Location
Nepal, a country of amazing extremes is the home of the world’s highest mountains, historic cities and the forested plains where the regal tigers and the armor-plated greater one-horned rhinoceros trundle at ease.
Location
Situated in South Asia and surrounded by the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China in the north and by India in the south, east and west, the Kingdom of Nepal cover an area of 147,181 sq. km (between 80° 4’ and 88° 12’ East and 26° 22’ and 30° 27’ North). The length of the Kingdom is 885 kilometers east to west and varies between 145 to 241 kilometers north to south.
It represents a transitional zone of two bio-geographical realms: the Palearctic and the Indo-Himalayan. It is also at the crossroads of Southeast Asian, Northeast Asian (Chinese) and Mediterranean tracts. Nepal can be divided broadly into three ecological zones: the lowland (Terai), the mid-hills and the high mountains.
The altitude of the Himalayan region ranges between 4,877 m. to 8,848 m. It includes eight of the highest 14 summits in the world, which exceed an altitude of 8,000 meters including the world's highest mountain Sagarmatha (Mount Everest).
The mountain region accounts for about 64% of the total land area, which is formed by the Mahabharat range that soars up from 4,877 m. and the lower Churia range. The lowland Terai occupies about 17% of the total land area of the country.
Similarly, the climatic condition ranges from the sweltering heat of the Terai in the lowland to the freezing cold in the Himalayan highland. As a result of extreme variations in altitude and climate, the flora and fauna of Nepal demonstrate a wide range of diversity.
Competing for space within 1,000-km. east-west and 200 km. north-south, this small rectangle of topographical and hydrological extremes host over 6,500 flowering plants, 181 mammal, 862 bird, and 640 butterfly species. It is also home to more than 23 million people. Although Nepal occupies only 0.09% of the total land surface of the earth, it has nearly 5% of mammalian species of the world total.alities
Realities and Challenges
Nepal has been classified by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) as the highest risk zone in Asia in terms of the ecological crisis. The root cause of all environmental problems being the poverty compounded by an ever-growing population.
The direct impact of the country’s socio-economic realities on the natural and cultural diversity is magnified by widespread illiteracy, inaccessibility to basic services and financial constraints.
The direct impact of the country’s socio-economic realities on the natural and cultural diversity is magnified by widespread illiteracy, inaccessibility to basic services and financial constraints.
The country is predominantly agricultural with many subsistence farmers depending on marginal lands for their livelihood. The fast-growing population has had serious repercussions on the nation’s economy and ecology. They depend on agriculture and fast depleting forests for fuel, fodder, and timber.
The situation has been further aggravated by commercial logging, shifting cultivation, uncontrolled grazing and encroachment of forest lands. All this has resulted in increased soil erosion, sedimentation, floods, and landslides. Similarly, the inadequate ecological consideration in development activities and the uncontrolled influx of visitors in ecologically fragile regions have further intensified environmental degradation.
Drive for Conservation
Nepal recognized its susceptibility to ecological risks as early as the 1960s. By the mid-1970s, Nepal Government took the first initiative to establish national parks and reserves in areas of biological and natural significance. Within three decades, Nepal has set aside more than 19% of the total land area as protected areas under various categories.
However, the earlier efforts in conservation were identical to the western system where national parks and reserves were considered as islands of wilderness amidst a sea of people. Once demarcated, the people were forfeited from their traditional rights to use the natural resources inside the parks and reserves. In other words, the concerns of people living in the park periphery were ignored. This led to intense park-people conflicts negating the achievements made in terms of conservation.
These realities pointed to the need for Nepal to come up with alternative approaches for effective conservation measures while addressing the needs of the local people. The underlying objectives of such a plan were to be able to fulfill the basic requirements of the local people while maintaining a balance between nature conservation and sustainable development.
As the government did not have this flexibility, this called for the establishment of an institution, preferably an institution that had the capacity to work like a nongovernmental organization that would be able to supplement and complement the government’s efforts in nature conservation and sustainable development. This led to the establishment of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC).
The National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), established in 1982 by a Legislative Act, is an autonomous and not-for-profit organization mandated to work in the field of nature conservation in Nepal. Over the past three decades, NTNC has successfully undertaken more than three hundred small and large projects on nature and biodiversity conservation, clean energy and climate change, as well as cultural heritage protection, ecotourism, and sustainable development through active engagement of local communities. NTNC works closely with the Government of Nepal in the management of protected areas by directly managing three mountain protected areas and assisting the government in all the low land parks. Our research outcomes have been especially instrumental in evidence-based decision making at the policy level. The Trust’s experience over the years has shown that conservation efforts in low-income economies, such as Nepal, cannot be successful, much less sustainable unless the needs and welfare of the local people are addressed. Holistic and integrated conservation and development program with active people’s participation aimed at promoting local guardianship has been the focus of our activities.
The Trust's activities extend from the sub-tropical plains of Chitwan, Bardia and Kanchanpur in the lowlands to the Annapurna, Manaslu and Gaurishankar regions of the high Himalayas, including the trans-Himalayan region of Upper Mustang and Manang. NTNC's projects are spread across all three geographical areas - the lowland, the mid-hills (Kathmandu Valley) and the high mountains. The Trust’s activities in the lowlands are based in and around the Chitwan National Park, Parsa National Park, Banke National Park, Bardia National Park, Shuklaphanta National Park, and Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve through the Biodiversity Conservation Center (BCC) in Chitwan, the Bardia Conservation Program (BCP) in Bardia and the Suklaphanta Conservation Program (SCP) in Kanchanpur. The Central Zoo is the only project of the Trust in Kathmandu Valley. Protected areas managed by the Trust in the mountain region include the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA), Manaslu Conservation Area (MCA) and Gaurishankar Conservation Area (GCA).
Emerging challenges caused by global environmental issues have called for increased focus in areas related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. NTNC is in the process of accreditation in the Global Climate Fund as a 'direct access entity'. The Trust also works in the urban environment particularly, the Bagmati River Conservation Project and urban greening in partnership with the local municipalities. In making a lasting difference in the conservation impact of the country, besides government, community and other local bodies, we work closely with multilateral agencies and international donors through specialized projects.
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