Lessons from Nepal on Developing a Strategic Plan - World Lake ...

• Major problems of the Phewa are shoreline encroachment,water pollution and sedimentation. Hence, basicstrategy for conservation of Phewa includes: extendits life span, maintain its cleanliness and promote it asan attractive tourist destination. To achieve this target,<strong>from</strong> current polluted status, there exists a need of anintegrated and holistic approach along with sharing ofresponsibilities and benefits among the stakeholders.• Any focus given to the conservation of the Phewa lakeneeds great efforts to integrate “hard ware” and “software” components exemplified by construction ofdiversion canal to mitigate problem of water pollution,constructed wetlands to check sediment load, conservationof threatened species and habitats e.g. wild riceand fish spawn site and institutional strengthening. Forthis, basics for management of lakes includes: watershedapproach, intersectional coordination, stakeholders’involvement and effective institutional arrangementfor implementation/ monitoring (Borre et al.,2001). Sustenance of economic development projectsis not meaningful in absence of active involvement ofpeople (Banskota and Sharma, 1998).• Lakes are environmentally sensitive and integrated part ofa watershed lying at lowest level is vulnerable to sedimentationand pollution. This implies conservation of lake needcoverage in watershed and ecosystem basis. This emphasizeon systemic approach (Jorgensen and Vollenweider,1989). On account of high sensitivity and importance ofthe lake area, it has been proposed to declare “Phewa Lakewatershed conservation area” (IUCN, 1995b), however, ithas not been implemented yet.• Local community can be motivated to integrate incomegeneration and nature conservation such as through tea,coffee plantation in erosion prone hilly areas which isdemonstrated in the conservation of the Rupa lake. Aseconomic development governs environmental conservation,promotion of income generating activities holdssubstantial importance in relation to effectively implementingenvironmental plans into action (Shrestha,1999). Current cage fish culture, boating, hotel ad restaurantsbusiness could provide more incentives tolocal communities and business society with proper anintegration of sustainable income generation schemewith the conservation of Phewa.• Pokhara valley is enriched with many lakes in additionto Phewa. Other lakes are Begnas, Rupa, Maidi,Khaste, Dipang, Neureni, and Kamal Pokhari lyingwithin a couple hours of traveling distance. Hence,wisdom interlinking conservation of Phewa with otherthese lakes is important that require setting a strategicdirection envisioning Phewa lake conservation not inisolation.Conservation Of Phewa Lake Of Pokhara, <strong>Nepal</strong>• A long period time has been passed after the developmentof Phewa Lake Conservation Plans (1997) and,Phewa Lake Conservation Guidelines (1995). A newfederalism structure also has recently been emerged in<strong>Nepal</strong>. Hence, there is a great need of improvement inthe Plans and Guidelines under new governance - federalism.Further, current silent state of endowment trustmechanism of Phewa conservation should be revivedas well as be operational.• Criss-crossed and rugged hills of the <strong>Nepal</strong>ese geographyare very specific to nature and function of lakeswith densely populated demography backgroundaround them elsewhere in <strong>Nepal</strong>. It implies on thesustenance of lakes that depends on complex dynamicsposed by watersheds, rivers and lake basins. In thiscontext, Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) arecent management prescription guided under ‘WorldLake Vision’ could be an appropriate for the sustainableconservation of the Phewa lake. For this, wisdomis to establish functional linkages with the InternationalLake Environment Committee, which is an innovatorand architecture of ILBM development. Such functionallinkage would help <strong>Nepal</strong> building its technical andmanagerial capacities towards sustainable functioningof lakes in <strong>Nepal</strong>.ConclusionThe Phewa probably is the most important lake that hashigh gravity in terms of lake tourism. Phewa does not providethe first hand opportunity to attract tourists, but has2 nd option to promote tourism by having an advantage oftransit venue for tourists trekking other parts of the countrymaking Pokhar a transit. However, lake encroachment andsedimentation followed by water pollution would remainvibrant threats that need immediate strategy to address.Conservation of Phewa should not be seen in isolation sincethe Pokhara valley has other eight lakes of diverse natureand values. Conservation of Phewa has been discussed indifferent fora though successful implementation of outcomesof such discussion never resulted into affirmativeresults. Such case also happened in a support of JICA whichpulled out its project to improve environment condition ofthe Pokhara town including improvement of the Phewalake. What had happened before are a part of history, nowsole management responsibility of the Phewa ultimatelygoes to action agenda of the NLCDC. Phewa lake needsto integrate some of the issues related to urban and othersof rural setting. Hence, a comprehensive effort should beasserted so tourism value of Phewa be always placed at topfollowed by other conservation incentives directly payingto local livelihoods provided that stake of all partners arewell respected in the management of Phewa lake. NLCDCis aiming to initiate a study towards designating all lakesof the Pokhara valley in the Ramsar list. If this initiativematerializes well may help opening a new avenue for management,though one should be careful of not curtailing theaccess of beneficiaries over the best use of lake resources.7