Nepal Biodiversity Strategy.

The Nepal Biodiversity Strategy is a national strategic document with a cross-sectoral approach. The overall objective is to provide a framework for the conservation of biological diversity, the maintenance of ecological systems and the equitable sharing of the benefits accrued from them. Specific objectives concern: a) preservation of indigenous and endemic species and biological resources; b) alleviation of poverty and socioeconomic development in rural areas; c) participation of local communities, indigenous peoples and the public in general; d) enhancing education for public participation and awareness; e) improvement of the management process of other natural resource sectors including forests, agricultural lands, wetlands, rangelands and mountains; g) human resource development, institutional capacity building and the empowerment of women leading to full participation at all levels.
Special regard is given to the sustainable use of natural resources. In-situ conservation will be enhanced for the conservation and recovery of viable populations of species naturally as well as for the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded ecosystems. Regarding forest management, emphasis will be given to revitalize the degraded ecosystems and to restore the flora and fauna. The involvement of disadvantaged groups and women in community forestry management will be ensured. A rangeland policy will be established to encourage herders to adopt better technologies and practices in order to integrate biodiversity conservation with range and livestock development. For the development of forges an integrated management planning will be established. Priority will be given to establishing forage and hay crops, developing appropriate technologies for fodder conservation, using fallow and marginal land for forage cultivation, improving profitability of livestock rearing and crops, supporting seed production of forages, integrating food-forage crop systems, conducting improved feeding demonstrations and testing winter forage species. Regarding agrobiodiversity, high priority will be given to adopt participatory plant breeding approaches for other important crops in Nepal.
As mentioned, the strategy aims at contributing to the reduction of poverty in rural areas. The document adopts a landscape planning approach and will declare buffer zones around national parks and reserves to address growing needs of people who depend on these natural resources for their livelihoods.
Further the strategy aims at enabling more inclusive agricultural systems. The active involvement of local people will be sought in conservation management systems to enhance people’s participation and promote ownership of conservation programmes by communities. Indigenous knowledge and innovations pertinent to the conservation of biodiversity will be fully acknowledged and used wherever possible, at the same time providing optimum benefit to local indigenous communities in a sustainable manner. The potential for developing sustainable tourism of natural heritage will be promoted and efforts will be made for the involvement of local people. Forest user groups will be given training to manage blocks of forests, as they are officially divided, on a rotational basis, which will allow sufficient time for plant regeneration in ‘fallow’ forests. The role of women in biodiversity and natural resource management will be fully recognized, and their participation in decision-making will be sought. Participation by all key stakeholders will be enabled to bridge the information gap for comprehensive biological inventories and monitoring schemes. High priorities will be given to increasing financial and technical support for biodiversity research and conservation. Priority will also be given to institution building, human capacity building, and the transfer of hard and soft technology to effectively conserve and use components of biodiversity. Farmer’s rights in Nepal will focus on rights arising from past, present and future contributions in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic resources; these rights will be vested in the international community as trustee. Rules of conduct will be developed to control the export of crude plants collected throughout the country for meagre quick profits. Strategies to promote the sustainable safeguarding of wetland habitats will cover the following activities: development and implementation of a unified national wetland policy and legislation, research on wetland resources to make scientific data available, identification of critical wetland habitats and declaring them protected areas, updating and improvement of the existing wetlands directory and database, identification of an institution responsible for coordinating the wise use and conservation of wetlands, and to work on resolving land-use conflicts. A national mountain policy will be developed to lay the foundation for mountain biodiversity management principles.
The National Biodiversity Unit will be strengthened to be integrated into cross-sectoral agencies in particular with the Ministry of Agriculture. A comprehensive data base of Nepal’s agro-biodiversity will be established. For the coordination and implementation of policies for conservation and sustainable use of biological resources Nepal will establish better coordination between relevant agencies and different levels of government.