Climate Change Adaptation Matrices and Western Terai Landscape Complex Project

Ek Raj Sigdel
Landscape Manager
Western Terai Landscape Complex Project is a joint undertaking of the government of Nepal, GEF, UNDP, SNV, WWF, Bio-versity International, NARC and LIBIRD. The eight year project, which is now running in six years, intends to conserve and sustainable use globally significant biodiversity resources of the Western Terai, lowland of Nepal, which is being included in two WWF Global 200 Eco-regions. The approach intends to address the issues of fragmentation of once extended habitat of the globally significant endangered wildlife species like elephants, tigers and rhinoceros.
The project has implemented wide ranged activities including forest management, watershed management, restoration of corridor and connectivity. The activities are additional to the regular government supported activities as they intend to benefit international communities. It has been realized that the landscape level biodiversity conservation activities address regular development objectivities as well as climate change adaptation issues. With this backdrop, it can be said that the Landscape Level Biodiversity Conservation contributes to livelihood improvement of local communities, conservation of biodiversity resources and also address the issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The project has implemented wide ranged activities including documentation and replication of indigenous knowledge based adaptation practices, conservation of agro-biodiversity resources, and restoration of forests along corridor and connectivity areas like Bio-engineering along river side, plantation in degraded land, management of grassland, and restoration of watershed areas, maintenance of wetlands and promotion of non-timber forest based income generation activities.
While interacting with Tharu communities, local inhabitant in Shankarpur Village Development Committee of Kanchanpur District in Nepal, it was revealed that they have adapted some activities in response of flood damage. For instance, they have practiced storing agricultural production at second floor of building, river bank cultivation of groundnut, tomato, bottle gourd, cucumber, watermelon etc, early maturing rice plantation to escape flood (Chaite -4, Chaini, Hardinath, Radha-4, Anjana, Nimoi) and established community seed banks.
Western Terai Landscape Complex Project has piloted some community based conservation and livelihood development activities such as bio-engineering, restoration of corridor and connectivity, biogas promotion, water reservoir maintenance and non timber forest product management. These activities in one or another way are contributing to climate change adaptation.
Bio-engineering along the river bank has been carried out by using simple and low cost technology. Saccharum Munja, broom grass, bamboos and sand sacks are the key ingredient of this technology. It has been found very effective to control flood as the plant materials grow faster and helps withstanding flood pressure.
WTLCP’s role in maintaining corridor and connectivity has also helped facilitating dispersal of wild animals in different landscape matrices. In this regard, the project has carried out enrichment plantation and effective forest management exercise in the corridor and connectivity areas. Local communities are managing 3, 000 biogas plant which have helped a lot in reducing locals’ pressure on nearby forest resources. The strategy of increasing areas and enhancing quality of fragmented forest patches and connection of these patches to form corridor will be instrumental to escape the mega species from one place to another during emergency. This ultimately helps maintaining healthy population of the wildlife species as it supports maintaining gene pool of these creatures.
With the support of WTLCP, Water Reservoir along the foothills of Siwaliks / Churia has been maintained. Plantation around lakes, regulation of inlet, outlet and removal of invasive species has supported maintaining water levels. With this initiatives, water level of some of the lakes have been restored during winter seasons and this has become a new source of irrigation to local communities and become sustainable source of drinking water to wildlife species like peacock, deer and common leopard. It is hoped that the strategy of maintaining water reservoirs along the watershed region will help responding drought impact of climate change in a long run.
Non Timber Forest Product based income generation activities are considered as a major component of this project. Camommile, mint and lemon grasses are the key herb species that have been promoted to cultivate along the buffer zone of protected areas. Local people are getting three crops instead of the previous trend of harvesting only two crops i.e. rice and wheat. The crops are not palatable to wildlife species and hence contributing to deter wild animals. This has become a viable option to minimize wildlife people conflict in and around protected areas. In addition, the strategy will be instrumental for diversifying livelihood opportunities to local communities which would be necessary to respond climate change impact.
Aforementioned activities are additional activities of the government’s regular development programs which are designed and implemented as part of enhancing incremental benefits of biodiversity conservation.

Adaptation Matrices
Methodology
Performances of the aforementioned activities are being assessed through household survey and joint monitoring by local stakeholders. Likewise, the output level impacts of the executed activities are monitored jointly by central level stakeholders including policy makers, donor communities, researchers and academia. Overall impact of the activities against the stated objectives was evaluated in the fifth year of the project period with the support of international consultants. Based on these monitoring and evaluation recommendation successful initiatives have been documented, up-scaled and replicated. Household survey, remote sensing and GIS, MIS are the tools which are being used to assess performance and effectiveness of the activities.
Lesson Learned
Adoption of participatory monitoring and evaluation practice helps enhancing the capacity of local stakeholders towards institutionalizing climate change adaptation activities in local development plan and programs. Use of scientific data is important mainly to showcase the linkage of local action with global thinking like climate change and adaptation strategies and need clear legal base, policy, institution, and demarcation of understanding between development activities and adaptation programs for institutionalizing adaptation matrices
Challenges
While monitoring there should be clear demarcation between regular development activities and adaptation programs. As adaptation program cannot be limited into a single political boundary, it would be difficult to institutionalize adaptation matrices at various levels (Political units). Therefore it needs an integrated adaptation monitoring framework at central and local levels that takes into account cross sectoral and cross boundary issues. To design, implement and present the adaptation activities it is necessary to enhance the capacity of stakeholders ranging from local level to policy makers. Over and above there should be an overarching climate change adaptation plan supported by regional and local level plans and programs and they need to be linked together.

The paper was presented in a Workshop on Climate Change Adaptation Matrices in Bangladesh in March 5-6; 2011