The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

6. Landscape conservation initiatives in Nepal: opportunities and challenges
conservation benefits to local communities (Budhathoki, 2003). Since 1997, more than US$1.2
million of park income has been recycled into the implementation of conservation and
development activities in the buffer zone areas (DNPWC, 2003). To date more than 700,000
people in 185 Village Development Committees (or VDCs), which are the lowest political unit,
have directly or indirectly benefited from the programme.
In Nepal, both conservation area and buffer zone management are now widely adopted and
practised approaches to conservation. There are three conservation areas, which altogether
cover about 42% of the total area under protected area regimes. In addition, 11 of the 16
protected areas in Nepal have been implementing a buffer zone management pro gramme. The
management of both conservation areas and buffer zones is based on a careful integration of
conservation and development priorities, and incorporates all the key elements of the Category
V protected landscape approach. According to Lucas (1992), the Annapurna Conservation
Area, which for many years has been adopting integrated conservation concepts, is one of the
best examples of protected landscape management in the developing world.
Globally, it has been accepted that protected areas cannot exist as unique islands but as
places in a land-use matrix (IUCN, 2003; Phillips, 2002). In Nepal also, the landscape-based
conservation approach has been adopted as an opportunity to scale up conservation initiatives
for long-term biodiversity conservation. Successful experiences of conservation area and
buffer zone management programmes have been instrumental in the country’s effort to embark
upon larger, landscape-level conservation initiatives. Nepal’s National Biodiversity Strategy
(NBS) has identified these as a viable strategy, linking conservation with poverty alleviation.
The NBS document prescribed the lowland Terai and Eastern Himal Areas as priority land -
scape complexes for these initiatives. Various international conservation and development
agencies such as IUCN – The World Conservation Union, the Worldwide Fund for Nature
(WWF) and the United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility
(UNDP/GEF) have been collaborating with the government in implementing these projects.
Fig. 3
Landscape conservation complexes
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