The Parks and People Project of Nepal

Summary:

From 1995-1997, the Parks and People Project was implemented in five terai protected areas by His Majesty's Government of Nepal with the financial and technical assistance of UNDP. The project has launched various activities in the project areas to achieve two main objectives:
- increase the socio-economic level of the bufferzone communities
- conserve the biodiversity of parks/reserves and their surrounding

Conservation of parks and reserves

Background:

Activities:

The major activities initiated by the project in its first phase were:

· formation of local grass roots organizations such as User Groups (UGs), Function Groups (FGs), User Committees (UCs)

· organization of skill enhancement training

· income generation

· productive infrastructure development

· conservation education and awareness

· bufferzone community forestry development

· eco-tourism

Results and Replicability:

The first project phase emphasized project planning and implementation through grass-roots organizations, which resulted in community development and natural resource conservation. Here are some of the most ambitious outputs:

· a total of 407 UGs were formed with 21,610 regular members. Of the total UGs, 20% are completely women groups, 26% are men groups and 52% are mixed groups. Among the total UG members 39% are women.

· 5 million rupees of community capital has been generated from 407 UGs through their weekly savings. The total credit disbursement reached 9.8 million. Out of the total credit disbursement 5.4 million was from UGs own saving fund and 4.4 million was invested from the village credit facility (VCF).

· The project's financial facilities helped rural women and the disadvantaged, living close to the parks/reserves, to initiate alternative income activities utilizing local resources that ultimately reduced their dependence on the parks' resources.

· The project introduced local infrastructure development (e.g., irrigation canal, deep tubewell boring, drinking water supply, community roads, river embankment, fish pond, etc.) which have been accomplished with the support of the VCF. Irrigation infrastructures provide year round irrigation to approx. 3,850 ha. of land benefiting over 1,500 households. About 1,500 households have directly benefited from the drinking water supply infrastructure initiated by the project.

· Under the skill enhancement activity, nearly 2,000 persons were trained through 113 different training courses for vegetable farming, crop management, agro-forestry, bamboo craft making, tailoring, hotel management, etc.

· Over 100 persons were trained as village specialists on veterinary medicine, community health and nutrition. The trained village specialists are now rendering services to their village communities and earning income for their families livelihood.

· Over 20,000 people were reached by different media with conservation and environmental awareness messages.

· The forestry activities planted 550,000 samplings of different species in the buffer zone.

· An eco-tourism management plan for the Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) has been prepared for the implementation by national authorities.

· A Souvenir Shop has been established in RCNP through joint assistance of PPP and IUCN-Nepal; it is run by community members for selling souvenir items produced by the buffer zone communities.

Due to the success of the first project phase UNDP has agreed to fund a 2nd phase from January 1998 - December 1999. In the 2nd phase the project will consolidate and replicate efforts made by the programme during its 1st phase. The programme advocates the community based approach to conservation of park resources. Partnership arrangements will be forged between the different groups formed by the communities in the buffer zone and the park and forestry authorities to promote self-reliant social and economic development with the final aim to protect and conserve of park resources. The project will also provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MOFSC) and the Department of National Park and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) to promote the Parks and People apprach and to develop macro-policies and instruments to institutionalise the on-going initiatives. The project also aims to include 9 National Parks/Reserves situated in the mountains of the country.

Submitted by:

Information Date: 1998-01-01
Information Source: United Nations Development Programme

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