Land Management Campaign at Sakteng:
Effective from June 17th 2006, the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary management conducted a two days Land Management Campaign in the park area. Activities during the campaign included planting of trees, stem cutting, broadcasting fodder grass seeds, constructing check dams and other necessary techniques in the degraded areas of Sakteng. The purpose of the campaign is to check and prevent further loss/degradation of land and biodiversity and secondly to take the message of “Land Management Campaign further to the remote parts of the park.
The campaign brought in an active participation from the communities and the other district offices.

Ecotourism meet:
The Tourism Authority of Bhutan together with tour agents of Bhutan organized a small talk on the conservation in tourism on the 16th of June. Officials from government, RSPN and WWF attended. The talk focused on the hazards of uncontrolled tourism and the rules and regulations that can be set in place for eco-friendly tourism.

CEPF (Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund) inception workshop for the grantees:
17th of June saw the inception meeting of the WWF Bhutan and the CEPF grantees. The grantees were made aware of the processes and procedures to apply for the CEPF and also introduced to the concept of CEPF projects. There were about 25 participants.

National Assembly’s resolution for district environmental officer:
The people’s representatives prevailed in their push for independent environment officers in the districts despite objections from the government.

NWFP Presentation by Dr. Chandrashekaran:
Dr. Chandrasekharan, the consultant for the FAO/WWF/FRDD funded project on non wood forest product, conducted a presentation for al the stakeholders. He presented his findings on the viability and the importance of the non wood forest products programs in the country. His papers indicated various products that could be included in the program in the future.
 

First WWF- B-mobile gift scheme receipent (26th June, 2006):

Namgay, a businessman from Gelephu is the first person to claim the WWF-Bmobile gift scheme. Started a few months back, the scheme was to spread the message of conservation to the mass of Bhutan. Since the spread of the Bmobile users are wide in the country, WWF saw the opportunity to use their recharge vouchers to start the scheme. They not only use the vouchers to recharge their mobile phones but at the same time learn about the flora and fauna of Bhutan.

Namgay, who had heard about WWF, was never aware of the term conservation. On inquiry he expressed his desire to learn more about nature and conservation. He said that his interest in nature developed while inquiring about the identities of the animals in the recharge voucher that he collected. "Proio to this, I knew there were animals but they never evoked the interest in me to learn more about them," said Namgay. He felt like a small kid identifying the names of the animals. He had heard about Takin, but had never before seen one so he found it quite educational to learn about it in the recharge voucher card.

New Multi-Million Dollar Investments will Help
Protect Himalayan Species

BHUTAN, May 26, 2006 -- WWF, the global conservation organization, and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) today announced a $5 million investment program to pioneer new ways to conserve the immense natural wealth of the Eastern Himalayas region.

The program will provide grants for nongovernmental organizations, community groups and other sectors of civil society to help save the highest priority species, sites and landscapes for conservation in Bhutan, northeastern India and parts of Nepal. Call for proposals will be made in each of the three countries in early June.

The Eastern Himalayas harbor critical areas offering the greatest chance for long-term survival of tigers, Asian elephants and other globally threatened species. However, many of these species face extinction as a result of chronic over-use of natural resources, conversion of forests for agriculture and unsustainable wildlife trade. The consequences are especially severe where human population density is high.

“Unsustainable extraction of fuelwood, timber, and other forest products and large scale infrastructure development is creating fragmentation of wildlife habitats that is leaving less room for tigers and snow leopards to roam,” said Mingma Sherpa, the managing director of WWF’s Eastern Himalayas Program who will lead a WWF team to oversee implementation of the CEPF strategy in the region. “Human communities also share this habitat for their sustenance, so socioeconomic consequences are very real.”

The grant funding will be made possible by CEPF, a joint initiative of Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. The Fund is designed to enable civil society to take part in biodiversity conservation alongside governmental partners in the world’s biologically richest yet most threatened ecosystems.

WWF developed the CEPF “ecosystem profile” and investment strategy for the Eastern Himalayas based on extensive research and stakeholder consultations organized by BirdLife International in collaboration with WWF, the Centre for Environmental Education and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.

Each grant awarded will help implement the strategic directions and investment priorities identified in the profile.

The organizations made the announcement as part of launching the new Regional Implementation Team led by WWF for CEPF investments in the Eastern Himalayas. The team will be responsible for the strategic implementation of the profile and for building a broad constituency of civil society groups working across institutional and geographic boundaries toward achieving shared conservation goals.

“Partnerships including government agencies, non-profit organizations, business firms, and local communities offer the best prospects for success in economic development that is sustainable,” said Dan Martin, senior managing director at the CEPF Secretariat at Conservation International’s headquarters in Washington DC. “Supporting such partnerships is key to the CEPF approach and conservation success.”