Integrated watershed management project launched in Indrawati and Dudh Koshi river basins in the Eastern Nepal

The Vision: A globally unique landscape where biodiversity is conserved, ecological integrity is safeguarded, and sustainable livelihoods of its people are secured

Goal: To conserve the biodiversity, forests, soils and watersheds of the Terai and Churia Hills in order to ensure the ecological, economic, and socio-cultural integrity of the region.

• Nepal: 6 PAs Total area: 23,199 sq. km
• Bottlenecks: Dovan (Butwal), Lamahi (Dang), Mahadevpuri (Banke)
• Corridor: Barandabhar (Chitwan), Khata (Bardia), Basanta (Kailali), Laljhadi (Kanchanpur)

Thematic areas

• Sustainable forest management
  • (Sustainable forest management, Forest Restoration in the corridors and bottlenecks e.g. LAMAHI BOTTLENECK, Grassland restoration in priority sites)
• Species and ecosystem conservation
  • Molecular genetics of snow leopard piloted in Nepal, Tiger population monitoring {Chitwan: 125 adults (2010), Parsa: 4 (2009), Bardia: 18, Suklaphanta : 8}, Gharial Conservation in Nepal {81 Wild Gharial}
• Climate change and energy
• Sustainable livelihood
  • Sustainable livelihood: Income Generation Activities (forest based, agri based and off farm based) - Over 3,000 HHs directly benefitted
  • Over 500 HHs directly benefitted from climate change adaptation activities (Community awareness, Preparation of water smart communities, Seed banks, Disaster preparedness
• Policy and advocacy
• Conservation education, capacity building, Communication and marketing
• Planning, monitoring, development and coordination

• WWF Nepal entered into a new partnership with the Ministry of Land Reform and Management (MoRLM) by signing a 5- year MOU of joint cooperation with it (August 2).
• This partnership is intended to develop a National Land Use Policy for the country. This is by all means a path-breaking engagement for a conservation organizations like WWF.
• WWF country representative Mr. Anil Manandhar has been nominated as the member to the 8 member Steering Committee formed under the leadership of the secretary of the ministry. Other members are national experts, Director Generals (2) and joint Secretaries (3) from the ministry.
• 5 members Executive Committee to support the drafting of the National Land Use Policy has been formed by the ministry. Mr. Santosh Nepal nominated as a member to the Executive Committee which is headed by the joint secretary functioning as member secretary to the steering committee.
• This engagement may provide an opportunity to safeguard our decades of effort by bringing immunity (designating no go zones) to the important biological corridors, protected areas and other areas of national and global importance. Similarly, land use policy is the only instrument which could help protect the areas of biological importance by associating it to appropriate portfolio. For your information, Cairn Energy, having acquired the right to Oil and Gas exploration in Terai Arc Landscape (TAL), has plans to initiate seismic work from this winter. In future, designating areas of biological importance with some immune portfolio will possibly be the last resort to safeguard the biological important areas of the country.
• Institutionalization of National Tiger Conservation Committee, Wildlife Crime Control
• Bureau and South Asia Wildlife-Crime Enforcement Network (SAWEN)
• Adopting innovative technologies to curb poaching and illegal trade (Satellite telemetry and ID based monitoring)