Conserving Mountain Environment

By Ek Raj Sigdel, Nepal

Having immense natural and cultural value, Nepal's Mountain can be termed as the `Epitome of Paradise' for tourists, trekkers and expeditionary. Fragile mountain environment and subsistence agriculture are contributing 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 smile 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, people in Khumbu, Annapurna Conservation Area and Langtang National Park and adjoining areas have 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 campfire. 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 development, 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 continues, 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 China, covering 78.54% of total PAs in Nepal. These PAs represent 30 on 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°l0 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 that of a delicate balance between sustainable community development and safeguarding the environment. Tourism where it has been allowed to run free, has 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 Nagpa­la, and Chhentang - Kimathanka should be promoted.

The efforts of HMG of Nepal in establishing the National Parks and Wildlife Reserves in the country are very appropriate strategies 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.

Text courtesy: NTTR July 04 - 10, 2005. The Telegraph thanks the publisher of the NTTR.and the author of the article.

Need More Responsible Society

Ek Raj Sigdel
March 15, 2009

The indefinite Terai Band, called by Tharu and other local community group is now over after 14 days. They have put forth the demands of their own language recognition in government works and guarantee of federal structure based on ethnic, regional and lingual identities, among others. The strike was relaxed only for two days during holi festival. However, the agitation was intensified immediately after celebration of the Phagu Purnima, one of the biggest festivals of Terai.

From the very beginning of the strike, all public and private services, like educational institutions, government offices, transportations, and industries, among others were closed completely. Large numbers of Tharu people from nearby villages were thronged at district headquarters of Kailalil and Kanchanpur Districts to make remonstration more effective. They used all the available tools, like steak and torch rally, road blockade, tyre and effigy burning, vandalizing government and private offices and vehicles, among others to make the agitation more audible and effective. In addition, they made their demand public through various local and national electronic and other Medias. The life of local people further crippled when a separate group of students and civil society came onto the street to demonstrate their agitation against the government for its ambiguous decision of establishing university in their district headquarters. Additionally, a group of landless people staged demonstration in front of the District Administration Office, Kailali for including their representatives in Landless Commission and ensuring their daily requirements like food and shelter.

The strike has posed a multiplier effects. Every sector, including economic, environmental, political, and educational institutions was in immense impact from the indefinite strike. Income and employment opportunity of the poorest of the poor segments of society was curtailed. Supplies of goods and services in hilly districts such as Bajura, Bajhanag, and Dadeldhura were completely blocked. So, the hardest hit was in hilly area compared to Terai people. Similarly, over a thousand people of Baisebichuwa, Shankarpur who had to depend on Dhanagdi Market for various income generating activities, like rickshaw riding, and industrial and other labors were desperately waiting for strike free days. In the absence of transportation facilities, daily over 250 mountain people had returned from India were to be stranded at bus parks of the district headquarters. According to a reliable source, Mohana Trans-border Revenue Office, Dhangadi is going collect hardly 50% of the total expected revenue during the month of March 2009.

Burning large number of vehicle tyres, and other plastic materials on the road during these hot days caused several kind of impact, such as headache and hypertension. Consequently, it could contribute to the climate change, which may warrant a separate study. The dependency of poor on firewood increased significantly. However, no notable negative impact on the forest resources for timber and encroachment for settlement was reported during that period. The implementation and monitoring of biodiversity friendly activities were completely obstructed and hence there could be other illegal activities, which is yet to be known.

During the strike period, the public security of the region was further deteriorated. As the smooth flows of public and private services blocked, many people fearfully used nearby Indian road networks. A son of Mr. Ganesh Datta Joshi, Raikabarbichuwa, Kanchanpur who had to return to Kathmandu for resuming service, could not make it due to the ongoing strike and insecure situation on the highway. Government officials and other service holders got threatening for not to open their respective offices. Citing to the field difficulties, the constitution members, who were in the Far Western Development Region had to postpone the community consultation process. Likewise, a group of unidentified people vandalized few Village Development Committee Offices of Kailali. Additionally, some of the protesting students also damaged over a half dozen government institutions, such as District Plant Resources Office, District Education Office and a couple of public and private vehicles.

It is worthwhile to notice that some school children organized a protest rally in front of the Kailali Chief District Office, for halting the strike and resuming their school. This news was also aired by BBC Nepali Service. Because of the strike, regular exams of grade eight and 10 were postponed. Likewise, there is an ongoing strike called by college students of Kailali and Kanchanpur for establishing university in their respective district headquarters. Even, one of the political parties of Kanchanpur has threatened to obstruct movement of government vehicles on the road until decision is made in favor of establishing an university in their district.

On the whole, the strike severely impacted all the sectors of livelihood. At the cost of various difficulties including loss of public life, the demand of the agitating groups is now fulfilled. While looking underlying cause of the protest, it was found that local people were seemingly well aware on their right. To a large extent, this kind of organized movement was an upshot of donors support for making various community groups’ aware on their right. Also, the agitators’ leaders were able to link the poor people’s right with their livelihood opportunities. In addition, the locals’ ambition for fulfilling their demand for livelihood and peace has not satisfactorily addressed by the present government.

In conclusion, it can be learned from the strike that the government should response locals need timely on the one hand and on the other the community groups should simultaneously be made well aware on their responsibilities and consequences of such kind of strike on livelihood opportunities of all sections of society. In the mean time, the donor communities’ support should be for making communities more aware not only their right but also towards their responsibilities for making New Nepal, the very mission of the government.

Developing tourism in far west

Developing tourism in far west
Published in Kathmandu Post

By Ek Raj Sigdel
The Far Western Development Region (FWDR) is rich in biodiversity and cultural resources. However, the region is lagging far more behind in terms of income and employment opportunity to the local people than the other development regions of the country. The traditional agro-based income could be backed strongly by the tourism-based economy, if the latter is fully explored and managed timely. Tourism development could be the second best option after agricultural development for reducing poverty as well as ensuring long-term conservation of cultural and natural resources of FWDR.

In spite of full fledged implementation of 20-year Agricultural Perspective Plan and programs, the agricultural production has not matched people's expectation. On the other hand, forest is seen as a short-term lucrative business for the ever-increasing population of this region, especially in lowland terai. Over the last few years, forest encroachment for agricultural production has been on the rise. If the current trend of deforestation and degradation is not curbed, the country will lose thousands of hectares covered by forests let us say in two decades. As a result, the fertile soil of lowland terai will also be washed away gradually. The phenomenon will cause further loss in region's agricultural productivity, which will in return lead to the loss of biodiversity resources, making the situation of the poor even worse.

Therefore, the time has come to explore alternatives to uplift the socio-economic condition of the local people as well as ensure the conservation of biodiversity resources. In this regard, tourism development could be a viable option to achieve the dual goal of conservation and development simultaneously.

The Tenth Five-Year Plan recognizes tourism as a means to raise income of rural communities and also contributes to balance regional development of the country. With the objective of addressing rural poverty through tourism, the government, with the financial support of UNDP, has already piloted Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Program in 48 VDCs of 6 districts. The final evaluation of the project reveals that the project can be categorized under one of the successful programs in Nepal. And, hence recommends for replication of similar type of community based rural tourism in the rest of the country. In this background, replication of similar type of project in FWDR would help reduce rural poverty, contribute to biodiversity conservation and supports to the very objective of balanced regional development.
The area has some unique natural and cultural heritages, which could be a source of inspiration for outsiders to learn and experience. For instance, Bardiya National Park (BNP), the largest park in lowland terai houses globally endangered wildlife species, including Bengal tiger, wild elephants, greater one- horned rhinos, black buck, and crocodile, among others. Likewise, the last remaining population of black buck is found in Khairapur, very close to BNP.

Similarly, Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve (SWR) is worldwide famous for the herd of swamp deer, the number of which currently stands at about 2000. It is also a home to Bengal tigers and wild elephants. According to the SWR source the number of tourists in the Reserve increased from a total of 16 in December 2005 to a total of 62 in the same month in 2006. The Ghodaghodi Lake, one of the Ramsar Sites in Nepal is also present in this region.

In addition, basking crocodiles at the islands of the Karnali river and dolphins at the confluence of Mohana, Geruwa and Karnali River in Bardia could entertain tourists. Mahakali and Karnali bridges, which are considered as the longest bridges of their types in the world, are other attractions. Birendra Aishowrya Park and Devaria Park in Dhangadi and Botanical Garden in Tikapur of Kailali district enhance tourism value of this region. A large number of Indian pilgrimage paying visit to Brahmadev, Betkot and Thakurdwara temples of Kanchanpur and Bardiya districts flock to the area. Tharus, mainly of Rana and Dangaura residing near the Park, are the local and original inhabitants of this virgin land.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has recently identified and promoted Wild Western Triangle for Rara, Bardia and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve for few years. Repackaging of all the aforementioned attractions in the Triangle could form a good package for tourism in this region. Moreover, eco-tourism corridor can be developed between Dudhuwa National Park and Katarnia Ghat Widlife Reserve of India and Bardiya National Park and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve of Nepal. The air-link between Dhangadi and Kathmandu established by Buddha Air has raised a new hope for local communities of this region towards developing their areas as tourist destinations. In addition, availability of basic facilities like telephones, hotels, health posts, and vehicles also facilitate the areas to become tourist destinations.

In conclusion, it can be stated that a mere agriculture-dependent economy could not be a sustainable source of income and employment opportunity to the local community of this region. Considering the resource in the area, promotion of tourism, by mobilizing local authority and NTB could be an alternative means to overcome the issue of poverty and thereby ensure long-term conservation of biodiversity and cultural resources. It is high time to pilot rural tourism model in FWDR

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.