Friday, October 23, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
New Hope for Encroachment Minimization
Ek Raj Sigdel
Kailali District is endowed with rich biodiversity resources. However, the valuable properties are facing unprecedented challenges for their survival. The ever increasing population pressure followed by unplanned settlement has aggravated the problem of deforestation and degradation in Kailali. Because of this the prime habitat of globally endangered wildlife species including tiger, elephants and rhinoceros are disturbed heavily. On the other hand, in the absence of easy access of food, and security situations the lifestyles of the real poor who infringe the forests resources for settlement and cultivation are leading towards more miserable livelihood. Therefore, finding an amicable solution that contributes to biodiversity conservation and supports to uplift the socio-economic condition of the real poor is the need of the hour.
Kailali district located between Bardia National Park in the east, Laljhadi and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in the west, and Dudhuwa National Park of India in the south is considered as a store house of biodiversity resources. The big chunks of Kailali forests like Basanta, Bhadtal and Baraban provides dispersal habitat for the globally endangered wildlife species. Likewise, Ghodaghodi Lake, a Ramsar Site in Kailali houses many migratory bird, tortoise and fish species. In addition, the fragile Chure that covers more than 40% of the total of 200,000 hectare forest land of Kailali deserves high watershed value which supports livelihood of the entire Kailali communities.
Forest encroachment for cultivation and settlement expansion is common in Kailali District. To date, some 30,000 households encroaches 19,443 hectare forests land of Kailali. Many of the encroachment are being done in the name of landless people, freed bonded labors, and flood victimized communities. Many of these infringe lands are located in the high biodiversity value areas, like Basanta Corridor, Bhadtal Jungle, Chure foothills, and around Ghodaghiodi Lake. Because of the growing human pressure the prime habitats of the wildlife species are fragmented and it resulted in disintegration of the wildlife populations. If the encroachment issues are not addressed timely then the very resources will be loss for forever from the Kailali Forests. On the other hand, the condition of poor will be further deteriorated.
A solution that contributes to biodiversity conservation and diversifies the livelihood opportunities of local community is necessary. Two pronged strategies should be adopted timely. Firstly, the corridor and connectivity settlements are to be evacuated as soon as possible. In the mean time, the genuine poor should be identified and compensated fairly. Secondly, the government in consultation with central to field level stakeholders should promulgate land use policies that discourage settlement, at least in high biodiversity conservation value areas.
The District Forest Office staff members should be made more resourceful in terms of knowledge, skills and equipment. Community forest user groups and their federations should be oriented to discourage encroachers in high biodiversity values forests. It is interesting to note that the district level political parties of Kailali are reiterating their commitment for discouraging encroachment in the high conservation value areas through making frequent appeal and joint field monitoring visits. They are equally concerned about the well being of the poor people, specially freed bonded labors who have attachment with forest resources since immemorial times.
The recent decision of Kailali District Forest Coordination Committee (DFCC) meeting to form a special task force to evacuate encroached settlement of Kailali is an upper level commitment of political parties and stakeholders towards conserving biodiversity resources of this district. The committee represents District Forest Office, Police Office, Chief District Office and local stakeholders. The committee is also planning to work with District Freed Bonded Labor (Kamaiya) Management Commission (DFBLMC) mainly to address the issue of freed bonded labors, poor and marginalized communities.
Kailali District is endowed with rich biodiversity resources. However, the valuable properties are facing unprecedented challenges for their survival. The ever increasing population pressure followed by unplanned settlement has aggravated the problem of deforestation and degradation in Kailali. Because of this the prime habitat of globally endangered wildlife species including tiger, elephants and rhinoceros are disturbed heavily. On the other hand, in the absence of easy access of food, and security situations the lifestyles of the real poor who infringe the forests resources for settlement and cultivation are leading towards more miserable livelihood. Therefore, finding an amicable solution that contributes to biodiversity conservation and supports to uplift the socio-economic condition of the real poor is the need of the hour.
Kailali district located between Bardia National Park in the east, Laljhadi and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in the west, and Dudhuwa National Park of India in the south is considered as a store house of biodiversity resources. The big chunks of Kailali forests like Basanta, Bhadtal and Baraban provides dispersal habitat for the globally endangered wildlife species. Likewise, Ghodaghodi Lake, a Ramsar Site in Kailali houses many migratory bird, tortoise and fish species. In addition, the fragile Chure that covers more than 40% of the total of 200,000 hectare forest land of Kailali deserves high watershed value which supports livelihood of the entire Kailali communities.
Forest encroachment for cultivation and settlement expansion is common in Kailali District. To date, some 30,000 households encroaches 19,443 hectare forests land of Kailali. Many of the encroachment are being done in the name of landless people, freed bonded labors, and flood victimized communities. Many of these infringe lands are located in the high biodiversity value areas, like Basanta Corridor, Bhadtal Jungle, Chure foothills, and around Ghodaghiodi Lake. Because of the growing human pressure the prime habitats of the wildlife species are fragmented and it resulted in disintegration of the wildlife populations. If the encroachment issues are not addressed timely then the very resources will be loss for forever from the Kailali Forests. On the other hand, the condition of poor will be further deteriorated.
A solution that contributes to biodiversity conservation and diversifies the livelihood opportunities of local community is necessary. Two pronged strategies should be adopted timely. Firstly, the corridor and connectivity settlements are to be evacuated as soon as possible. In the mean time, the genuine poor should be identified and compensated fairly. Secondly, the government in consultation with central to field level stakeholders should promulgate land use policies that discourage settlement, at least in high biodiversity conservation value areas.
The District Forest Office staff members should be made more resourceful in terms of knowledge, skills and equipment. Community forest user groups and their federations should be oriented to discourage encroachers in high biodiversity values forests. It is interesting to note that the district level political parties of Kailali are reiterating their commitment for discouraging encroachment in the high conservation value areas through making frequent appeal and joint field monitoring visits. They are equally concerned about the well being of the poor people, specially freed bonded labors who have attachment with forest resources since immemorial times.
The recent decision of Kailali District Forest Coordination Committee (DFCC) meeting to form a special task force to evacuate encroached settlement of Kailali is an upper level commitment of political parties and stakeholders towards conserving biodiversity resources of this district. The committee represents District Forest Office, Police Office, Chief District Office and local stakeholders. The committee is also planning to work with District Freed Bonded Labor (Kamaiya) Management Commission (DFBLMC) mainly to address the issue of freed bonded labors, poor and marginalized communities.
Now, it can be hoped that if the political commitment is really translated into action and community forest and their association supports whole heartedly to the mission of encroachment evacuation, and DFO staff are fully equipped for effective law enforcement then it can be hoped that in a near future the large part of the encroached forest areas will be recovered. Similarly, only a close coordination between DFCC and DFBLMC will help finding a viable option to ensure the sustainable livelihood of poor and marginalized communities including freed bonded labors.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Community-based Tourism for Conservation and Development in Shankarpur Village: Concept note for feedback
Ek Raj Sigdel
Shankarpur Village Development Committee (VDC) of Kanchanpur district is situated in between two ecotourism destinations of Nepal; Bardia National Park in the East and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in the West. The safe and secure village can be reached by driving eight kilometer gravel road towards West from Dhangadi, Kailali and 30 Kilometer gravel road towards South-East from Mahendra Nagar, Kanchanpur.
Over 95% of 761 household are Rana Tharu, local inhabitant of this area as against the only 23% Tharu in the entire district. Rain fed agriculture is the main source of income to over 85% people of this area. Out of the four categories, the VDC falls under third rank in human development index, and first in human poverty index (DDC Kanchanpur, 2005). According to local people, each year two to three Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve destined tourist group pay visit to the area to experience Rana Tharu Culture.
Rana Tharu, who are confined only in Kailali and Kanchapur wear a distinctive short embroidered skirt along with blouses covered with silver coins. They complete their dress-ups with the heavy silver jeweler around their neck and ankles. Similarly, they have unique style of house construction, religion and historic background. The unparallel cultural integrity including dress, food habit and style of celebrating festivals are gradually modernized. Moreover, very little is known about the lifestyle of Ran Tharu (Gurung, 1992*).
In the absence of viable alternative resources, people’s dependency for firewood, fodder and settlement on Laljhadi Corridor has increased rapidly over the years. It resulted in the loss of wildlife habitat of wild elephant and tigers. To safeguard the higher conservation value of this jungle, the government of Nepal has implemented Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) for a few years. The village experienced an intense rainfall followed by an unprecedented amount of flood after 42 years in September, 2008. The flood displaced over 60% people to the fringe area of the Laljhadi Jungle.
On the whole, the village is endowed with rich cultural and biodiversity resources. However these resources are gradually being deteriorated. Now, the village needs programs that address issues of livelihood, culture, climate change and biodiversity simultaneously. In this backdrop, community based tourism would be a viable option. Kanchanpur District Periodic Plan and Landscape Level Ecotourism Plan of the WTLCP recognize this village as a potential tourism site. Besides, recent interaction meeting with local communities including teachers, village leader “Bhalmansa”, youth and conservation activist expressed strong desire to promote village tourism in Shankarpur.
Based on the community consultation and suggestions from various quarters, some activities are to be implemented in Shankarpur in the near future. First, villagers are to be exposed with village tourism sites like Sirubari, Sauraha and Shaktikhor. Second, an interaction meeting is to be held to share study tour experiences with stakeholders including DDC, Journalists, Tourism Board, Kanchanpur District Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DCCI), and private sectors. Third, a feasible study on community based tourism is to be carried out jointly by local community, Nepal Tourism Board and Kanchanpur DCCI. Then, once the report is prepared, it needs to be duly shared with various stakeholders, including Nepal Tourism Board, local and national private sectors, villages and other donors for funding. Finally, the area is to be included in Nepal Tourism Year Program 2011. To put the concept into effect, it needs supports from various quarters.
Acknowledgement
Thanks due to Ex-TRPAP staff members including Mingma Sherpa, Chet Nath Kanel, Ram Hari Devkota and Ramchandra Sedai; Basan Shrestha and Shree Kumar Maharjan for their kind feedback while conceptualizing this report.
Over 95% of 761 household are Rana Tharu, local inhabitant of this area as against the only 23% Tharu in the entire district. Rain fed agriculture is the main source of income to over 85% people of this area. Out of the four categories, the VDC falls under third rank in human development index, and first in human poverty index (DDC Kanchanpur, 2005). According to local people, each year two to three Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve destined tourist group pay visit to the area to experience Rana Tharu Culture.
Rana Tharu, who are confined only in Kailali and Kanchapur wear a distinctive short embroidered skirt along with blouses covered with silver coins. They complete their dress-ups with the heavy silver jeweler around their neck and ankles. Similarly, they have unique style of house construction, religion and historic background. The unparallel cultural integrity including dress, food habit and style of celebrating festivals are gradually modernized. Moreover, very little is known about the lifestyle of Ran Tharu (Gurung, 1992*).
In the absence of viable alternative resources, people’s dependency for firewood, fodder and settlement on Laljhadi Corridor has increased rapidly over the years. It resulted in the loss of wildlife habitat of wild elephant and tigers. To safeguard the higher conservation value of this jungle, the government of Nepal has implemented Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) for a few years. The village experienced an intense rainfall followed by an unprecedented amount of flood after 42 years in September, 2008. The flood displaced over 60% people to the fringe area of the Laljhadi Jungle.
On the whole, the village is endowed with rich cultural and biodiversity resources. However these resources are gradually being deteriorated. Now, the village needs programs that address issues of livelihood, culture, climate change and biodiversity simultaneously. In this backdrop, community based tourism would be a viable option. Kanchanpur District Periodic Plan and Landscape Level Ecotourism Plan of the WTLCP recognize this village as a potential tourism site. Besides, recent interaction meeting with local communities including teachers, village leader “Bhalmansa”, youth and conservation activist expressed strong desire to promote village tourism in Shankarpur.
Based on the community consultation and suggestions from various quarters, some activities are to be implemented in Shankarpur in the near future. First, villagers are to be exposed with village tourism sites like Sirubari, Sauraha and Shaktikhor. Second, an interaction meeting is to be held to share study tour experiences with stakeholders including DDC, Journalists, Tourism Board, Kanchanpur District Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DCCI), and private sectors. Third, a feasible study on community based tourism is to be carried out jointly by local community, Nepal Tourism Board and Kanchanpur DCCI. Then, once the report is prepared, it needs to be duly shared with various stakeholders, including Nepal Tourism Board, local and national private sectors, villages and other donors for funding. Finally, the area is to be included in Nepal Tourism Year Program 2011. To put the concept into effect, it needs supports from various quarters.
Acknowledgement
Thanks due to Ex-TRPAP staff members including Mingma Sherpa, Chet Nath Kanel, Ram Hari Devkota and Ramchandra Sedai; Basan Shrestha and Shree Kumar Maharjan for their kind feedback while conceptualizing this report.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Governance: Concept Verses Action
Ek Raj Sigdel
June 18, 2009 was the last day of two-day Natural Resources Governance training for forest user committees of Jhalari, Kanchanpur. With the financial support of Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP), the training was organised by Range post Level FECOFUN, Pipladi, Kanchanpur. A total of 16 including 50% female participated the training. The closing session of the training was attended by Ms. Manju Singh, Mr. Janak Bahadur Singh and Mr. Ek Raj Sigdel from WTLCP.
During closing session, as asked by Ms. Singh, a member of the training organisation committee read out the expenditure of all the agreed budget of Rs. 25,000 in broad headings, like report writing, resource person and materials. Then the chairperson asked the participants to endorse the expenditure by giving clap. Accordingly, some of his closers obeyed. However, some others showed the gesture of dissatisfaction.
As the training was for good governance, Mr. Sigdel reminded them that transparency is an essential component of good governance. It needs to be practiced. Therefore, he insisted them to bring out the expenditure of each and every penny into public and get signature of all the participants. In the mean time, Mr. Singh helped them writing the detailed expenditures against the approved budget. Then, he got the tentative expenditure of only Rs. 19,000 of the total planned budget of Rs. 25,000. The participants realised that the chairperson along with some of his friends was trying to pocket the unspent money.
Then, one of the participants asked to the WTLCP Officials where does the unspent money go then? Later, Mr. Sigdel responded them that the money has to be deposited at the project account. Surprisingly, some other participants expressed their desire of sharing the unspent money amongst them. This is a reflection of our society. This was not the first of this kind of case that the project had encountered.
Despite repeated request Godawari CFCC, another implementing partner of WTLCP in Kailali showed adamant to form a joint monitoring committee to monitor performance of WTLCP activities at local level. The project put its utmost efforts to convince the executive committee members to work in favour of local, poor, women and Dalit communities. All the efforts to change their attitude went into vain and finally in consultation with the local people a local NGO was identified as an implementing partner of WTLCP in Godawari.
While reviewing underlying factors of ill-intention of both of these aforementioned actors, both of the organisations were formed in a hurry and without adequate consultation with local communities. It seems that they had formed the organisations with the only objective of misusing project fund.
These could be the symbolic actors / organisations of the Nepalese society. From these two cases, it can be learned that reaching to the poorest of the poor by navigating various layers of elites groups that are cemented one above another in a form of pyramid is not an easy task. Strong social mobilisation followed by close monitoring of each and every activity is the must to bring benefits to the poorest of the poor sections of a society.
From this case, I got a mixed feeling, I am very much happy in the sense that we were able to expose the ill-intention of local leaders in front of the public on the other side I wondered how this kind of deep-rooted contractor "thekedari" mindset can be changed, which is essential for attaining the goal of the project.
During closing session, as asked by Ms. Singh, a member of the training organisation committee read out the expenditure of all the agreed budget of Rs. 25,000 in broad headings, like report writing, resource person and materials. Then the chairperson asked the participants to endorse the expenditure by giving clap. Accordingly, some of his closers obeyed. However, some others showed the gesture of dissatisfaction.
As the training was for good governance, Mr. Sigdel reminded them that transparency is an essential component of good governance. It needs to be practiced. Therefore, he insisted them to bring out the expenditure of each and every penny into public and get signature of all the participants. In the mean time, Mr. Singh helped them writing the detailed expenditures against the approved budget. Then, he got the tentative expenditure of only Rs. 19,000 of the total planned budget of Rs. 25,000. The participants realised that the chairperson along with some of his friends was trying to pocket the unspent money.
Then, one of the participants asked to the WTLCP Officials where does the unspent money go then? Later, Mr. Sigdel responded them that the money has to be deposited at the project account. Surprisingly, some other participants expressed their desire of sharing the unspent money amongst them. This is a reflection of our society. This was not the first of this kind of case that the project had encountered.
Despite repeated request Godawari CFCC, another implementing partner of WTLCP in Kailali showed adamant to form a joint monitoring committee to monitor performance of WTLCP activities at local level. The project put its utmost efforts to convince the executive committee members to work in favour of local, poor, women and Dalit communities. All the efforts to change their attitude went into vain and finally in consultation with the local people a local NGO was identified as an implementing partner of WTLCP in Godawari.
While reviewing underlying factors of ill-intention of both of these aforementioned actors, both of the organisations were formed in a hurry and without adequate consultation with local communities. It seems that they had formed the organisations with the only objective of misusing project fund.
These could be the symbolic actors / organisations of the Nepalese society. From these two cases, it can be learned that reaching to the poorest of the poor by navigating various layers of elites groups that are cemented one above another in a form of pyramid is not an easy task. Strong social mobilisation followed by close monitoring of each and every activity is the must to bring benefits to the poorest of the poor sections of a society.
From this case, I got a mixed feeling, I am very much happy in the sense that we were able to expose the ill-intention of local leaders in front of the public on the other side I wondered how this kind of deep-rooted contractor "thekedari" mindset can be changed, which is essential for attaining the goal of the project.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Indefinite Strike Over
Ek Raj Sigdel
May4, 2009
Indefinite Strike
The indefinite Terai closure called by the United Tharuhat Struggle Committee has been over after 12 days. According to them since the government had ignore
d the March 14, 2009 six point agreement made between the Government and the Tharuhat Committee, the Tharu community was compelled to adopt a strong measure against the government. The strike caused multiplier effects on the people of Terai as well as mountain region. The following sections describe the impact of the strike on Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) working areas, such as Kailali, Kanchanpur and Bardia and its mountain regions.
Impact on Livelihood
The continuous closure crippled entire services and facilities, like transportation, industry, education, and business, banking sector and government offices. During this period, import and export of essential commodities, like sugar, clothes between India and Nepal was blocked totally. It resulted in a daily loss of huge amount of revenue to the country. Mountain people (Dadeldhuhra, Bajhang and Doti) underwent a crisis of food and other essential commodities, like sugar, salt, fuel etc. According to a local FM, because of blockade of rabies vaccines at Dhangadi, some rabies affected people in TIM hospital of Dadeldhura were struggling against the death. Diesel and petrol in Terai as well as in Mountain regions were in short supply. Many people en-route to mountain areas from India had to make continuous walk of some 100 Km in the hot summer days (400 C!). Transportation and industrial labors in market centers were facing the problems of hand and mouth.
Impact on WTLCP Work
Despite observing long strikes, because of having committed local staff members, many of the field activities of the WTLCP project were in implementation even during the strike period. As the implementing partners have been involved in the entire project management cycle, with very clear understanding of the project goal and objectives, it helped a lot to smooth implementation of the project, even in such an unfavorable condition. In addition, based on the past experiences, this time, many activities were clumped together and made a bigger seized agreement with the implementing partners, mainly community forest user groups, and committees before the strike commencement date. As a result, field activities, like fire li
ne maintenance, trench construction, solar tuki distribution, community nursery management and ground work for wetland maintenance have almost been completed.
However, district based project activities got impacted by the project. From the very beginning of the strike days, project had to discharge its activities from a close door. Even in some days, considering deteriorating security situation, the project office had to be closed completely. The deteriorating situation hampered day to day work of the project. Similarly, the strike impacted negatively to some field activities, like field monitoring, trainings, technical back up to community nurseries, transplantation of jatropha seedlings and some wetland maintaining activities.
As local community had to manage resource person and training materials from their respective district head quarters, due to unavailability of transportation facilities most of the trainings could not be organized in time. Likewise, timely unavailability of poly bags at the field has caused delay in fixing about 20% seedlings of about half million tree species. Besides, the strike hampered regular coordination and interaction meetings with implementing partners and other stakeholders. Moreover, the long transportation strike has posed difficulties to collect local land races from different parts of the country to be distributed to local farmers. Similarly, the strike has made difficulties to find appropriate sites for establishing agro-diversity blocks and monitoring of school awareness activities.
Observation
Compared to March 2- 14, 2009 strike called by the same agitating group, this strike was found less effective. We saw small number of protesting people on the road compared to the previous strike. It seems that except a few agitated people, large sections of the society were unhappy with this strike. According to them, though the issues were genuine, majority of them had disagreement with the time and way of strike.
From this closure, the protestors could have learned that the indefinite closure will always not be a panacea for fulfilling their demands. Further, the nation will have different models of strike in the days to come, which will neither hamper the daily life of local people nor obstruct smooth implementation of development work. From the development projects’ point of view, it reiterates the fact that community based activities can only be implemented smoothly even in a difficult field situation if they are involved in the entire project management cycle. Also, it is learned that there should be some flexibilities to the project to adjust planned activities according to field situations.
d the March 14, 2009 six point agreement made between the Government and the Tharuhat Committee, the Tharu community was compelled to adopt a strong measure against the government. The strike caused multiplier effects on the people of Terai as well as mountain region. The following sections describe the impact of the strike on Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) working areas, such as Kailali, Kanchanpur and Bardia and its mountain regions.Impact on Livelihood
The continuous closure crippled entire services and facilities, like transportation, industry, education, and business, banking sector and government offices. During this period, import and export of essential commodities, like sugar, clothes between India and Nepal was blocked totally. It resulted in a daily loss of huge amount of revenue to the country. Mountain people (Dadeldhuhra, Bajhang and Doti) underwent a crisis of food and other essential commodities, like sugar, salt, fuel etc. According to a local FM, because of blockade of rabies vaccines at Dhangadi, some rabies affected people in TIM hospital of Dadeldhura were struggling against the death. Diesel and petrol in Terai as well as in Mountain regions were in short supply. Many people en-route to mountain areas from India had to make continuous walk of some 100 Km in the hot summer days (400 C!). Transportation and industrial labors in market centers were facing the problems of hand and mouth.
Impact on WTLCP Work
Despite observing long strikes, because of having committed local staff members, many of the field activities of the WTLCP project were in implementation even during the strike period. As the implementing partners have been involved in the entire project management cycle, with very clear understanding of the project goal and objectives, it helped a lot to smooth implementation of the project, even in such an unfavorable condition. In addition, based on the past experiences, this time, many activities were clumped together and made a bigger seized agreement with the implementing partners, mainly community forest user groups, and committees before the strike commencement date. As a result, field activities, like fire li
ne maintenance, trench construction, solar tuki distribution, community nursery management and ground work for wetland maintenance have almost been completed.However, district based project activities got impacted by the project. From the very beginning of the strike days, project had to discharge its activities from a close door. Even in some days, considering deteriorating security situation, the project office had to be closed completely. The deteriorating situation hampered day to day work of the project. Similarly, the strike impacted negatively to some field activities, like field monitoring, trainings, technical back up to community nurseries, transplantation of jatropha seedlings and some wetland maintaining activities.
As local community had to manage resource person and training materials from their respective district head quarters, due to unavailability of transportation facilities most of the trainings could not be organized in time. Likewise, timely unavailability of poly bags at the field has caused delay in fixing about 20% seedlings of about half million tree species. Besides, the strike hampered regular coordination and interaction meetings with implementing partners and other stakeholders. Moreover, the long transportation strike has posed difficulties to collect local land races from different parts of the country to be distributed to local farmers. Similarly, the strike has made difficulties to find appropriate sites for establishing agro-diversity blocks and monitoring of school awareness activities.
Observation
Compared to March 2- 14, 2009 strike called by the same agitating group, this strike was found less effective. We saw small number of protesting people on the road compared to the previous strike. It seems that except a few agitated people, large sections of the society were unhappy with this strike. According to them, though the issues were genuine, majority of them had disagreement with the time and way of strike.
From this closure, the protestors could have learned that the indefinite closure will always not be a panacea for fulfilling their demands. Further, the nation will have different models of strike in the days to come, which will neither hamper the daily life of local people nor obstruct smooth implementation of development work. From the development projects’ point of view, it reiterates the fact that community based activities can only be implemented smoothly even in a difficult field situation if they are involved in the entire project management cycle. Also, it is learned that there should be some flexibilities to the project to adjust planned activities according to field situations.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Perception Changed: A Case Study
Ek Raj Sigdel
April 27, 2009
"While going through the field verification report, I caught with a picture of plantation. Based on my previous knowledge, I could not imagine that the picture was really taken from the plantation site. Then, I d
ecided to visit the site in person. After visiting the plantation site, I got surprise and changed my old aged perception that if done properly and ownership is fully transferred to local community, then any work can be successful" said Janak Baral, one of the UNDP Commissioned Auditors, who was in Dhangadi to audit Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) records between April 13 and 16, 2009.
With the community consultations at household level and several rounds of mass meetings, some 180 families of the local communities of Kailali, Phulbari 3, Lalitpur, were convinced to plant various tree species in two third of the 30 hectare degraded open grazing land in July 2008. The land was being grazed by some 2000 unproductive cattle every day. On their own initiation, the local community encircled the planted land by two kilometre trench. They also appointed a forest guard to safeguard the plantation. In total, the plantation work coasted Rs. 3, 75,750, of which 40,000 tree saplings of eight different plant species,
like eucalyptus, bauhinia, bombax, bamboo equivalent of Rs. 1,16,000 was supported by WTLCP-Dhangadi.
ecided to visit the site in person. After visiting the plantation site, I got surprise and changed my old aged perception that if done properly and ownership is fully transferred to local community, then any work can be successful" said Janak Baral, one of the UNDP Commissioned Auditors, who was in Dhangadi to audit Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) records between April 13 and 16, 2009.With the community consultations at household level and several rounds of mass meetings, some 180 families of the local communities of Kailali, Phulbari 3, Lalitpur, were convinced to plant various tree species in two third of the 30 hectare degraded open grazing land in July 2008. The land was being grazed by some 2000 unproductive cattle every day. On their own initiation, the local community encircled the planted land by two kilometre trench. They also appointed a forest guard to safeguard the plantation. In total, the plantation work coasted Rs. 3, 75,750, of which 40,000 tree saplings of eight different plant species,
like eucalyptus, bauhinia, bombax, bamboo equivalent of Rs. 1,16,000 was supported by WTLCP-Dhangadi. Luckily, the devastating flood of Septembe 2008 did not disappoint the committed local communities, though it uprooted some 20% of the total seedlings.
Now, pointing towards the greenery land "these are my child and I should take care of the seedlings" said the forest guard. It is hoped that as the plantation being done in bottleneck area between Dudhuwa of India and Basanta of Nepal, it will
work as a corridor for wildlife movement on the one hand and on the other grasses and fodder that comes from the land will support sustainable livelihood of the local communities.
Now, pointing towards the greenery land "these are my child and I should take care of the seedlings" said the forest guard. It is hoped that as the plantation being done in bottleneck area between Dudhuwa of India and Basanta of Nepal, it will
work as a corridor for wildlife movement on the one hand and on the other grasses and fodder that comes from the land will support sustainable livelihood of the local communities. [WTLCP is a joint undertaking of the government of Nepal, UNDP, GEF, SNV, WWF, Bioversity International, NARC and LIBIRD].
Note: (First Photo taken in February 2008; Second Photo taken in July 2008 and Third Photo taken in April, 2009)
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