September 4, 2009
The Magic Bus
It’s nothing but noise,” says Sanjeevani Yonzon commenting on the high- profile conference that concluded on Wednesday evening. “We have to bring change in the ground level and to achieve that, we need political will,” this 30 year old program manager at Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN) says skeptically.
Yonzon who is currently working on an environment manual intends to incorporate in to the national education curriculum by working closely with the Ministry of Education and other manual organizations; “We need to move away from the world of jargons and breakdown the language of scientist and experts and step down from the conference level and spread the message from garden to garden and village to village,” she says “It’s not awareness campaign I am referring to here. We need to stir emotions and instill environment intelligence and this is only achieved if we catch the young people.”
And since June 4 this year, the manual has been put on test with WCN’s mobile nature school conducting training in environment issues in line with the existing curriculum, but using alternative teaching methods and offering hands on experience to students. “Till SLC, environment science is just a mark- scoring subject and the curriculum is more or less the same throughout one’s schooling. There are holes in government text books. It doesn’t tell the students how they are
part of it too.”
So how does this mobile nature school fill in the holes anyways? A magic bus donated by DANIDA Denmark, Yonzon says is involved, which is currently testing the manual in and around the valley. Ten to sixteen teachers get inside a bus and travel to different parts of the suburban capital and meet students, teachers, organizations and locals in general. They then conduct workshops and disseminate information on the environment which especially poor, vulnerable and disadvantage groups are so dependent upon.” We are not working on a parallel curriculum but fulfilling the existing one and the workshops have sprung up ideas to further substantiate the manuals’ objective- impart a quick and better understanding of natural resources mainly water and tree,” says Yonzon.
Education works because it is not rocket science. “We have misses out the generation before us, our generation is not much in tune either and we can not afford to ruin the coming generation. The manual is our hope,” says Yonzon who first felt the affects of climate change four years back as mangoes ripened in the backyard of her maternal home. And then she went all papayas as she acknowledged the silent arrival of climate change. “ Marigolds are booming all over before their seasonal time, parrots were chirping and squawking, sparrows are rarely spotted …… erratic rainfall, all these are indicating us to one thing – the climate is changing and we have to cope with it,” she adds, “ and in no way, we can make money at the expense of environment.”
Source: Republica
September 3, 2009
Traders held
Acting on the information provided by WCN field operatives, Nepal Police arrested Gyan Prasad Gurung convicted in possessing a common leopard and a clouded leopard skin from his residence in Kusanti, Lalitpur on September 2, 2009 with the products. Gurung, 62, is a resident of Darling 3, Baglung District and is a farmer by occupation.
Similarly on the same day, Krishna Pariyar, 55, was also arrested from Ason, Kathmandu with a common leopard skin while trying to sell it. Pariyar is a resident of Soon tole 9, Sankhu.
Photo: Seized Products (Source - WCN)
Both the species are listed in CITES and in the Protected Species list under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 2029 of Nepal.
Source: WCN
September 2, 2009
Climate conference ends with 10-point agreement
The two-day regional conference on Climate Change concluded on Tuesday with a 10-point common agreement recognising the region’s vulnerability to climate change and with a call for financing the adaptation to effects on developed countries. The agreement also called on sharing of knowledge and cooperation among the region. This is the first time that a regional conference on climate change with government representatives has taken place. Nepal
took the leadership in hosting it.
“South Asia including Hindu-Kush Himalayan region is a climate change hotspot influencing half the world’s population. Climate change in this region will affect peoples and ecosystems from the mountains to the coast to the sea,” said the agreed statement.
Although there were expectations that a legally-binding declaration to tackle climate change would come out of the meeting to present at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December, the conference failed to come up with such a declaration. India said that its government has to approve to be a party to a declaration, according to a Nepali official involved in the negotiations.
“This is not a legally binding document but only a morally binding one,” said Batu Krishna Uprety of Nepal’s Ministry of Environment that hosted the conference. The participating countries—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka—also agreed that water resources are particularly impacted by climate change and that immediate and urgent action is required to address the challenge.
“Although the focus of the conference was the Himalayas, we have addressed all ecosystems of the region including countries like the Maldives,” R. R. Rashmi, joint secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Forests of India. “We did not have a common voice for Copenhagen,” said Kamal Uddin Ahmed of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Environment. “There will be opportunities to have more discussions later.”
The shared agreement also calls for financing mechanism on adaptation and transfer of technologies from the developed countries. “Finance must come from Annex 1 parties to the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change],” said the statement. The statement also calls on the Annex 1 countries, or developed countries, to transfer clean technologies to ensure green development.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
September 2, 2009
South Asia 'prone to climate change impact'
The climate change could directly threaten the water and food security of over 1.6 billion people of South Asia, preliminary findings of a new study financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has shown.The study warns that if current trends persist until 2050, the yields of irrigated crops in South Asia will decrease
significantly – maize (-17%), wheat (-12%) and rice (-10%) – because of climate change-induced heat and water stress, according to the press release issued by the ADB.
"South Asia's vulnerability to climate change has extremely serious implications for agriculture and therefore food security," Kunio Senga, Director General of ADB's South Asia Department, said Wednesday after a major climate change conference in Kathmandu. The conference was held to reach a consensus on key issues to be raised by South Asia governments during climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.
Produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute, the study, "Addressing Climate Change in the Asia and Pacific Region: Building Climate Resilience in the Agriculture Sector", will be officially launched by ADB on the sidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Bangkok in late September.
Source: www.ekantipur.com
August 31, 2009
Seven blackbucks die of FMD in a week
At least seven blackbucks have died of the foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Khairapur of Bardiya district where the endangered beasts are conserverd. Due to an outbreak of the FMD in the Blackbuck Conservation Area (BCA), four female and three male blackbucks, scientifically known as Antilope cervicapra, succumbed to the viral disease within a week. About 60 others are suffering from the disease badly. The disease has rendered them immobile and incapable of grazing.
The whole population of the endangered animal is under the threat of contracting the FMD as authorities have not taken any step to control the epidemic yet.The FMD is an acute contagious disease caused by virus, and it affects cloven-footed animals -- both wild and domestic ones. The BCA employees have claimed that the disease spread to the wildlife from the cattle. Although grazing has been prohibited, villagers trespass on the fenced-off conservation area to graze their cattle.
“If they are not treated soon, the rest of the blackbucks will die of the spreading disease,” said an official at the Bardiya National Park (BNP). The area was managed by the BNP before it was declared a separate conservation area. Meanwhile, Chief of the District Animal Health Office Krishnakanta Ghimire claimed that the authorities concerned have not informed his office about the FMD spread among the wildlife.
The government in March this year declared the conservation area in Khairapur covering an area of 15.95 sq. km. Blackbuck is one of the protected species under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1973 and enlisted as endangered and listed under Appendix II of CITES. According to the Deparment of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the the blackbuck population was 213 till March.
Source: www.ekantipur.com
