians have been satisfying their clients thus far. However, except the Jagatpur technician, all other technicians’ monthly salaries have been reduced slightly, in order to sustain the programmes. This has created some dissatisfaction of the technicians towards their jobs. It was known that the money charges by VSCs for medicines and services could meet the daily administrative costs of the Service Centers. However, in order to cope with the monthly salary of the technicians and caretakers, some of the management committees have been drawing money from the principal of the saving trust account, a rather unsustainable situation. If the situation remains the same, then the saved money would last for 5 – 6 years. Then, the entire programme would collapse. Thus, managing the technician’s salary remains as the main immediate challenges for sustainability. The project provides sufficient grounds for replicating such a scheme near Nepal’s other protected areas.

Institutional linkage: An important approach to Tourism and Environment Management

Ek Raj Sigdel
NTTR

It is widely believed that, one of the prime causes of deforestation in Nepal is low level of conservation awareness amongst local people, particularly politicians. As the Local government is the representation of the political parties, integration of tourism in the local development plan provides an opportunity of disseminating the higher value of environment conservation for socio-economic development and tourism promotion amongst wider communities. Moreover, it can be hoped that the conservation value of environment would be integrated in the political parties’ manifestos.

Local governments’ programmes and activities, so far, are guided by vote-bank approach. Most of the time, programmes are formulated to achieve short term benefits. They do not have adequate interest to understand the linkage of environment with local development, by promoting sustainable tourism in their respective areas.

In view of encouraging tourists in the rural areas, the Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Programme (TRPAP) has been trying to adopt a participatory bottom up planning approach from the very beginning.
It is a joint undertaking of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, DFID, UNDP and SNV-Nepal. The programme aims at supporting government's policy of reducing poverty through promoting sustainable tourism at rural areas. In addition to lowering poverty, the programme supports the goal of environment conservation by raising awareness amongst wider stakeholders.

Most of the field programmes and activities are guided by local interest and demand. Wider stakeholders, ranging from local to policy levels are consulted while formulating and implementing its programmes and activities. The grass root programmes are designed based on the use of Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action (APPA), Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Development Wheel tools. In order to deliver the services very efficiently, community based institutions, like Community Organizations (CO), User Groups (UG), and Functional Groups (FG) are being formed and strengthened. During the last two and half years' period, the programme has been able to raise local awareness on how tourism can be promoted and sustained in rural areas. Now, people in the programme sites are eager to reap higher tourism benefits by developing and promoting diverse tourism products and packages. In this pursuant, tourism product development, packaging and marketing have been the priority programmes of TRPAP in the year 2004.



TRPAP activities are basically guided by four principles; Pro-poor, Pro-women, Pro – community and Pro – environment. The programme has been implemented in six districts and 48 VDCs of Nepal since about three years. It is hoped that the successful implementation of the TRPAP would be a prototype for sustainable tourism development in other parts of Nepal and abroad. In addition, it is believed that the existing pattern of confinement of relatively higher number of tourists in some of the protected areas, mainly Sagarmatha National Park, Annapurna Conservation Area and Langtang National Park could be dispersed in near by villages. The strategy ultimately contributes to achieving the goal of reducing rural poverty through distributing benefits in a justifiable manner in Nepal.


The programme has been implementing its activities through local governments like, District Development Committee (DDC) and Village Development Committee (VDC). In order to make the programme sustainable on institutional ground, it envisions establishing Sustainable Tourism Development Sections at DDC and VDC offices respectively. These offices shall be linked to Sustainable Tourism Development Unit of NTB, which has already been formed. In this way a linkage at micro, meso and macro level has been established. Similarly, in order to sustain the tourism activities on the financial ground, the Programme has a provision of establishing Sustainable Tourism Development Fund (STDF) and Sustainable Tourism Village Fund (STVF) at DDC and VDC levels. These funds shall be provided to locals for infrastructure support, undertaking micro enterprises and other capacity enhancement activities. Moreover, in order to strengthen rural tourism, the TRPAP has been supporting the government to prepare pro-poor tourism policy, and National Tourism Strategy.

In order to implement integrated sustainable tourism development programme at grass roots level, with the financial and technical support from TRPAP, Rasuwa, Dolpa and Taplejung have already prepared District Tourism Management Plans. Preparation of the District Tourism Plan for Chitwan and Rupandehi is underway. Having tourism plans at place, the local government would be able to create an amiable environment for raising local awareness towards higher value of sustainable tourism management in their areas.


Thus, TRPAP approach of implementing its activities through local government would create opportunity of integrating environment concern at district and village development plans. The strategy ultimately helps to raise the conservation awareness amongst grass root communities. Finally, this strategy would be one of the viable strategies towards achieving sustainable environment management in Nepal. Thus, the approach of TRPAP working through local government would bring a hope that people can begin environment friendly activities at local level on their own initiatives in the days ahead. The approach ultimately helps to disseminate the importance of environment conservation to wider communities.

Phortse Village - Community led Initiatives Brings Desired Results

Ek Raj Sigdel

Published in NTTR

Phortse village has been considered as a relatively backward settlement in Khumbu region. It is situated about 4-hour walking distance towards north-east from the Park Head Quarter in Namche. The area is endowed with rich floral, faunal and cultural diversity. The settlement is encircled by birch; rhododendron and junipor forests. While walking around the settlement, one can see closely the globally endangered wildlife species, especially in dusk and dawn, like musk deer and pheasants. Local communities are of homogenous, enthusiastic and active. There are 80 households, with 370 populations.

Although, the Sagarmatha National Park, a world heritage site receives a considerable number of tourists every year, the settlement, situated relatively far from the main trekking trail is yet to realize tourism benefits. Therefore, with the aim of diverting some of the tourism benefits to this village, Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Programme (TRPAP) / UNDP have supported the local communities with an integrated program since 2003. One of the objectives of the TRPAP / UNDP was to promote Phortse, as a model ecotourism village in Sagarmatha National Park.

A wide range of community development activities, including, infrastructure development, training, Tourism and Environment Awareness Programme (TEAPs), women development, and natural resources conservation has been implemented in this village. The infrastructure development activities, include recently completed 60 Kw micro-hydro project, drainage, drinking water, Chorten maintenance, and trail improvement. Similarly, in the capacity enhancement front, the local communities have got training on hotel and lodge management, front office management, ecotourism and biodiversity conservation, eco-tour guides and cookery and bakery. As part of the TEAPs, local communities have put rubbish bins and sign boards here and there at the village. Local communities were also taken to Royal Chitwan National Park, Annapurna Conservation Area and Lumbini as exposure visit.

Because of these activities, the local community has realized various positive changes in their socio-economic, cultural, and environmental settings. According to them, after having drinking water facility in their own village last year, their lifestyle has been changed greatly. For instance, prior to establishment of the drinking water scheme, local people, especially women had to spend about one hour for fetching a pot of water. However, after having the potable water in their own village, they can fetch the same amount of water within 10 minutes. As said by the local communities, the time saved from the drinking water has been utilized to agricultural development activities. Because of this, local communities were able to harvest increased quantity of potato this year, compared to the last year. Similarly, people are becoming more conscious towards health and sanitation these days.

Likewise, after having electricity at their settlement a few months back, the villagers have witnessed higher number of tourists in this season as against the same season last year. According to the local communities, it is estimated that the number of tourists increased by more than 30% this year compared to the last year. Numbers of wildlife based tourists have also increased more or less in the same proportion. In addition, because of having electricity, school children are encouraged to spare more time in studying at night. According to a teacher at Phortse School, these days they are checking more homework compared to the days before having electricity at Phortse Village.

In response to the impact of the various training programmes, local people said that the trainings, received by them over the years have contributed to empower them greatly. According to Mrs. Pashang Diki Sherpa, until two years ago they had a fear of talking with outsider (Rongba), however these days they do not hesitate to talk with Rongba. She further added, the women participation in various local development works has increased gradually. Now a day, women are also involved in a regular clean up campaign of the village. There are some cases where the direct impact of training could also be observed. For instance, two local youths, after receiving 8-week long basic and advanced electricity training in Kathmandu, have been engaged in managing electricity in their own village. Each of them is receiving Rs. 8,500 from the electricity work. According to locals, they have a confident that they have qualified local technicians in their own village and hence do not need to rely on outsider technicians.

One can notice some changes in local environment as well. These days, local youths at Phortse are organized in eco-clubs. Through eco-clubs, they have been initiating various environmental activities. They have placed sign boards at various places in their village, describing the higher conservation value of wildlife species, especially musk deer. In addition, with the initiation of local clubs, the villagers undertake a regular village cleans up campaign. They have placed rubbish bins here and there. It was reported that the dependency of locals on forests for firewood has decreased considerably, especially after having electricity at their village. Though the National Park opened its forests to locals for firewood for a period of 15 days, very few people have shown interest to gather firewood this year, said buffer zone user group chairperson, Mr. Ang Chhiring Sherpa. According to locals, the relation between national park and local communities has further improved, because of electricity and other development activities in their village.

While asking the underlying causes for getting success in implementing various activities and bringing a positive impact on the lifestyle of local people and their environment, the local community said: the main cause was increasing people participation towards development work in their village. As said by Mr. Chhring Sherpa, Buffer Zone User Group Chairperson, TRPAP’s strategy of releasing budget in a transparent manner has helped to establish a good rapport between local leader and local communities. Easy approachable and friendly project staff member was another reason for leading development work towards a success. Timely availability of overseer was another cause for timely completion of development work in their village. Moreover, creation of environment for involving local communities in project planning to implementation to monitoring cycle was another reason for extending community supports for the various development activities.

In conclusion, TRPAP has got a tremendous success in its stated objectives of increasing tourists' number at off the main trekking trail in Khumbu region within a short span. Because of this, the avenue for increasing local employment and income generation opportunities ha been increased. In can be learned from the Phortse that development programme in Nepal should be planned and implemented based on the locally available resources, including human and natural capital and supporting local initiatives.

Millennium Trek Awaiting Tourists

Ek Raj Sigdel

The Rising Nepal
September 2, 2008

Introduction
On the first day of New Millennium 2000, the government of Nepal commissioned a team of expert to carry out a feasibility study of a trekking route extending from Dhorphirdi of Tanahun to Majkot of Syangja for tourism development. According to the study, the route was feasible for trekking tourism. Following the study recommendation, some ground works for tourism promotion and human resources development have already been initiated. However, as in the other parts of the country, the route also got into a trap of insurgency and shadowed from the mainstream tourism development activities in the ensuing years.

Trekking Trail Features
The 80 Km trek starts from Dulegaunda, which is located some 30 Km east of Pokhara and passes through a multitude of different environmental features, including boulder-stream, river gorges, dense vegetation, beautifully carved terraced fields, myriad of pinnacles and ancient temples. The five days and six nights long trekking Route starts from Bajasthala of Tanahun and ends at Majkot of Syangja. The route passes through nine village development committees, including a population of about 1, 00,000. The trekking route links Dhorphirdi, Firfire and Raipur in Tanahun and Kolma Barahchaur, Rangbhang, Pelkachaur, Banethok Deurali, Majhkot Shivalaya and Manakamana VDCs in Syangja. Every village in the route offers tourists with distinct cultural experiences, which attributes to the uniqueness of the trekking route.

Attraction
The trekking route is a superb combination of natural and cultural attraction. Visitors can have the opportunity of viewing Ganesh Himal towards the north and terai region towards the south. Budakot is the highest point on the route that is located at 7,000 feet from the sea level and locals say that Bhimsen tower of Kathmandu could be seen from the peak on a day with clear weather. Millennium cave, natural greenery, Bajasthala River, water falls are other natural attraction of the route. The trek gives an opportunity to become acquainted with the unique Nepalese tradition, culture and way of life. In addition, tourists can join traditional dances like Chutka, Koara, Soradhi, Krishan Charitra, Ghantu and Bhajans along the route. Dhorbahari temple, Tibetan refugee camp, ancient palaces like Majh Fort, Kolma Fort and Budha Fort are other major cultural and historical attraction of the route.

Culture Based Tourism
Tourists can have a chance of experiencing local culture and traditional way of life. They will have chance of enjoying local dishes, which are totally organic and locally produced. The cultural program, including traditional dance and songs can be organized in every stopover. According to the locals no tourist-standard restaurants or hotels would be allowed to operate along the route. The visitors can be accommodated in different households as home-stay tourists in a rotational basis. The lodging of tourists would be decided by a committee constituted in each of the villages on a rotation basis so that each household will have chance to receive tourism income. In this way, the route has a tremendous potential in contributing to rural income through tourism promotion, which is also the main objective of the 10th five year development plan of the government of Nepal. The present government has also emphasized on the pro-poor tourism to be promoted in rural areas of the country.

Promotional Activities
With the objective of promoting community based pro-poor tourism, a tourism management committee has already been formed called Dhorphirdi - Majhkot Rural Tourism Development Committee (DMRTDC). Some local youths from six VDCs of Syangja district have already got training on conversational English, sanitation, and cooking. A few years back, a three-day tourism festival was also organised near the Phewa Lake at Pokhara. Some houses along the trekking routes have already constructed bathrooms, toilets and additional kitchens for the tourists.

According to DMRTDC chairperson, “tourists shall be treated as family and shall be free to join any household activities like cooking, cow milking, weaving, farming, cattle herding etc”. He adds that the visitors shall be welcomed at a community hall with welcome drink, garland and local musical band. In addition, tourists can have chance to learn about the local schools, farming practices, and cuisine. For adventurous tourists there are very good sites for paragliding as well, which needs to be further explored. The Millennium cave and waterfall are other attraction of the route.

Issues
The route is in the need of promotional as well as infrastructure development support. The route could not be functional as par the expected level due to inadequate promotion and publicity. Similarly, implementation of tourism environment awareness program at local and national level is felt necessary. Likewise, it is important to produce promotional brochure, erecting hoarding board in strategic locations and carrying out workshops and seminars. The promotional activities are to be carried out in consultation with Pokhara based tourism entrepreneurs and Nepal Tourism Board. Moreover, it is wise to carry out again a small study focusing private sectors, community groups, Nepal Tourism Board on the feasibility of promoting tourism in the route in the changing political context.

The route still needs to construct basic infrastructure facilities, like suspension bridges, cultural buildings, sightseeing centres, cultural houses, improvement of trails, and conservation of cultural heritage, basic health services, and related trainings for the sustainable development of tourism along the route. Likewise, in partnership with local NGOs, VDC and DDC the basic infrastructure facilities should be developed.

Conclusion
A sound policy for promoting the area as rural tourism site is of paramount importance. With innovative management, promotion and marketing strategies, the Millennium Trek will offer not only income and employment to the villagers, but also gives a real image of Nepal to those tourists who are prepared visit Nepal for trekking. Mainstreaming of the Millennium Trekking development and promotional activities in the District Tourism Development Plan, which is under preparation could be a first step in this regard.

Promotion of Tourism in Millennium Trekking Route

A Proposal Prepared
for
Promotion of Tourism in Millennium Trekking Route

Ek Raj Sigdel


Introduction
On the first day of New Millennium 2000, the government of Nepal commissioned a team of expert to carry out a feasibility study of a trekking route extending from Dhorphirdi of Tanahun to Majkot of Syangja for tourism development. According to the study, the route was feasible for trekking tourism. Following the study recommendation, some ground works for tourism promotion and human resources development have already been initiated. However, as in the other parts of the country, the route also got into a trap of insurgency and shadowed from the mainstream tourism development activities in the ensuing years.

Trekking Trail Features
The 80 Km trek starts from Dulegaunda, which is located some 30 Km east of Pokhara and passes through a multitude of different environmental features, including boulder-stream, river gorges, dense vegetation, beautifully carved terraced fields, myriad of pinnacles and ancient temples. The five days and six nights long trekking Route starts from Bajasthala of Tanahun and ends at Majkot of Syangja. The route passes through nine village development committees, including a population of about 1, 00,000. The trekking route links Dhorphirdi, Firfire and Raipur in Tanahun and Kolma Barahchaur, Rangbhang, Pelkachaur, Banethok Deurali, Majhkot Shivalaya and Manakamana VDCs in Syangja. Every village in the route offers tourists with distinct cultural experiences, which attributes to the uniqueness of the trekking route.

Attraction
The trekking route is a superb combination of natural and cultural attraction. Visitors can have the opportunity of viewing Ganesh Himal towards the north and terai region towards the south. Budakot is the highest point on the route that is located at 7,000 feet from the sea level and locals say that Bhimsen tower of Kathmandu could be seen from the peak on a day with clear weather. Millennium cave, natural greenery, Bajasthala River, water falls are other natural attraction of the route. The trek gives an opportunity to become acquainted with the unique Nepalese tradition, culture and way of life. In addition, tourists can join traditional dances like Chutka, Koara, Soradhi, Krishan Charitra, Ghantu and Bhajans along the route. Dhorbahari temple, Tibetan refugee camp, ancient palaces like Majh Fort, Kolma Fort and Budha Fort are other major cultural and historical attraction of the route.

Culture Based Tourism
Tourists can have a chance of experiencing local culture and traditional way of life. They will have chance of enjoying local dishes, which are totally organic and locally produced. The cultural program, including traditional dance and songs can be organized in every stopover. According to the locals no tourist-standard restaurants or hotels would be allowed to operate along the route. The visitors can be accommodated in different households as home-stay tourists in a rotational basis. The lodging of tourists would be decided by a committee constituted in each of the villages on a rotation basis so that each household will have chance to receive tourism income. In this way, the route has a tremendous potential in contributing to rural income through tourism promotion, which is also the main objective of the 10th five year development plan of the government of Nepal. The present government has also emphasized on the pro-poor tourism to be promoted in rural areas of the country.

Promotional Activities
With the objective of promoting community based pro-poor tourism, a tourism management committee has already been formed called Dhorphirdi - Majhkot Rural Tourism Development Committee (DMRTDC). Some local youths from six VDCs of Syangja district have already got training on conversational English, sanitation, and cooking. A few years back, a three-day tourism festival was also organised near the Phewa Lake at Pokhara. Some houses along the trekking routes have already constructed bathrooms, toilets and additional kitchens for the tourists.

According to DMRTDC chairperson, “tourists shall be treated as family and shall be free to join any household activities like cooking, cow milking, weaving, farming, cattle herding etc”. He adds that the visitors shall be welcomed at a community hall with welcome drink, garland and local musical band. In addition, tourists can have chance to learn about the local schools, farming practices, and cuisine. For adventurous tourists there are very good sites for paragliding as well, which needs to be further explored. The Millennium cave and waterfall are other attraction of the route.

Issues
The route is in the need of promotional as well as infrastructure development support. The route could not be functional as par the expected level due to inadequate promotion and publicity. Similarly, implementation of tourism environment awareness program at local and national level is felt necessary. Likewise, it is important to produce promotional brochure, erecting hoarding board in strategic locations and carrying out workshops and seminars. The promotional activities are to be carried out in consultation with Pokhara based tourism entrepreneurs and Nepal Tourism Board. Moreover, it is wise to carry out again a small study focusing private sectors, community groups, Nepal Tourism Board on the feasibility of promoting tourism in the route in the changing political context.

The route still needs to construct basic infrastructure facilities, like suspension bridges, cultural buildings, sightseeing centres, cultural houses, improvement of trails, and conservation of cultural heritage, basic health services, and related trainings for the sustainable development of tourism along the route. Likewise, in partnership with local NGOs, VDC and DDC the basic infrastructure facilities should be developed.

Objectives
To increase the income and employment opportunities of local communities and safeguard the rich biodiversity resources that falls under the Millennium Route

Strategies
Promotional activities at national and international level shall be undertaken. In this regard, as an entry point, some basic promotional activities like hoarding and arrow boards shall be erected in strategic places. Similarly, a promotional brochure shall be produced and shared with wider communities. The work will be carried out by Dhoreli Samaj, a NGO dedicated for the development of local communities in Millennium Trekking route. While implementing the activities, a working a strong working relationship shall be maintained with the concern VDCs and DDC and initiation will be taken for integrating the trek in Tourism Plan of Tanahun District, which is under preparation. The DMRTDC will also be informed and sensitised.

Expected Outcomes
The activities will be a milestone for sensitising local communities, local authority, civil society, private sectors and government line agencies on the need of promotion of Millennium Trekking route for the benefit of local communities and biodiversity and cultural resources conservation of the area.

Activities
A total of three activities are proposed. All the activities will be carried out by two months period effective from the agreement signed date. After completion of the work, financial and technical reports shall be submitted to the donors.

Erection of hoarding boards

Erection of Arrow boards
Production of brochure
Production of video documentary

Interaction with private sector about the tourism promotion strategy in the changing political scenario

Budgets: A total of Rs. 200000 is proposed to carry out the aforementioned activities.

Home stay tourism for poverty alleviation through cultural conservation

Ek Raj Sigdel

Home stay tourism is becoming very famous all around the world. Some people believe that the home stay scheme can address the issues of poverty. However, other, especially who pay more attention towards the income poverty argue that the home stay tourism can not help lowering poverty. I believe that, the home stay tourism can support empowering local communities through preserving their majestic culture, which is considered as one of the major components of the economy. In addition, the positive impact – indirect and induced – of home stay tourism can be seen in the income of rural poor.

The home stay program educates visitors to the local culture, wisdom and traditional way of life. The culture includes religion, vibrant customs, weaving, games, musical instruments, dress, architecture, picking fruits in the orchard and involving in farming etc. Similarly, the wisdom includes the local history, fables and knowledge on traditional herbal medicines and other indigenous resource management system. Home stay program is for those who wish to gain a greater understanding of each others customs, culture and way of thinking through involving and experiencing the daily lives of local people. It creates an opportunity to aware tourists on socio-economic and cultural issues of the destination sites. Thus, the strategy ultimately supports for conservation of the destination culture, which has been considered as one of the major components of the local economy (HMG, 2004) .

The home stay tourism does not seek to address the question; "how can communities benefit more from tourism, it seeks instead how tourism can contribute to the process of cultural conservation?" (Suansri 2003). Promoting community pride and preserving the unique character and culture of the local area should be the prime objective of home stay programme. Home stay is a special package, where one can have the opportunity to stay with farmers and gain the experience pertaining to farmers' and villagers' unique daily activities such as exploring village, participating in different farm activities, witnessing farming practice etc. In addition, tourists have an opportunity of enjoying the warm hospitality of the host family and be a part of the household members by joining them in their daily activities. It allows tourists to discover the origins of village and rich history it holds.

Home stay may not impact directly to the poor but indirect and induced impact can be expected. Home stay features, generally require a home with, at least one extra room, bedding, pillow, mosquito net, laundry service, a desk for study, desk lamp, safe heater in their room, etc. Proper sanitation, hospitality and hygiene are important components of home stay tourism, which we can not hope from the poor family, at least for a short run in Khumbu region. It is widely reported that the higher benefit of home stay tourism in Sirubari Village has been reaped by the well-to-do families. The programme has been initiated by British Gurkha Families, having unusual level of prosperity, education and English language (Choegyal 2002).

In addition, home stay programme should be considered as an incremental income and livelihood opportunity from the incremental activity to the local community. Pro Poor Tourism strategies often involve the development of new products, particularly based on local culture, but these should be integrated with the mainstream products if they are to find markets (ODI 2001). Trekking could be the mainstream product in the case of Sagarmatha National Park. Transforming home stay households towards lodges and hotels could not serve the purpose of conserving local culture. Home stay gives consumers more choice and authentic cultural experience, than lodge and hotels. We should think over the fact that the Pro Poor Tourism is a long term investment (ODI 2001). Therefore expectation of locals should not be raised considerably.

Home stay is a delicate social and cultural issue for the community. It requires a change of perspective from generously offering accommodation to unexpected guests or relatives to suddenly requesting a fee for service. Social and cultural relationships, cultures of hospitality, can become degraded and economically oriented. For this reason it is necessary to weigh the pros and cons before developing a home stay as an accommodation option (Suansri 2003).

Income poverty, which we are paying more emphasize has been considered as the only one component of poverty issues in Nepal (NPC 2004). According to the 10th Five Year Plan, poverty is a complex and multi – dimensional phenomenon; and income poverty is only one aspect of it. Human poverty is one of the important dimensions of poverty issue. It is therefore essential that efforts contributing to human poverty reduction be geared concomitantly with reducing income poverty. The Economic Survey 2004, identifies empowerment as one of the four pillars of human development. Thus, poverty alleviation can be possible by duly addressing the empowerment issue. Similarly, developing cultural capability is prerequisite for empowering the local communities (HMG, 2004). Thus, it can be inferred that addressing cultural aspect could directly address the poverty agenda in Nepal.

A home stay should not focus merely on providing accommodation for profit while ignoring cultural exchange and respect for the hosts culture. Generosity and hospitality should be emphasized above providing 5 stars service. To do otherwise would devalue the host at the expense of the guest (Suansri 2003. Often only wealthier households have a chance to provide accommodation and will collect benefits for themselves, except in the case that there are rules ensuring part of the profits contributed to community projects.

In order to promote the home stay tourism, it is important to educate the local communities that the scheme is not equivalent to the other lodges and hotels. They should be educated about the higher value of their way of life, dress and architecture, tradition knowledge and wisdom. Poor people can be mainstreamed in the home stay tourism activities by being tourists guide, community guide, community resource person and supporting accommodation and food etc.

In conclusion home stay tourism could be developed as an instrument to preserve the local culture in a long run in the Khumbu Region. Conservation of local culture, one of the essential components of local economy, supports for lowering the poverty issues in Nepal. However, caution should be taken towards not raising the expectation of local communities. Communities should be informed that the home stay programme, in addition to contributing local income, supports for conserving their magnificent culture. Community should understand that the home stay tourism is not the hotel or lodge type of accommodation but flourish on the traditional way of life.


References
Choegyal L 2002: Ecotour Products, Their Distribution and Sales Promotion, Paper presented at International Ecotourism Conference, Okinawa
HMG, 2004: Economic Survey Fiscal Year 2003 / 2004.
NPC, 2004: Poverty Monitoring and Analysis System, Framework Document
ODI, 2001: Pro – Poor Tourism Strategies: Expanding Opportunities for the Poor; Pro-poor tourism briefing No 1. April 2001
Suansri P. 2003: Community Based Tourism Handbook, Responsible Ecological Social Tours Project

Electric fencing: new hope for minimizing park people conflict in Bardia National Park

Ek Raj Sigdel

With the objectives of protecting representative ecosystems and conserving tiger and its prey base, the government of Nepal established the Bardia National Park in 1984. The park harbors a herd of 50-60 wild elephants regularly. However, during the winter season it refuges over 100 wild elephants. The increased number could be due to seasonal migration of Wild Elephants from Corbett, Rajaji and adjoining Dudhuwa National Park of India.

With the increasing number of wild elephants, people abut to the national park are facing a problem of crop damage and even human casualties. According to the National Park record, over the last one year a total of 7 people were killed by the wild elephants around the Bardia National Park. In the absence of wild life compensation mechanism and lack of effective devices for chasing away of the problem animals, people in the buffer zone have been suffered a most. Various indigenous technologies like watch tower, ditches, walls, and solar fencing have been tested. But, no devices were found effective to get rid of the problem of the seasonal migrants.
Because of the escalating problems of wild elephants, people in the buffer zone have ventilated their dissatisfaction over the national park by organizing rally, and making delegation to the national park authority and at the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation. They have a demand of policy that mandates at least one million rupees as compensation for a bereaved family. Likewise, they had a demand of free treatment for the wildlife victims and income and employment opportunities for the survival. In addition, they demanded electric fencing on the border between the national park and its buffer zone.

In response, as an immediate measure, the National Park, with the financial support of Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) has recently erected a two lined electric fence in some parts of the border area between the national park and buffer zone that extends about 10 km. It is estimated that the electric fence will benefits to a total of 1730 households, including 11081 people of Ward No 5 of Thakurdwara and Ward No 2 of Shivapur VDC.

Electric fencing could be one way of managing problem animals in order to reduce conflict between people and animals. Other ways may be just as effective, for example, physical barriers which were in practice such as ditches and walls, and solar fencing which have had limited success but they were not easy to construct and were costly too. Compensation payments could be made but were difficult to assess and tend to be unfair and sometimes abused. Electric fencing as a practical solution is working well in the private sector in African Countries. However, its use under public land has yet to be fully demonstrated. Therefore if it works well in the Bardia National Park, then it would be a model for the entire wild elephant conflict prone protected areas.

The fence has been constructed following a very simple technology and hence any one having interest in the electricity can manage the machine very properly. Being established close to the park head quarter and adjacent to the buffer zone settlements; regular monitoring can be ensured by the Park Officials as well as buffer zone communities. As the construction involved clearing of bushes, it has worked as a fire line between jungle and the settlements. Further, as it was to respond the community need, it is likely that the parogramme would get a continuous support and cooperation from the buffer zone communities and hence it leads towards a success. According to the local people, they will not face the problem of wild elephants in the future as in the previous days.

While observing the fencing and interacting with local communities, it was realized that to some people the fences has represented a physical and psychological barrier to their use of resources behind the fence. To others they represent a solution to the conflict between people and wild elephants. In fact, the fencing projects must have reconciled these differing views if they were to be successful.

Maintenance is the number one problem with any type of wildlife fencing. A fence is only as good as its maintenance, which has to be continual. Vigorous growth of vegetation underneath of the fence line in the growing season could be a perennial problem. Vegetation contact causes power leakages and overgrowth conceals the fence from being an obvious barrier to elephants.

To ensure a long term management of the electric fencing, local communities need to be well aware on its objectives. Also, school children who play around the fences should be informed on the importance of the fencing timely. In this regard, the park authority in partnership with the buffer zone community should conduct awareness raising campaign on the importance of managing the electric fencing. Moreover, in consultation with the park impacted communities, the buffer zone management committee should be mobilized to prepare a fencing maintenance plan. The plan should include details about daily maintenance, tools and components required, clearing of underneath vegetations, role and responsibilities of stakeholders, and sustainable financing mechanism. It can be hoped that, if the project get success, then the new hope can be expected for resolving ongoing park and people conflicts in the near future in the Bardia National Park.

In conclusion, the electric fencing is a milestone activity of the Bardia National Park to respond the buffer zone communities' demand. If the strength and opportunities of the fencing are up scaled and weaknesses are minimized timely, then the project, no doubt will be one of the successful programs in protected landscape that help minimizing park people conflicts. Ultimately, it provides an opportunity for replicating similar kind of project in other parts of the wild elephant people conflict prone areas.

Sustainable Tourism development: Opportunity for conserving mountain environment and contributing to poverty alleviation in Nepal

Ek Raj Sigdel
Programme Officer, TRPAP

Having immense natural and cultural value, Nepal’s Mountain can be termed as the ‘Land of Paradise’ for tourists, trekkers and expeditionary. Fragile mountain environment and subsistence agriculture are causing to the degradation of the mountain ecosystem. The consequences are aggrandizing the poverty situation in the mountain regions. In order to address these diverse issues, development of sustainable tourism base would be the only viable option for the long term conservation of environment and thereby contributing to betterment of the mountain communities.

The mountain environment of Nepal, by virtue of their inaccessible nature, has narrow scope for modern development in a cost effective way. Subsistence agriculture and livestock are the main economic source of mountain people. Migratory works elsewhere in Nepal and India is the complementary source of income to these people. The economic condition of the majorities of people in mountain is marginal. Likewise, the agriculture land is limited by the steep topography.

Including the Mt. Everest, Nepal houses eight of the world’s fourteen highest mountains. The country has 79% of its area under mountainous topography. Similarly, out of 118 Nepal’s ecosystems, 38 are in Mountain region. The mountain region is the meeting point of the major geographical realms of the world – the palaearctic and Indo-Malayan.

The series of the mighty Himalayan ranges separated by some of the deepest gorges are the striking attractions for tourists. While trekking in Nepal, one can see the fantastic snow capped peaks along with the beautiful lakes and smiled faced people. Unique flora and fauna are other potential tourist attractions in the mountain environment. Moreover, traditional village, historical sites, culture and architecture of local people deserve special attractions for tourists.

Realizing the higher tourism value, the government of Nepal opened its border for foreigners in 1950s. Since then, the flow of tourists has been in an increasing trend. No doubt, the growing tourist number has contributed a lot to local and national economy of Nepal. For instance, the people in Khumbu, Annapurna Conservation Area and Langtang National Park and adjoining areas has been enjoying significant tourism benefits for many years. It has been reported that, because of well-managed tourism, once declined cultural value of Sagarmatha region has been revived through local initiatives. Monasteries Management Committees, Youth Group, and Youth Club are actively engaged in conserving cultural and natural heritage in this region. Because of the concerted efforts, the environment of Sagarmatha National Park seems to be improving for the last few years.

Yet against this backdrop, concentration of tourism pressure in limited mountain areas has been posing various challenges. Every year hundreds of tons of firewood are used for cooking and camp-fire. Signs of massive deforestation in some of the trekking sites of Nepal are evident. The destruction of scant vegetation in the alpine regions of Nepal also leads to frequent mudslides, landslides, creep and rock falls as well as silting of the river. The country is experiencing severe inequalities of wealth, low living standards, high unemployment, uneven economic dev elopement, as well as heavy dependence on foreign investment and foreign aid. Some high altitude plant species, such as Abies spectabillis, Tsuga dumosa and Rhododendron nivala, are under intense economic pressure aggravated by the tourist pressure. If the present trend continuous, the degradation of the mountain environment may cause irreversible damage to the mountain fragile ecosystem and lifestyle of the people.

Recognizing the higher conservation value of mountain ecosystems, His Majesty's Government of Nepal has established 7 Protected Areas (PAs) all along the border of the China, covering 78.54% of total PAs in Nepal. These PAs represent 30 of the 38 ecosystems of the highland. Though, it is relatively less diverse in flora and fauna, they possess a significant number of endemic species. Mountain, endowed with the rich biodiversity, provides an excellent source of revenue for His Majesty’s Government of Nepal through eco-tourism management. The most important regions for mountain tourism in Nepal are Annapurna, Khumbu, Sagrmatha and Langtang-Helambu. The three regions, namely Sagarmatha, Langtang and Annapurna Conservation Area combined accounts around 95% of all mountain trekking permits issues and the remaining 5% of trekkers visit Rara National Park, Dolpo, Humla, Makalu and Kanchanjunga. Similarly, about 43% of all international leisure arrivals in Nepal go for trekking.

The relationship between tourism and environment is one of a delicate balance between sustainable community development and safeguarding the environment. Tourism where it has been allowed to run free, has really caused more disaster to the natural beauty of the surroundings, destroyed traditional value system, greatly helped accelerating the deforestation and has not really helped population in true, rather it has exploited unmercifully.

To maximize the tourism benefit to the Mountain people and environment, the government should undertake various activities in a planned way. Firstly, locals should be trained on lodge management, tour guide and interpretation skills. Secondly, in order to develop appropriate tourism facilities and services, a credit facility for local entrepreneurs should be in place. Most importantly, locals should be aware on the importance of maintaining the village architecture, traditions, and wildlife management. Finally, trans-boundary tourism across the trans-border areas, such as Nagpa-la, and Chhentang - Kimathanka should be promoted.

The efforts of HMG of Nepal in establishing the National Parks and Wildlife Reserves in the country are the very appropriate strategy towards developing sustainable tourism in Nepal. Integrated mountain environment conservation, community development and tourism promotion is the only option for the betterment of people. It warrants the immediate need of formulating Integrated National Tourism Master Plan and a separate Mountain Development Policy.

Cooperative: emerging tool for linking conservation and livelihood

Ek Raj Sigdel

Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) has been in implementation in the Far and Mid Western Terai of Nepal since January 2006. It aims at conservation and sustainable use of globally significant biodiversity of these regions. The project was a joint undertaking of the government of Nepal, UNDP, GEF, SNV, Bioversity International, NARC and LIBIRD. To achieve the goal, the project has adopted two pronged strategies, I) increase productivity of the natural resources base, including maintenance of biodiversity resources and ii) ward off the pressure of local communities on the nearby forest resources for their subsistence need.

Pressure of the locals could be diverted only when they were provided with a viable source of alternative income and employment generation opportunities. Realizing the fact, WTLCP has been supporting the forest dependent community with the scheme of soft loan as seed money to undertake various income and employment generation activities through local forest user group and committees. As these community forests based organizations had experiences mainly in conserving forest resources, their engagement in alternative income generation activities was not found satisfactory at par the expected level. Therefore, a separate community based institutions that facilitate distributing and recycling of the soft loan on the one hand and on the other help to garner community support in conservation through raising their income was felt necessary. With this, WTLCP has initiated establishing and strengthening at least one cooperative in its each working Village Development Committee (VDC).

So far, a total of two cooperative have been established in the WTLCP productive landscape. Initiation of establishing cooperative was taken from Baisebichuwa VDC of Kanchanpur district. In this regard, at the outset, a gathering of villagers was organized and sensitized them on the objectives of a cooperative. Then, after a long deliberation, all the people were reached in a consensus of establishing a cooperative in their VDC. Also, they were agreed upon encompassing the representatives of local forest user groups and committees in the cooperative. Moreover, they were convinced on distributing WTLCP supported money solely to the poorest of the poor community as soft loan. With this objective, a cooperative was established at ward number 8 of Baisebichuwa, Kanchanpur and registered in the Kanchanpur District Cooperative Office in April 2007.

Within a span of six months, the number of shareholders reached over 700 households. The women lead cooperative executive committee members comprises of 11 people, representing 5 women and 6 men. It also includes 6 indigenous communities and 1 dalit in the executive committee. Before and immediately after formation of the cooperative, the executive committee members underwent training on cooperative management. A study tour was also organized for them to Dodhara and Chadani VDCs of Kanchanpur where a successfully managed cooperative was in operation. In addition, a micro fund mobilization guideline was prepared and handed over them for facilitating their daily saving and credit work.

To ensure the access of WTLCP benefits to the poorest of the poor communities, WTLCP has been adopting a positive discrimination approach from the very beginning of its implementation stage. In this front, poorest of the poor communities were identified by adopting a participatory well being ranking exercise. After identification of the target groups, 9-day training on entrepreneurship development was conducted for the poorest of the poor communities. Then as per the requirement, the trainees were provided with seed money to carry out various incomes generation activities through the cooperative.

To ensure access of the loan for the WTLCP's target communities, the cooperative has made a provision of 8% interest rate for WTLCP trained communities as against the others who receive the loan on 12% interest rate. In addition, those who are entitled to receive seed money from WTLCP can pay back the loan within 24 months while others had to pay the loan within a six months period. So far, 65 households have received the loan from WTLCP through the cooperative in Baisebichuwa. The loan has been utilized in various income generation activities, including goat farming, buffalo farming, pig farming, poultry farming, vegetable farming, establishing retail shops, purchasing sewing machines, investing in lather shoe making, running vegetable and hair cutting business, among others.

According to Ms. Prem Lata Gautam, chairperson of the Cooperative, the community based organization is running very successfully thus far. It has a very good linkage with district cooperative office and receiving technical support from all the quarters. She added that the organization has been evolved as a mile stone institution for reducing poverty as well as contributing to biodiversity conservation in Baisebichuwa VDC. She informed that large pie of money which was floated in different local organizations is also gradually streamlined in the cooperative. It has evolved as a platform where people gather regularly and discuss on the wide range of issues, including conservation and development work in the village, she added.

Mr. Chnadra Bahadur Bhandari, a local man, recently received a loan of Rs. 2500 to upscale his mobile pushcart shop. He has successfully run the business in Baisebichuwa and has been able to reap a net benefit of Rs. 7000 - 8000 per month and has been able to continue schooling for his three daughters. He is confident with his business and says, "I don’t need to go to the jungle for firewood now". But, except a few, other trainees were not confident to run their business citing to the problem of lacking adequate skills and money to become a shareholder of the cooperative.

In conclusion, the cooperative has been emerged as an effective tool for linking biodiversity conservation criteria with livelihood opportunities in WTLCP intervention areas. As it warrants frequent meetings of its shareholders, institutionalization of saving and credit mechanisms, it could be a strong social mobilization tool, which is necessary for integrated conservation and development work in the WTLCP working areas. As a follow up, to ensure the participation of the poorest of the poor communities in conservation work, the interested trainee should undergo a follow up skill enhancement training and find out the mechanism to ensure their participation in the cooperative as a shareholder.

Beyond boundaries:The landscape approach to biodiversity conservation

Ek Raj Sigdel
NTTR, April, 2007

Nepal has experienced various biodiversity conservation models over the last 30 years. Since the 2000s, the country has been testing a landscape level approach to biodiversity conservation. Some people argue that the landscape approach requires the establishment of more protected areas, while others believe that the approach neither demands additional protected areas nor excludes people from being mainstreamed in conservation. In fact, Nepal is adopting a participatory integrated ecosystem management approach, which espouses peoples' participation in conservation and sustainable use of biological resources.

Nepal has put a lot of effort to conserve its rich biological resources after the promulgation of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973. As per national and international commitments, Nepal has designated over 19% of its relatively small land mass as protected areas. Initially the management emphasis was given exclusively to conserving biodiversity resources in which local people were not included. There is no doubt that within a short span of time, the country succeeded in witnessing a growing number of the, once declining, wildlife, like the rhinoceros and the tiger in the Terai protected areas.

However, given the human and financial resource needs, the remarkable success resulting from a strict conservation policy could not sustain in the long run. Realizing the need of involving local communities in protected area management, the government introduced the concepts of conservation areas and buffer zones. In addition, provision for sharing protected area revenue with local communities was also made. As a result, the number of wildlife species in protected areas has been on the raise.

Based on the studies carried out by various researchers, particularly in the lowland Terai; it has been found that none of the protected area, is capable of sustaining a viable population of mega fauna, such as the tiger, rhino and elephant, on their own. Additionally, not all the ecosystems, flora and fauna of Nepal are represented in the existing protected area system. Because of the ever increasing population, poverty and local communities' dependency on forest resources for subsistence, the forests outside the protected areas are degraded and fragmented. Because of this rampant deforestation outside protected areas and the prevailing uncontrolled poaching activities, the survival of many migratory animals has emerged as a big question mark.

Given this backdrop, a new conservation modality, which can address the basic needs of local people and restore and maintain biodiversity in protected as well as productive lands is the need of the hour. Accordingly, policies and programme are being formulated and implemented in this direction. Nepal's Tenth Five Year development plan recognizes the landscape approach to conservation, as a practical tool for addressing the issues of conservation and sustainable use of biological resources as well as poverty reduction. The Nepal Biodiversity Strategy, Terai Arc Landscape Strategy and Implementation Plan have been formulated and gradually being implemented to support this broader landscape level conservation approach in Nepal.

As guided by these policy documents, various institutions are implementing conservation and development activities simultaneously. The King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation has implemented the Rhino Tiger Project in Chitwan, while the World Wildlife Fund Nepal Program has implemented the Terai Arc Landscape Programme across the Indian and Nepali borders. The programme aims to restore and maintain critical corridors and bottlenecks between protected areas so as to facilitate free movement of wildlife species from protected areas to productive land and vice versa. To support this concept UNDP, with the support of various partners, has been implementing the Western Terai Landscape Project in three districts of the Western Terai - Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur.

It has been noted that resulting from the concerted efforts, within a short span of time, some of biodiversity outside of the protected area boundaries are being maintained and restored and have become a safe haven for wildlife species. Barandabhar in Chitwan and Basanta forest in Kailali has become home for rhinoceros and wild elephants respectively. Similarly, implementation of income generating activities, like Non Timber Forest Product management, ecotourism, vegetable farming program etc. local communities’ support for biodiversity conservation has been on raise. In fact, based on a few years' experiences, the landscape approach to conservation does not necessitate the establishment of additional protected areas. Instead, the concept takes people as an integral part of the ecosystem and, therefore, advocates community based management of biodiversity.

However, there are some challenges still to be overcome for the effective implementation of this novel concept in Nepal. The existing intervention has given more emphasis on species conservation, instead of giving due attention to the overall management of biodiversity resources, including ecosystem services, and floral and faunal assemblages in the landscape complexIn case if some umbrella species like the elephant and rhinoceros are declined by some unknown reasons, then the overall value of the landscape could be diminished.

Therefore, if the management interventions are not modified in a timely manner, then this new initiative could result in failure. Hence, it is recommended that local people be made aware of the overall value of biodiversity resources, instead of merely highlighting on the conservation of the rhino, tiger and elephant. If this were to be so, then all the efforts put in and the achievements made so far would have been in vain and the government’s conservation agenda likely to come back to square one!

Landscape Approach to Biodiversity Conservation in Nepal

Ek Raj Sigdel
February, 2007

Abstract
Nepal has put utmost efforts to conserve her rich biodiversity resources. The conservation history begins formally after promulgation of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act in 1973. National Parks and Wildlife Reserves were established across the country during the 70s. By realizing the need of people participation in the conservation initiatives, the country has tested the concept of different types of protected areas such as conservation areas, buffer zone and landscape approach to conservation over the years. Landscape approach to biodiversity conservation has been adopted since 2000s. In this front, among others, Western Terai Landscape Complex Project has been implemented in the Far Western Development Region of the country since August 2005. Within a short span of time the project with an integrated conservation and development activities, has been able to change people's attitude towards biodiversity conservation and simultaneously the conservation value of biodiversity resources has been enhanced. In addition some lesson has been learned, which could be useful for national and international stakeholders.


Biodiversity value of the country
Because of altitudinal and climatic variances in short geographic distance, Nepal is endowed with rich biodiversity resources. The country comprises only 0.1% of the worlds land masses, but it harbors high share of biodiversity. A total of 118 ecosystems have been identified in Nepal, with 75 vegetation types and 35 forest types (HMGN/MFSC, 2002). Species richness among floral diversity comprises lichens 465 species (2.3 % of the global diversity), bryophytes 853 species (5.1%), and angiosperms 5,856 species (2.7%). Likewise, faunal diversity includes butterflies 640 species and moths 2,253 species (together 2.6%), birds 852 species (9.3%) and mammals 181 species (4.5%) (GoN/MFSC, 2006). The country has established an impressive network of protected areas (national parks, wildlife reserve, hunting reserve, conservation area, and buffer zone) to safeguard her rich biodiversity resources. Over 19% of the land masses of the country are occupied by the protected area network, including 3.45% buffer zone.

Conservation initiatives
Nepal's conservation history can be tracked back from 1950. Conservation initiatives have been taken through establishing a Rhino Sanctuary in Chitwan in 1956. The main objective of the Sanctuary was to protect the one horned rhinoceros. The conservation efforts took momentum when the country established extensive protected area system during 1970s. National Parks and Wildlife Reserves were established during this decade. The objective of the protected areas was to protect wildlife species, including endangered rhinoceros, tigers, and wild elephants.

During 80s, people-centered approach in protected area management was evolved. Himalayan National Park Regulation promulgated in 1979 has made the provision of incorporating local peoples' needs into national park's management goals. The regulation allows access to fuel-wood, fodder and litter of protected areas to local communities. Similarly, annual thatch grass harvesting provisions in all lowland National Park and Wildlife Reserves was introduced to response traditional resource use right of local people. During this period, the government also added conservation areas in protected area network, which seeks higher people participation in conservation. The Annapurna Conservation Area emphasizes people's participation in resource management and utilization, and provides high priority to development, was initiated in this period (Sharma 1995).

During 90s, the government introduced the policy of sharing part of the protected areas revenue with adjoining communities by establishing buffer zones. With this, the traditional species conservation approach has shifted towards ecosystem based approach of biodiversity conservation. The concept of buffer zone in and around protected areas was introduced in 1993 following the realization that sustainable wildlife conservation is possible only by active participation of local people (Maskey 2001). Fourth amendment was made on National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1973 and introduced the regulation of sharing up to 50% annual income of protected areas with buffer zone communities. The government envisioned conservation areas and buffer zone management regime aims at achieving effective management of National Parks and reserves, while at the same time giving due regard to the local communities (Sharma 2001).

Nepal has been embarking towards landscape approach to conservation in the new millennium. The landscape approach to conservation includes the integration of conservation and sustainable use concept in various interwoven land use systems across human and biodiversity landscape. It advocates for conservation of biodiversity resources beyond protected areas and people are considered as an integral component of an ecosystem.

In summary, the conservation paradigm has shifted from top down approach to bottom up planning. Initial management approach of command and control through mobilizing armed force has been replaced gradually by community based anti poaching operations. Similarly, the early emphasize was placed on species conservation followed by ecosystem and landscape approach to biodiversity conservation. Moreover, the role of government has been shifted from implementer to facilitator, monitor and regulator.

Conservation commitments
Nepal's commitment towards biodiversity conservation can be exemplified by being signatory of various international conventions, establishment of well functional institutional framework at national level, promulgation of innovative legal and policy agenda and implementation of different types of programs in and around protected area system.

At the international arena, Nepal affirmed its commitment to conserve biodiversity resources by ratifying the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1994. It is also a signatory of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). As per the commitment, with the support of UNDP-GEF, the country has prepared Nepal Biodiversity Strategy and Nepal Biodiversity Strategy Implementation Plan. Likewise, four wetlands are enlisted in Ramsar Sites. Similarly, a CITES unit has been established in the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.
National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1973, Buffer Zone Regulation 1993, Himalayan Park Regulation 1979, Annapurna Conservation Regulation 1993 are the major legal framework for conserving biodiversity resources of the country. Similarly, Self Governance Act 1995 empowers local authority to manage natural resources at local level. Likewise, Forest Act 1993 encourages development of various types of forest management models, including community forest, collaborative forest, religious forest, private forest and national forest.

Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation discharges the conservation activities through Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation office. Department of Forest under the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation also involves conserving biodiversity resources mainly outside of the protected area network. Ministry of Agricultural Development has also stake in biodiversity conservation.

Landscape approach conservation initiatives
Nepal has to adopt landscape approach to biodiversity conservation for various reasons (Bennett, 2001). Firstly, Nepal has a number of protected areas of outstanding value for the protection of biodiversity at a global scale. Like, many other countries, however, these areas are likely to be inadequate on their own to ensure the long-term conservation of the flora and fauna that occurs within the country. The protected areas system does not fully represent all components of biodiversity, and many known areas of importance for the flora and fauna lie outside the reserve system. Secondly, individual protected areas are often inadequate to meet the ecological requirements of a number of species, particularly large sized animal species.

Thirdly, substantial areas of forest are still present outside the protected areas. Thus there is an existing basis (in terms of natural resources) for landscape level approach that seeks to maintain biodiversity within the productive landscape. Finally, most communities of people in Nepal have a close dependence on the land and its natural resources for their survival. Consequently, an approach that seeks to extend conservation beyond the reserve system must recognize the place of human communities, and their aspirations and impacts on the land. Landscape ecology is a discipline that explicitly recognizes the place of people in the environment (Bennett, 2001. It seeks to develop solutions for land use that take into account human impacts.

Policy framework for landscape level conservation
National Biodiversity Strategy 2002 and Nepal Biodiversity Implementation Plan 2006 reflect a shift in Nepal's biodiversity conservation management paradigm towards a more holistic, ecosystem – oriented approach to conservation and sustainable use. The Tenth Five Year Plan (2003 – 2008) incorporates landscape approach to conservation and sustainable use as a new strategic and operational direction. Similarly, the government if Nepal, with the support of WWF Nepal has prepared Terai Arc Landscape Strategy (2004 – 2014) and Terai Arc Landscape Implementation Plan in 2006.

Programs
In line with conserving biodiversity resources at Landscape level, the government with the support of various donor communities, including UNDP, GEF, WWF, and SNV has implemented various programs across the country.

With the objective of promoting conservation and sustainable use of natural resources outside of the protected areas and getting support from UNDP, the government of Nepal successfully implemented buffer zone programme in seven protected areas of the country between 1995 and 2006. Community participation, gender integration, poverty reduction, benefits to disadvantaged groups was all important component of this conservation package. The buffer zone management initiatives have enhanced the capacity of both the Department of National parks and Wildlife Conservation and the local people to manage the protected area system and improve socio-economic conditions of the people living in adjoining areas.

The notable impacts following the declaration of buffer zones and implementation of conservation and development are the improvement in park-people relationships with growing participation of local people in buffer zone development programmes and the institutionalization of community based organizations such as buffer zone management committees, user committees, user groups and buffer zone forest user groups. Community mobilization adopted by the programme has proven to be the best means to conserve natural resources and biodiversity in the long-run. Based on the experience of this project, conservation succeeds only when people are brought to the forefront of natural resource management and empowered adequately. Mainstreaming women, special target groups and the poor in conservation and development is must for successful implementation of buffer zone programs (DNPWC 2006).

To facilitate the migration of globally endangered wildlife species, like rhinoceros and tiger beyond buffer zone of Chitwan National Park, a world heritage site in Nepal, National Conservation Trust, a national NGO successfully implemented landscape-scale conservation of endangered tiger and rhinoceros populations in and around Chitwan National Park. Similarly, to facilitate movement of the umbrella species, including tiger, rhinoceros and wild elephants, WWF Nepal has implemented Terai Arc Landscape project in 14 districts of Nepal. Likewise, to safeguard the globally endangered wildlife species of Western Terai, the government of Nepal in partnership with UNDP, GEF, SNV, WWF, Bioversity International, Nepal Agriculture Research Council and LIBIRD has implemented WTLCP in Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts of Nepal.


Western Terai Landscape Complex Project
The Western Terai Landscape Complex (WTLC) focuses on conserving the rich biological diversity of the western region of Nepal. This area has been included in the list of WWF's Global 200 Ecoregion. WTLCP occupies a land area of approximately 7,200 sq km and stretches from Brdia National Park (BNP) in the east to Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve (SWR) in the western edge of Nepal. BNP and SWR lie within 100km distance from each other. Due to the large-scale clearance of forests for agricultural development in the last three decades, SWR and BNP are no longer connected through a contiguous tract of lowland forests.

The WTLC is globally significant with regard to both its faunal and floral diversity. It is home to threatened wildlife species, including tigers (Panthera tigris), rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), wild elephants (Elephas maximus), swamp deer (Cervus Duvauceli), black buck (Antilope cervicarpa). The tigers and elephants are categorized as flagship species for this landscape.

Despite the outstanding value of BNP and SWR for the protection of globally significant biodiversity, they are likely to be inadequate on their own to ensure the long term conservation of flora and fauna that occurs in this region. The main reasons are: 1) these protected areas do not fully represent all component of biodiversity in the area and many known areas of importance for flora and fauna lie outside the protected area system; 2)These individual protected areas are inadequate in meeting the ecological requirements of a number of species, in particular the large mammals,, such as tigers, rhinoceros, and elephants which have large area requirements; 3) based on scientific evidence, isolation of these protected areas from other habitats is likely to lead to progressive loss of species over the long run. To address the above mentioned issues, landscape approach to biodiversity conservation was felt necessary in the western region. The region is characterized high human and income poverty, low human and income poverty, low human development, deep gender disparity, and low gender empowerment.

Conservation challenges
The biodiversity rich forests in this landscape have become increasingly degraded and fragmented as a result of ever increasing population and their growing dependency on forest resources. The immediate cause of deforestation and degradation is dependency of local communities on forest resources for timber, firewood, non timber forest products and agricultural land. Forest degradation and fragmentation in turn have contributed to the loss of habitat connectivity for the flagship species. Habitat fragmentation has the effect of reducing previously extensive mammal populations into genetically isolated sub-populations, many of which now risk falling below the threshold of population viability.


WTLCP Objective
The project is designed to conserve and ensure the sustainable use of globally significant biodiversity in the Western Terai Landscape Complex. The immediate objective is to conserve and ensure sustainable use of biodiversity resources across multiple land uses in WTLC through a landscape approach linked with community based management. The project emphasizes with multisectoral and multi stakeholder partnership to conservation. It advocates for strengthening community based biodiversity conservation by integrating biodiversity criteria with management plan of productive landscape. Similarly, with this programmes the protected area personnel will learn more participatory conservation.

Implementation approaches
Local communities are considered as the principle actor of the landscape level conservation. Hence their participation in project planning, monitoring, evaluation and benefit sharing process has been solicited from the very beginning of the project implementation process. To safeguard community inspiration and fulfill their demand, fullest attempt has been made to coordinate stakeholders ranging from civil society to government line agencies to local authority.

Management strategy
To address the wide ranges of issues, the Government of Nepal through WTLCP has implemented integrated conservation and development activities in the Western Region of Nepal. The conservation programs includes community based forest management, wildlife species and their habitat conservation, maintenance of habitat connectivity through promoting community forestry, private forestry, collaborative forestry, home garden, road side plantation, forests regeneration, and river side plantation. Likewise community based development activities includes micro-infrastructure development, alternative livelihoods, formation and strengthening of community based organizations and establishment of its linkage with government line agencies and other key stakeholders; promotion of alternative energy resources, institutionalization of participatory planning and monitoring system and implementation of various environment awareness activities.

Achievements
It has been observed that with the concerted efforts, within a short span of time, some of biodiversity resources outside of the protected area are being maintained and have become a safe haven for wildlife species. Barandabhar in Chitwan and Basanta and Laljhadi forests in western terai has become new home for rhinoceros, tigers and wild elephants respectively. Similarly, implementation of income generating activities, like Non Timber Forest Product management, ecotourism, off season vegetable farming program etc. local communities’ support for biodiversity conservation has been on raise.

Due to community based income generation activities, the attitude of local communities towards landscape approach to conservation ahs been changed gradually over the years. As project is working in multiple land use system, the coordination amongst the wider stakeholders is necessary. In this connection district forest coordination committee, which represents local authority, civil society, local non government organizations, and political parties has been formed and strengthened. The project has implemented its activities through government line agencies, local authority, community based organizations and non government organizations, which has helped to capacitate stakeholders towards landscape approach to biodiversity conservation.

Lesson learned / best practices
Project has given high priority to those activities which supports conservation and development work simultaneously. In this regard, micro infrastructure like irrigation pump, drinkable water, road gravelling etc are being supported to local communities. These activities are found very effective for raising local income through farming cash crops in the agricultural lands and making easy access to market. In the mean time through irrigation, local communities are establishing various nurseries, which help to maintain greenery in community and private land.

To sustain the project on financial, institutional, social and physical grounds, the project has undertaken various activities. For instance, project has supported local communities, mainly poor, women and disadvantageous group with seed money for income generation through cooperative scheme. A revolving fund mechanism has been envisioned. The mechanism has been considered as an important strategy to sustain the project activities in a long run.

To sustain the project activities on social ground, attempt has been made to include all the sectors of society, including local communities, poor, and women on project planning and implementation stages. In addition, they are organized into various user groups, user committees and coordination committees. The project has ventilated its objectives and implementation strategies to wider stakeholders through organizing various formal and informal meetings. Within a short span of time, the project has been able to attract heart and mind of local communities. The basic physical facilities supported by project to local communities and government line agencies include, community buildings, maintenance of guard posts, communication and transportation facilities, among others.

In order to bring the benefit down to the poorest of the poor community, the project has adopted positive discrimination approach. Local communities are categorized into various income groups, like rich, middle, poor and very poor through well being ranking exercises. Then, the very poor communities are provided with entrepreneurship development training. Based on their interest to undertake micro enterprises development activities, the project provides seed money to these trainees through cooperatives scheme. The approach has been performing well and stakeholders are appreciating the strategy wholeheartedly.

Local communities, especially outsiders of the protected areas are being convinced on the higher biodiversity value of community forest. The traditional approach of managing forest for timber and firewood has been changed gradually towards managing forest for biodiversity resources. In this regard, local communities are being interacted about the biodiversity consideration criteria in community forests. Some of the criteria have already been worked out. It is hoped that the community forest user groups as well as district forest office will gradually integrate biodiversity criteria in their management and operational plan in the days to come.

Maintenance of transparency on project objective and allocated budget for various activities is most important. In this regards, service providers are encouraged to institutionalize public auditing system. The strategy is working well.

While consulting local communities and other stakeholders, they always put conservation awareness activities in their priority list for making conservation work more effective and efficient. To make conservation work more effective, the project has been mobilizing school teacher and students by forming eco-club and eco-network. Interaction amongst eco-club members and eco-network has been continued. In addition, these organizations are provided with the opportunity of exposure tour, clean up campaign, quiz contest among others.

The project has implemented various trainings to capacitate local communities to undertake various income generation and conservation activities on their own. To make the training more productive, the project has adopted a practice of follow up and review, where service providers, project staff members, trainee and resource person sit together and review the effectiveness of training. Based on the feed back of the follow up meetings, the project revises its training programs accordingly.

Conclusion
To safeguard the country's rich biodiversity resources, Nepal has taken various measures. The protected area management policy and practice has been heading towards more of progressive and participatory management system. Local people are placed in the center of the protected area management system. In this front, various programs, like conservation area, buffer zone and landscape level conservation have been implemented. With the support of various national and international partner organizations, the government of Nepal has implemented WTLCP for two years in the western region of the country, which includes a package of integrated conservation and development activities. Within a short span of time the project has been able to change people's attitude towards biodiversity conservation, even outside of the protected area system. The quality of wildlife habitat at landscape level is getting improved on the one hand and on the other the livelihood options for local communities are diversified.






References
Bennett, A. F. (2001) Nepal Biodiversity Landscape Project. A report to UNDP Nepal and HMG Nepal.

DNPWC / Government of Nepal, (2006) Forging Partnership in Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods. Reflections on Achievements in Participatory Conservation (1995 – 2006)

GoN/MFSC, (2006) Nepal Biodiversity Strategy Implementation Plan. Government of Nepal, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Singhdurbar, Kathmandu.

HMGN/MFSC, (2002) National Biodiversity Strategy. His Majesty's Government of Nepal, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation.

Maskey, T.M. (2001) Biodiversity Conservation in Nepal with reference to protected areas. Protected Area Management in South Asia. Proceedings of WCPA South Asia Regional Workshop on Protected Area Management, Kathmandu, Nepal, pp. 114 – 127.

Sharma, U.R. (1995) Wildlife Conservation Policies and Strategies in protected areas of Nepal. Highlight of the Inaugural Ceremony and the Proceeding of the International Workshop on Sustainable Development and Conservation: The Role of Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, KMTNC, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Sharma, U.R. (2001) Conservation and development should go hand in hand. Park People Bulletin Vol 5, 1-5.