Forests and water are important entities for sustaining life on earth. In a terrestrial ecosystem, linkages between the entities creates a mosaic benefiting wildlife. In turn, communities get benefits stemming up from ecosystem services such as fodder, fuelwood, and water. We present a case study from a forest restoration project to assess the linkages between forest, water and wildlife across the Lamahi bottleneck area in Terai Arc Landscape. We used a combination of surveys such as forest area and canopy cover change (2001-2016) analysis followed by identification of water sources, camera trapping survey, household questionnaire survey, and process documentation. Forest area has increased by ~20 km 2 in last 15 years followed by number of water sources along the identified tributaries. Water sources are conserved in the form of conservation ponds by communities living downstream and utilized irrigation water in vegetable farming. Communities have benefited financially (~US$ 1252) contributing to their income level from the sale of fresh seasonal vegetables in nearby markets. Camera trap surveys including the assessment of historical records has shown a presence of wildlife including elephants, hyenas, and other small carnivores in and around the bottleneck forest. Both, motivation and enthusiastic support from local communities followed by conducive government policies led to the improved condition of natural resources over the period. This has also created a mosaic for wildlife forming functional connectivity along the linear Terai Arc Landscape.
Conservation and management of biodiversity is complex and a localized phenomenon in the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) which is inhabited by 7.4 million people out of which 25 per cent are still below the poverty line. There is significant interaction between the human and natural resources with diverse values of biodiversity and ecosytem services to the local populations. The implications of variations in terms of dependence on natural resources are that conservation and management strategies broadly vary across the landscape. Success and failures of conservation strategy/approach cannot commonly be extrapolated across this diverse landscape. While many projects in TAL have failed, some have succeeded too and is shaped by multiple factors including the type and level of human interactions with biodiversity. This review article provides reflections on experiences of decades of Community Based Conservation (CBC) in Nepal with a specific focus on Chitwan National Park and its buffer zone located in TAL. CBC confronts newer challenges and issues pertaining to inadequate mechanisms to address communities beyond buffer zones in a scenario where conservation needs to move beyond the conventional boundaries of parks and buffer zones, equitable benefit sharing, inequalities within communities, increasing human-wildlife conflicts, ecotourism, nexus of poverty-livelihood and conservation. However, CBC offers greater potentials and opportunities for greater local community engagement in a changing context to reconcile local development with conservation.
The consequences of climate change on species and ecosystems are evident, and the landscape of Nepal does not remain unaffected. Himalayan region is climate sensitive, even a tiny fluctuation in climate can markedly affect numerous species and their habitats. Moreover, the Himalayan region is inhabited by some of the most threatened and endangered biodiversity on Earth, including habitat specialists and endemic species, which may accelerate the extinction of some species. Hence, species affected by climate change should be monitored and identified as faunal indicators of climate change in (Chitwan Annapurna Landscape) CHAL. For that, we compared studies conducted by the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF Hariyo Ban Program). First, we identified the common and overlapping species. Second, we identified the critical species for climate monitoring based on habitat range, elevation, role as habitat specialist/generalist, and impact observed in previous studies based on the species occurrence in that region. Species with a long-life span, specialist habitat type, and short home range are exposed to climate change for extended periods, making them more vulnerable as per the literature. In particular, our results demonstrate that the one-horned rhinoceros found in the lower belt of Nepal and snow leopard, and pika, being habitat specialists, with low reproductive rate and cannot tolerate change in temperature experience a high impact owing to climate change and can be used as indicators of climate change. In addition to that Assasames Monkey and elephant has medium impact and hence can be considered as the indicator to monitor climate change. However this study does not incorporate specific species-based study regarding the impact of climate change which is required to assess climate change sensitivity to facilitate global wildlife protection.
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