HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

Problem Overview:

Conservation of parks and reserves

Background:

Activities:

The major activities initiated by the project in its first phase
were:

· formation of local grass roots organizations such as User Groups (UGs),
Function Groups (FGs), User Committees (UCs)

· organization of skill enhancement training

· income generation

· productive infrastructure development

· conservation education and awareness

· bufferzone community forestry development

· eco-tourism

Results and Replicability:

The first project phase emphasized project planning and implementation
through grass-roots organizations, which resulted in community development
and natural resource conservation. Here are some of the most ambitious
outputs:

· a total of 407 UGs were formed with 21,610 regular members. Of the
total UGs, 20% are completely women groups, 26% are men groups and 52%
are mixed groups. Among the total UG members 39% are women.

· 5 million rupees of community capital has been generated from 407
UGs through their weekly savings. The total credit disbursement reached
9.8 million. Out of the total credit disbursement 5.4 million was from
UGs own saving fund and 4.4 million was invested from the village credit
facility (VCF).

· The project's financial facilities helped rural women and the disadvantaged,
living close to the parks/reserves, to initiate alternative income activities
utilizing local resources that ultimately reduced their dependence on
the parks' resources.

· The project introduced local infrastructure development (e.g., irrigation
canal, deep tubewell boring, drinking water supply, community roads, river
embankment, fish pond, etc.) which have been accomplished with the support
of the VCF. Irrigation infrastructures provide year round irrigation to
approx. 3,850 ha. of land benefiting over 1,500 households. About 1,500
households have directly benefited from the drinking water supply infrastructure
initiated by the project.

· Under the skill enhancement activity, nearly 2,000 persons were trained
through 113 different training courses for vegetable farming, crop management,
agro-forestry, bamboo craft making, tailoring, hotel management, etc.

· Over 100 persons were trained as village specialists on veterinary
medicine, community health and nutrition. The trained village specialists
are now rendering services to their village communities and earning income
for their families livelihood.

· Over 20,000 people were reached by different media with conservation
and environmental awareness messages.

· The forestry activities planted 550,000 samplings of different species
in the buffer zone.

· An eco-tourism management plan for the Royal Chitwan National Park
(RCNP) has been prepared for the implementation by national authorities.

· A Souvenir Shop has been established in RCNP through joint assistance
of PPP and IUCN-Nepal; it is run by community members for selling souvenir
items produced by the buffer zone communities.

Due to the success of the first project phase UNDP has agreed to fund
a 2nd phase from January 1998 - December 1999. In the 2nd phase the project
will consolidate and replicate efforts made by the programme during its
1st phase. The programme advocates the community based approach to conservation
of park resources. Partnership arrangements will be forged between the
different groups formed by the communities in the buffer zone and the
park and forestry authorities to promote self-reliant social and economic
development with the final aim to protect and conserve of park resources.
The project will also provide technical assistance to the Ministry of
Forests and Soil Conservation (MOFSC) and the Department of National Park
and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) to promote the Parks and People apprach
and to develop macro-policies and instruments to institutionalise the
on-going initiatives. The project also aims to include 9 National Parks/Reserves
situated in the mountains of the country.

Submitted by:

Contact: Shireen Sayeed

shireen.sayeed@undp.org

M. Aminul Islam

m.aminul.islam@undp.org