Threats in Nepal - Insurgency

An ongoing armed conflict is a challenging work environment

Despite the peace-loving nature of Nepalese people, the country is currently undergoing a severe political crisis. A Maoist rebel movement took to arms in 1996, and the ongoing insurgency has so far claimed over 11,000 lives.

As in all armed conflicts, ordinary people and nature are the ones who suffer the most. In rural Nepal, ordinary people have died in mine explosions, and road blocks by the insurgents have prevented food supplies and medicines from reaching distant villages.

Tourism has suffered heavily
Tourism, one of the main sources of income for the country, has come down as well. As the numbers of visiting tourists have decreased, there also is less money available for conservation, since entrance fees of national parks provide part of the funding for conservation activities. 

Despite the problems, the TAL project is a remarkable example of how to achieve results in conservation even during an armed conflict. The key to this is working in close cooperation with local communities, focusing on activities that improve their lives.

Poaching increases during peaks of conflict
It is often thought that conservation is impossible during an armed conflict, but the success achieved by the TAL project has proven this notion wrong. In fact, the need for conservation is seldom as acute as during a conflict. Populations of animals with commercial value, such as rhinos and tigers, tend to fall during civil unrest.

"Looking at statistics on rhino poaching in Nepal, it is easy to see that the peaks in poaching coincide with the years when the conflict has escalated", notes Anil Manandhar, Conservation Program Director for WWF Nepal.

Prevention is better than cure
Thus it is not an option to sit back and think - let's wait for the armed conflict to end and then do some conservation after that. "It is essential to protect the populations while they still are viable", says Dr. Chandra Gurung, Country Representative for WWF Nepal.

He points out that if we wait for the populations to collapse first, and then start protecting them, bringing the populations back will take a lot more resources and effort compared to preventing the collapse in the first place. Moreover, allowing populations to shrink decreases their genetic diversity that will not come back even when the numbers increase again.

Nature conservation helps the nation in several ways
Conservation can help a nation in unexpected ways, even during a political crisis. The development aspect of the TAL project has not only improved the lives of thousands of rural people by providing biogas systems for cooking, toilets for improved hygiene, literacy training etc., but have also helped to keep the hope alive.

Village after village, this is easy to see in the enthusiasm with which rural people have embraced the project. Another beneficial by-product is the fact that the project promotes local decision-making processes that are designed to benefit all the participants.

"Because of insurgency, there are no local elected authorities at the moment. Thus there is also no government to do development work at a local level", says Rajendra Gurung, Program Officer for Terai in WWF Nepal. "In addition to promoting development itself, the developmental aspect in the TAL project also helps people to build good government on a local level."