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.”
|
