Landscape Level Biodiversity Conservation in Nepal's Western Terai Complex

The project’s focus is on strengthening protected area management and integrating biodiversity conservation criteria with sustainable forest use and agricultural production in the surrounding productive landscape of Western Terai. Within the Western Terai Landscape comples, project interventions will occur in three sites, including two protected areas, Royal Bardia National Park and Royal Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve, their respective bufferzones, and priority areas in the intervening productive landscape that are critical for biodiversity conservation. The immediate objective is to establish effective management systems and build capacity for the conservation and sustainable use of Nepal's Western Terai landscape complex. A multisectoral and multistakeholder partnership will be developed in order to effectively address the long-term threats to biodiversity in the Western Terai landscape. The project’s landscape approach requires greater attention to stakeholder interaction and collaboration, given the multiple land uses and greater diversity of stakeholders involved as compared to a traditional protected area-focused project. The project will build upon Nepal’s rich experience in community-based conservation and natural resource (including agrobiodiversity) management. At the same time, it will reorient Nepal’s policy and legal framework and institutional arrangements towards ecosystem management through the landscape-level approach to biodiversity management. Ultimately, the project seeks to establish a landscape-level management model for safeguarding Nepal’s biological wealth and vital ecological functions in the long-term which may be replicable in other parts of the country (see paragraph 70 below for further details on how the project will facilitate replication of project approach and lessons).