Fruitful Partnership with Academic Institution

As per the Environment Protection Regulations, 1997 Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) is responsible for approving Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) reports of various development sub-projects such as road, bridge, sand gravel & stones, landfill sites. Until January 2017, MoFALD has approved a total of 753 IEE reports and equal number of Terms of References (ToR) of different sub-projects such as bridge, bus terminal, landfill sites, refuses drive fuel, roads and sand, gravel and stones (SG&S). The first IEE report approved by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development was Bhojpur-Ghodetar, Bhojpur Road in April 2005.

To ensure effective implementation of the IEE reports, it was felt necessary to adopt third party monitoring mechanism. With this objective, the Ministry inked MoU with Central Department of Environmental Science, Tribhuvan University, (CDES-TU) on 18 April, 2011 and with Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kathmandu University (KU) in 2012. Accordingly, TU-CDES and KU monitored implementation status of over 100 IEE reports of selected districts of Nepal through mobilizing a total of 121 students and 21 faculties until 2014. As suggested by the monitoring reports, the MoFLAD has issued various policy directives to local bodies towards improving quality of IEE Reports. Further, with the aim of making local bodies more responsible and accountable to local communities, the MoFALD has decentralized the IEE approval authority of Sand Gravel & Stones (SG&S) to the local bodies in March 2016.

With this, MoFALD's role has been shifted more towards strengthening capacity of local bodies and ensuring quality of locally prepared IEE reports. To strengthen capacity of local bodies in preparing and implementing quality report, MoFALD made available Guidelines on preparing Initial Environmental Study Report of SG&S to local bodies on 26 October 2016. In this way, engagement of academic institutions had yielded three folds encouraging results; i) contributed to decentralize IEE approval authority from MoFALD to local government and improved effectiveness of MoFALD work, ii) made local bodies more responsible towards  preparing quality IEE reports,  and  iii) TU-KU students and faculties had exposure with real world situation and revised environmental science course accordingly.

Therefore, it is wise to establish and strengthen partnership with academic institutions while monitoring environment friendly development activities at local level. 

Integration of SEAM – Nepal's Learning into EFLG Program

Nepal is rich in biodiversity resources

Nepal is endowed with rich biodiversity and cultural resources that are the backbones of prosperous Nepal. The very resources are being degraded gradually and their productivities are being diminished subsequently. Unplanned settlement development, agricultural land expansion, haphazard infrastructure development, over utilization of natural resources for firewood and over grazing are considered as underlying causes of environmental degradation. The ongoing environmental degradation has posed obstacles to uplift socio-economic status of rural poor, especially women and dalit communities.

As guaranteed by Constitution of Nepal, every Nepali citizen has the right to live in a clean environment, while the nation is responsible for using natural resources for people’s welfare. Furthermore, the country is, on the one hand, committed to achieving industrialization, urbanization and physical infrastructure development through formulating various policies, strategies and plans, on the other hand, expressed its commitment to the sustainable management of its environmental resources. Hence, it is necessary to make development and conservation, supplementary to each-other. Therefore, Nepal needs sustainable development that takes an account of poverty linked environment, climate change, and disaster risk issues.

SEAM-Nepal  

To address the twin objectives of safeguarding environmental resources and improving livelihood of rural poor, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) together with Finland Government had implemented Strengthening of Environmental Administration and Management at the Local Level Nepal (SEAM – Nepal) in six district development committees, 9 municipalities and 60 village development committees of Eastern Development Region for over a decade that was phased out in 2014. The Program was basically designed to support implementing Environments Protection Act, 1994 and Regulations, 1995.

Key area of intervention of the Program include, i) Mitigation of industrial pollution mainly in between Biratnagar Dharan Industrial Corridors, ii) development of Model Village Development Committees and Green City, iii) implementing research and monitoring activities, iv)promoting organic farming and v) Strengthening of District and Municipality Environmental Administration.

Successful initiatives of the Program especially Model Village Development Committee, Green City concept, environmental administration and integrated approach to management, strengthening capacity of environment energy and climate change sections and focal person in DDC and Municipalities, promotion of bio-pesticides and vermin-compost inspired the MoFALD to replication and up scaling.

Evolution of EFLG Framework

In fact, the learning of the SEAM-Nepal program has conceived the concept of EFLG - Framework. The Framework later got endorsed from the Cabinet in 2013. Some indicators in EFLG – Framework such as water and sanitation, public toilets, rain water harvesting, improved cooking stoves, solid waste management, plastic free zone declaration, organic farming, plantation, environmental awareness, spring source protection, environment profile preparation, rain water harvesting, pond construction, cow-shed improvement, vermin composting, plastic bag ban campaign have been adopted from the SEAM – Nepal.

Moreover, SEAM - Nepal together with Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI) Program contributed to finalize EFLG - Framework and refine indicators relevant to it. The current EFLG document was largely influenced by the experiences learned from these model VDCs. SEAM-Nepal's Lesson Learned Report, 2015 recommended to replicate and upscale some of its successful initiatives such as green model VDC, green city, organic farming and integrated approach to environment management. 

Now, with the generous support of DFiD, the MoFALD has implemented EFLG – Program under broader governance framework of Local Governance and Community Development Program (LGCDP) in 54 municipalities and 60VDCs of 14 DDC since December 2014. Its indicators span from household, to tole, settlement, village, municipalities and district. The Framework emphasize environment friendly local development and promotes good governance under the leadership of local bodies.

Achievement of EFLGP

Until the end of FY2072/73, a total of 13,732 HH, 78 Tole and 9 Wards have been declared as environment friendly entities. Some of the activities under EFLGP at the field level like water source conservation, parks and ponds conservation/construction, bioengineering structures to control landslide/ erosion and river flood protection, massive plantation, promotion of renewable energy etc. are directly supporting local community to cope with climate change, climate change induced disasters and livelihood improvement. A recent study carried out by EFLGP found that local bodies have allocated in an average 15.03 % of their respective annual development budgets on environment, climate change and disaster related activities which is significantly higher than the non programme implementing local bodies. Likewise, almost all EFLGP implemented local bodies have endorsed the EFLGP program from their respective Councils.

Road Ahead

It is been widely acknowledged that EFLGP has evolved as a tool to bridge gaps between conservation and development issues. Further, EFLGP could be evolved as an opportunity to communicate good governance principles to the local communities as it addresses immediate need of local people in one hand and on the other it contributes to sustainable environment conservation and management. Capacity of Environment Management Section of the Ministry Federal Affairs and Local Development should be further strengthened to make them able to facilitate integrating environmental criteria into local development planning and budgeting process.

Over and above, EFLGP intervention has positively catalyzed local bodies to increase budget allocation along with increasing environment friendly development activities in their Annual Development Plans. This also implies that local bodies are giving due consideration in addressing and adapting to climate change and disaster management to some extent. It indicates that EFLGP is well owned by local bodies and demands for EFLGP has been received from EFLGP non implemented local bodies. Therefore it demands scaling up in all across the country. In order to upscale EFLG initiatives especially considering the number of VDCs and DDCs in Nepal and the household level nature of indicators administrations of the state requires significant financial, time and human resources. Hope, the Workshop will be a milestone to learn EFLGP and its value for improving livelihood of rural poor and safeguarding integrity of sustainable environment in Nepal. 

Finally, it is a high time for development partners to see EFLGP closely and join the government's endeavor of up scaling the EFLG initiatives all across the country. 

Tourism Value of Rock Garden

https://res.bhanjyangnews.com.np/pdfs/2073_Kartik_03.pdf

Potential of Chinese Tourism in Nepal

vThe government of Nepal decided to waive off visa fee for Chinese nationals with the objective of attracting more tourists in December 25, 2015. Nepal Tourism Board has spoken out the policy of bringing increasing number of tourists through organizing business to business (B2B) meetings and consumer focused promotional programs. Moreover, Nepal can sell three competitive advantaged “S” i.e.  Sun, Smile and Siddharth Gautam. Nepal has witnessed increasing number of hotels and restaurants as well as other businesses run by Chinese owners in Kathmandu and Pokhara.

China has been the world’s largest outbound tourism market since 2012. According to the China Tourism Research Institute, China had 120 million outbound visitors in 2015 and they spent $104.5 billion, recording increases of 12 percent tourists and 16.7 percent spent from 2014. If Nepal managed to welcome only a fraction of Chinese outbound visitors to travel to Nepal, it will be a big contribution for Nepalese economy through tourism industry

If we look at 2003-2014, the number of Chinese tourists coming to Nepal has increased steadily (Source NTB, 2016). According to statistics of MoCTCA, the number of Chinese tourist reached 123,805 in 2014 from 7,562 in 2003. Chinese tourists comprised of 15.7 percent of total tourist arrivals of Nepal in 2014. Nepal had received 790,118 foreign tourists in 2014. Pokhara and Lumbini as most of the Chinese are fascinated with these two places in Nepal. Once the international airport in Pokhara completed, then Pokhara can receive overwhelming number of Chinese tourists.

 In 2002, the China National Tourism Administration granted Approved Destination Status (ADS) to Nepal and in June that year, Chinese citizens began visiting Nepal officially for the first time as tourists. Before 2000, Chinese were allowed to travel to Nepal only on official visits.  Out of the total Nepal bound 1,23,805 Chinese tourists in 2014, 16% visited Lumbini, the Birth Place of Gautam Buddha. In 2014, first and the second Lumbini Bound tourists were from (28% ) Srilankan and (19%) Thailand.

Nepal is in a mission of attracting two million tourists in 2020 and increasing contribution of the sector to the GDP to up to 10 per cent from about 3 percent now, and increase the average length of stay of a tourist to around 16 days from current 13 days.

During the Prime Minister KP Oli’s Visit to China in 2016, it was agreed to support each other’s tourism promotion activities in their respective countries to enhance people-to-people contacts. Further, China has expressed willingness to provide Chinese language training in Nepal to 200 Nepali tourism professionals in the next five years. Therefore, if Chine centric tourism promotion strategies are adopted and aggressive marketing is done, then it can be said that tourism industry in Nepal can engage increasing number of youths and thereby contributes to retain young and energetic people in their own country. Therefore, it is the high time for the Government of Nepal to formulate and implement policies that attract tourists from neighboring country like China. 

EFLGP Support to Maintain Multipurpose pond at the Foothill of Chure

Background

A local community group at Mahadevstan 4 of Parwanipur Village Development Committee (VDC) in Sarlahi District Development Committee (DDC) constructed a multipurpose pond with an area of about one hectare 8-10 years back. The community group established the pond for storing water during summer season to wallow and drink for cattle.  

Every day the pond serves drink and wallowing for over 1,000 and 400 cattle respectively. Water inlet, especially for rainy seasons has been built through maintaining water canals from upwards of the pond. The local communities has prohibited use of poison as the pond is being utilized for fish farming, a sustainable source of income to them. The pond has religious and aesthetic value too. During Thulo Ekadashi thousands of people from adjoining VDCs thronged into the area for celebrating the festival, said Ranajana Guragain, a Social Mobiliser in Parwanipur VDC.

To maintain and rehabilitate the pond a management committee has been formed. To store more water during dry season, the management committee put demand to DDC through VDC for financial support last year. Accordingly the DDC through EFLG Program fulfilled their demand last year. With the support, they have constructed a supporting wall towards the south so that the overflow can be controlled as well as water leakage can be minimized. Moreover, to stabilize soil, they have planted tree species all along the wall. Likewise, they excavated the pond and increased the volume a few weeks back. The support of the EFLGP helped to enhance overall ecological services of the pond, said Lokendra Subba, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of EFLGP in Sarlahi DDC.

This year the community has contracted the pond for fish farming with Rs. 1,00,000 as against the only Rs.50,000 last year said, Chairperson of the Pond Management Committee Mr. Lal Bahadur Basnet. Moreover, they have witnessed increased volume water during May-June of this year as against the same months last year. Furthermore, as inlet and outlet are maintained properly, there is no possibility of pond outburst and inundation in downward villages. While asking sustainability of the work, local communities have established the pond on their own initiative and the money generated from the fish is being utilized to maintain the pond, said Parwanipur VDC Secretary Mr. Krishna Acharya.

However, due to sandy soil at the bottom of the pond, there is a possibility of water percolation in the future that may not fulfil their demand of sustaining increased volume of water during summer season in the years to come. Furthermore, there is a possibility of siltation from inlet as there is no mechanism to control the likelihood of siltation in the pond. Therefore, it is suggested to maintain some siltation tanks above the ponds and plaster the bed with clay soil if available. Once these activities take into consideration, then it can be developed as a water harvesting pond at the bottom of Chure that can be replicated.

Conclusion:

Maintaining and rehabilitating community led initiatives in conserving ponds at the foothill of Chure can serve improving livelihood of local people in one hand, and on the other contributes to address climate change adaptation by serving as water reservoir during dry season.

Roof Top Rainwater Harvesting for Recharging Ground Water Technology

Over exploitation for drinking and irrigations together with drought due to climate change has caused depletion of ground water resources in Terai. Rajkumar Das, Executive Officer of Golbazar Municipality said, “Until few years back people could pump out drinking water from 40ft- 45ft below the ground but now it needs penetration of up to 150ft - 160 ft”. Local communities especially women are negatively impacted due to depletion of water as they are primarily responsible for managing water for household chores.

Roof Top Rainwater Harvesting and Recharging Ground Water Technology was an option to be tested to replenish the ground water in Terai. Accordingly, Rajbiraj Municipality Executive Officer Mr. Bishnu Gurung piloted Roof Top Rainwater Harvesting and Recharging Ground Water Technology for recharging ground water in Rajbiraj Municipality premises in 2015. In this connection he constructed recharge pits together with water harvesting tank and made arrangement to pipe water in these pits and tanks from office building roofs through financial support of Environment Friendly Local Governance Program (EFLGP) that is implemented under Local Governance and Community Development Program of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD).

According to Mr. Gurung the project has yielded multitudes of benefits this year. Water at the office premises has been recharged that can be exemplified from the fact that greenery around the pits has been maintained even in the dry season of 2016. Municipality Office adjoining settlements are enjoying drinking water benefits from the project as they have been able to pump water by digging only 30ft.-35 ft ground which not the case was before. Moreover, a tank having capacity of 15 m³ was with full of water has been maintained nearby by the recharge pit that can be utilized to fight fire in the Municipality if and when needed. Moreover, excess recharged water could be a sustainable source for maintaining Bhagwati Pond that is placed some 20 meter north from the recharge pit.  However, robustness and sustainability of the technology linking it with climate change impact needs further study in the days ahead.  

In summary, Roof Top Rainwater Harvesting and Recharging Ground Water Technology could be an option to deal with the issue of ground water depletion due to over utilization and climate change in Terai. In this regard Roof Top Rainwater Harvesting and Recharging Ground Water Technology has been piloted in Rajbiraj Municipality. The technology has yielded positive results against its intended objectives. However, sustainability and robustness of the technology as such needs further study.

The case was prepared by Ek Raj Sigdel based on field observation and interaction with Municipality Official in Saptari District in April 2016.

Citizen Awareness Center: Opportunity for Integrating Environment and Climate Change

Ek Raj Sigdel

While visiting Sindhuli, Mahottari and Dhanusa in 23-25 May 2016, it was noted that Livelihood Improvement Program (LIP) grant and Small Infrastructure Support (SIS) grant extended by LGCDP-II have been reached in all visited six Citizen Awareness Centers (CACs). While interacting with CAC members in different locations, it was noted that they have invested SIS and LIP grants in undertaking various income generating activities such as livestock rearing, agriculture production, off farm activities like running of small retail shops, purchasing tents and catering facility, engaging in sewing and knitting business, among others.

Moreover, while reviewing the available database of LGCDP - II in Janakpur Municipality, it was revealed that about 43% of the total SIS and LIP activities of CACs were related to livestock rearing such as buffalo, goat, pig and poultry farming (Table 1). Another 35% of the total activities under LIP and SIS were off farm activities such as running small shops, purchasing tents, and promoting paintings. The other 18% activities were related to agriculture mainly vegetable farming. Less than 4% activities under these grants were invested in natural resources based income generation activities mainly small scale firewood business and ponds rehabilitation & maintenance.

Promoting natural resource such as forest and water based income and micro-enterprises could be a sustainable source of economy to the CACs on the one hand and on the other could contribute to sustainable management of environment as it encourages local knowledge and technologies based management that was not promoted visibly in the visited areas.

TABLE 1. LIP and SIS investment patterns in Janakpur Sub Metropolitan City

Support Sector	SIS (Frequency of CAC Groups)	SIS (%)	LIP (Frequency of CAC - HH)	LIP (%)	Remarks
Agriculture	6	22	17	13	Vegetable farming
Livestock	12	44	53	41	Buffalo, goat, pig, poultry
Natural Resource	1	4	4	3	Firewood and pond conservation
Others	8	30	54	42	Painting, tent, small shops

Source: Database of LGCP, Janakpur Municipality,

While interacting with different CAC Groups it was realized that the CACs were well empowered socially as well as economically. As said, untouchability events decreased, issues of social discrimination minimized, child marriage discouraged, and incidence of women violence reduced considerably due to CAC’s activeness. Due to effective social mobilization, basic services like vital registration, senior citizen allowance, citizenship certificates and community mediation programs were being implemented very effectively. Moreover, CACs are engaged in public auditing, participating in local level planning and monitoring process and being represented in Ward Citizen Forums.

During the field consultation, CACs have raised some environmental issues such as drying out of water sources in mid-hills and lowering of water level in terai regions. The other issues brought out by CACs include river bank cutting due to flooding in Terai and increased frequency of landslides due to degradation of environment in mountain areas. Due to poisoning fish catching is decreased substantially in Sindhuli. Towards health and sanitation front, affordability of toilet was difficult to poorest of the poor members of CACs in Terai and inadequate water supply even for drinking purpose was one of the major hindrances for maintaining toilets in mountain areas.

The best practices that we were informed that transparency and accountability exercise of CACs are being gradually replicated in their respective Community Forests User Groups. Moreover, REFLECT class in a CAC of Mahottari covers environment management, disaster risk reduction, and health & hygiene subjects.

To ensure sustainable development of the society it is imperative to bring the inclusive socio-economic development and sustainable environment management agenda together. Socio-economic empowerment component of the Sustainable Development was far ahead than the environmental consideration in the visited CACs. Therefore, it is high time to put priority on engaging CACs in managing sustainable environment and thereby contributing to sustainable development of the CACs. Engaging CACs in sustainable environment management could be an entry point for integrating climate change, environment and disaster considerations into local development planning and budgeting process. The following activities are need to be implemented to ensure sustainable development society.

1.     Put priority on investing SIS/LIP grant in natural resources based income and employment generation activities. Further, put efforts to strengthen the entire value chains such as production, promotion and marketing of the natural resources based micro-enterprises.

2.     Social Mobilisers should establish linkage of CACs with District Forest Office, District Soil Conservation, and Watershed Management, Drinking Water Supply Office, District Agriculture Office and District Veterinary Offices and private sectors mainly Chamber of Commerce to ensure sustainability of the natural resources based micro-enterprises.

3.     Integrate poverty, environment and climate change consideration into social mobilization tools such as REFLECT courses, income generation activities, and planning and monitoring processes