STATUS OF WATERSHED MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AND IDENTIFICATION OF NEEDED RESEARCH

Kumar P. Upadhyay
Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management
Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation
Kathmandu, Nepal

INTRODUCTION

Physical Background

Nepal is a mountainous country situated on the southern slopes of the mid-Himalayas and covers some 141,577 sq. km. It is located between 80' and 88°E longitude and 27° and 30°N latitude. The altitude varies from less than 100 m above sea level to the top of Mount Everest (8860 M). For most purposes the country can be divided into three major zones: the Mountains, Hills and Tarai zones (Table 1).

Table 1. Nepal: Population, cultivated and forested area.

Sources: Central Bureau of Statistics, HMG.

Asian Development Bank, Nepal Agricultural Sector Strategy, Vol. 1. World Bank, Nepal, Second Forestry Project 1983.

The Tarai zone occupies about 17% of Nepal and is the extension of Indo-gangetic Plain. It is bounded in the north by the ridges of Siwalik Hills and in the south by the Indian border. The southernmost flat belt consists of mostly silt and clay-sized materials. The Siwalik foothills, called Bhabar, however, is an outwash of gravels and an irregular band of fans. The elevation varies from 100 m to 500 m. The climate is subtropical. Land use is predominantly agricultural in the south and there are forests on the southern slopes of the Siwaliks. An intricate network of streams having their origin from China, middle Himalayas, and Siwaliks, enter and cross the Tarai. These rivers deposit large volumes of sterile debris during the monsoon as soon as they enter the flat lands. The riverbeds in the Tarai are estimated to be rising at the rate of 15-30 cm annually. Frequent flooding from the numerous streams is a major challenge in the Tarai and in downstream northern India.

The great central belt called the Hill zone is situated between the northern slopes of Siwaliks on the south (500 m) and forest line at about 4000 m on the north. The climate is temperate monsoon type with cool dry winters and wet warm summers. Sixty-eight percent of the land area is included within this zone which has a complex system of high ridges, basins and steep slopes. Less than five percent of the zone is flat. Cultivation is done on bench terraces of varying standards. Large numbers of livestock are part of the farming system. The forest type is predominantly temperate. Four major river systems orginating from China flow through this zone and collect huge amounts of silt and debris from increasing sheet erosion and landslides during the monsoon. A few rivers such as the Bagmati and Kamala originate from this zone and overflow during the monsoon. intensive use of land, heavy grazing pressure, and a rapid rate of deforestation have been major contributing factors to increasing erosion in this zone.

⁵ Paper also presented at Workshop on Integrated Watershed Management, held 7-11 January 1985, at the East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Mountain zone occupies 15% of Nepal. Situated between the crest of the Himalayan mountains, the southern border of China, and the tree line at about 4000m, this zone is covered by rocky, ice-covered massifs, rolling upland snow fields, and sweeping meadow lands. The climate is harsh and is characterized by low rainfall and low temperature during most of the year. Almost all the major river systems in China originate from this zone and collect huge volumes of snowmelt runoff water. The short growing season, low rainfall and fragile landscape have restricted intensive land use, but grazing pressure is high. The alpine vegetation consisting of low bushes of Rhododendron and Scaly Junipers is disappearing because of fuelwood cutting in recent years.

Social Background

The population of Nepal is 16.3 million and has grown rapidly at an annual rate of 2.7% during the last 10 years. The average population density is 106 per sq km but for cultivated land the man/land ratio is as high as 658 persons per sq km in the Hills. As a result, a high rate of migration is taking place from the Hills to the Tarai. The percentage of population dependent on agriculture is about 94%. For 1981-82, the last year for which complete data are available, the agricultural sector contributed 55% of GDP. The average 1983 per capita income was about US$ 156. infrastructure is still at a rudimentary stage.

The country is divided into five regions, 14 zones and 75 districts for administrative purposes. The country, at present, is governed through a partyless Panchayat system established in 1962. The system aims at "maximizing people's participation in the administration and development of the country in a meaningful way." To promote the development process by associating and encouraging local bodies, the "Decentralization Act" and supporting laws have been enacted.

REVIEW OF ONGOING WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND RELATED PROJECTS

Nepal has a good track record in the Asia-Pacific region for being one of the leading countries to introduce integrated watershed management programs for the conservation and utilization of renewable natural resources. The first watershed management program was initiated by the Department of Forestry during the mid 1960's with the assistance of FAO/UNDP. Multifaceted activities were planned and implemented for a major watershed (Trisuli Watershed) covering three districts. A specialized project unit was established and multidisciplinary professionals were deputed to the project from different departments. It was a pilot project and produced a limited but positive impact in the project area. The project has furnished valuable technical information on watershed management. However, the integrated approach could not be sustained because the multidisciplinary team deputed from different departments could not function effectively as a good management team. Conservation activities were again disaggregated into the regular work of respective departments and continued as such for sometime.

In August 1974, His Majesty's Government of Nepal established a new and independent department called the Soil and Water Conservation Department (renamed Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management (DSCWM) in 1978) under the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation. The basic mandate of this department has been to promote integrated watershed management in the Hills and Mountain regions of Nepal. This department is equipped with its own multidisciplinary staff. With limited financial resources, the newly created department initiated field testing of different institutional and technical models in selected watersheds in Nepal. For almost five years, the department field tested various watershed management knowledge and techniques borrowed from different parts of the world. In a short period of time DSCWM was able to: i) gather reasonable technical knowhow to begin to reverse watershed degradation; ii) establish an institutional mechanism to address resource management issues through increasing interagency cooperation; and iii) develop a reasonably satisfactory procedure for involving the local community in the planning and implementation of watershed programs. However, there is a long way to go for DSCWM to achieve its ultimate objectives of establishing a national framework for watershed management. The outstanding issues, gaps and constraints related to watershed management programs in Nepal are many and can be dealt with by reviewing ongoing development programs directly or indirectly related with watershed development. The ongoing projects can be classified broadly into 4 categories:

i) Watershed management projects where DSCWM is taking the lead in planning, coordinating and project evaluation and monitoring.

ii) Integrated rural development projects where the Ministry of Panchayat and Local Development (MPLD) is taking the lead and DSCWM, the Department of Forest (DF), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Livestock and Animal Health (DLDAH) and many other government departments are participating as line agencies.

iii) Sectoral development projects related to watershed management that are being planned, implemented and monitored by individual departments without any participation from DSCWM.

iv) Support projects related to research, planning and informal training, and resource inventory.

Table 2.1 summarizes some of the important ongoing projects.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF ONGOING PROJECTS

A review of the field documents dealing with the performance of the ongoing projects reveals that each program has its strengths and weaknesses. Excluding national level support programs at the national level, the biggest strength of the natural resources/ watershed field programs is that almost all the projects advocate community participation and are attempting to promote it. The institutional and legal framework to promote villagers' participation in planning and implementation of such development projects is improving. However, these programs are suffering from several fundamental weaknesses, including:

i) Quite often the programs have been designed without an adequate assessment of the scale of the problem. Therefore, it has not been possible to assess whether projects have been able to meet stated goals.

ii) The necessity of involving people using the land in any conservation activity is not fully understood by the Nepalese technicians and extension workers who are accustomed to top down planning. Similarly, some social scientists in Nepal sometimes ignore the physical limits of natural resources around a community and try to represent local perceptions too fast, too far. Nobody is to be blamed because this gap is created by the inadequacy of management skills. For any plans to be technically sound, economically feasible and socially acceptable there is a need to develop a wide range of options. Options can be worked out only if there is enough information on land, the microeconomics of rural farm households, and the social behavior of the target community. At present the knowledge and information base is poor. Ongoing projects have been conceived, based on assumptions which, in many cases, have been found to be misleading.

iii) Ongoing watershed management and rural development projects have assumed that under a high standard of management most landscapes in Nepal have a high biological resiliency and natural inherent recuperative properties to support present and future anticipated human and livestock populations. But this assumption is by no means correct. In many pockets of the middle Hills even under optimal management, the land resources of a village panchayat have insufficient carrying capacity to maintain present numbers of people and stock. Questions are being raised. Is it reasonable to continue investments in conservation at such sites? It may be more cost effective to invest the resources in some other activities which will promote and motivate people to move from such areas and take up the off-farm occupations.

Table 2.1. Ongoing important watershed related projects in Nepal.

ISSUES AND CONSTRAINTS RELATED TO WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

Issues

i) Watershed boundaries do not coincide with district boundaries. Therefore, it has been politically difficult to convince people to use watersheds as a management unit.

ii) Watershed programs require special project status. The overall structure of the decentralization scheme needs to be modified to better adapt it to the specific requirements of watershed management planning.

iii) The scope of watershed management programs has varied considerably. Some projects look like integrated rural development activities and the others are sectoral projects with a narrow focus. Questions like "where does an integrated watershed program begin and where does it end?" are raised quite frequently.

iv) Present watershed plans are developed without adequate knowledge of land resources. Options recommended are rigid and in some cases misleading. This situation has resulted in a conflict between the perceptions of farmers and planners. In such circumstances, community participation can be a myth. Similarly, in the absence of detailed land evaluation some investments in erosion control are located on geologically unstable areas. As a result technicians have been the target of criticism. Unless this can be remedied programs may lose their credibility.

v) In almost all the watershed programs there has been no prior assessment of the scale and scope of the environmental problems to be addressed by the project. As a result neither the periodic plans nor annual project achievements can be correlated with the overall objectives of the project.

vi) The tendency of planners as well as local politicians in Nepal is to allocate as many resources as possible to erosion control structures. It is easy to spend resources on such structures. They have high visibility and can serve to impress and influence the local community. In many cases engineering control measures developed for use under different circumstances are being misapplied, resulting in only marginal, if any, improvement and a high rate of failure (Project Paper, Bagmati Watershed Project, 1982).

vii) There has been very little assessment of either the benefit/cost or opportunity costs of implementing restoration, stabilization and other actions.

viii) Watershed programs do not have a systematic evaluation and monitoring criteria or system for periodic impact assessment.

Constraints

Organizational Constraints

DSCWM is responsible for planning, implementing and conducting evaluation and monitoring of the watershed projects in Nepal. Since its inception in 1974, this department has been concentrating on project development and the field testing of pilot activities. Therefore, the whole organization is project oriented. The department organizes its field offices and implements agreed upon plans only in project areas. It does not have organizational outfits to cover the whole country. Nor does it have a strong central unit to conduct planning, research, evaluation and monitoring. Recently, HMG has made a survey on the existing organization and management capability of DSCWM. Draft recommendations for the future are currently under review. If approved, the department will be able to reasonably attempt to address the different issues raised above.

Miscellaneous Institutional Constraints

Most of the watershed related activities in Nepal have been designed with the assumption that willing participation of the local community will be channeled to meet the goals and objectives of watershed rehabilitation. However, there is a big gap between expectations of the people and the institutional arrangements to meet these expectations. Communities have to cooperate to change present land use practices, reduce stock, control excessive resource use and protect community land. They cannot afford to sacrifice unless the project provides innovative incentives and feasible options which will help them to get out of the vicious circle of food, fodder and fuel needs. At present, policies on distribution and benefit sharing derived from community resources, and on grants and subsidies related to resource development, are not clear. Ownership rights are ambiguous. This situation is not conducive to mass participation in watershed programs. The implementation of the Decentralization Act, Community Forest Act, Private Forest Act and Lease Forest Act have, to some extent, broken the ice in changing the present direction. However, there is a long way to go to achieve the ultimate goal of managing watershed land through active community participation.

Management Constraints

Management constraints can be grouped into either technical or administrative constraints. Among technical constraints watershed planning tops the list. Data base for resource evaluation and assessment is very poor. Plans have to be developed with unverified assumptions. Lack of trained technical manpower continues to be a problem. Though technical know-how to initiate action oriented field activities is available, lack of detailed knowledge of farming systems and resource status impedes the development of different options for the user community. Management skills to orchestrate human behavior towards rational resource use is needed. Some of the major administrative constraints are: the flow of resources from centre to the field, lack of coordination between participating government agencies, nonavailability of project staff in time, and inertia of the technicians with respect to working with the community.

STATUS OF WATERSHED MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

Technical Research

Nepal has not launched any fundamental or basic research in watershed management through the establishment of barometer watersheds or multiple catchment study sites. DSCWM has initiated some spontaneous trials and a few studies have been carried out in the Phewa Tal Watershed. Soil loss studies in free grazed pastures and protected pastures, grass trials for slope stabilization, and species trials for rehabilitating badly eroded areas are some of the adhoc trials that have been attempted in the past. Currently, a network of hydro-met stations had been installed in a few selected small watersheds to monitor watershed conditions. However, DSCWM presently does not have any specialized unit to combat watershed management research.

The Department of Forest is better equipped and is conducting sectoral research on some areas of watershed management. They are involved primarily in:

i) Species/provenance and elimination trials for fuel and timber species.

ii) Improvement of nursery stock of important planting species.

iii) A study of bamboo species occurring in Nepal.

iv) Farm forestry - identification of useful multipurpose tree species, their propagation and protection and development of planting patterns.

v) Agroforestry, growth of agricultural crops and medicinal plants planted between lines of Eucalyptus and Dalbergia sisoo.

vi) Limited biomass studies of the important vegetation types in the Hills.

The ODA funded Hill Agricultural Centres at Lumle and Pakhribas have been carrying out research in forestry, fodder, grass, and agronomic crop and verification trials. Similarly, a group of French and Nepali scientists are conducting ecological research in the Salankhu Khola Watershed located in Trishuli District. Some of the relevant research being conducted by these institutions is enumerated below:

i) Livestock and feed resources in the hills of Nepal.

ii) Hill forestry and land use research.

iii) Fodder trees leaf analysis.

iv) Comparative productivity analysis of local and exotic tree species.

v) Case study of watershed agrarian system.

vi) Nutrition and ecological changes in the hills of Nepal.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has a good track record of research. They are the forerunner in basic as well as applied research and have been conducting research for the last 20 to 25 years. However, research has concentrated on crop verification trials, varietal trials, fertilizer trials, entomology, soil productivity, etc. Recently, the Department has started farming systems research. The Department of Irrigation, Hydrology and Meteorology is responsible for the establishment of the hydro-met network and collection and analysis of data.

The above discussion reveals that the status of technical watershed management research is at an infant stage. Limited research results generated in Nepal have been applied in watershed management. The results of trials, conducted by the Department of Forest, have been applied in watershed afforestation/reforestation activities. The application of this research has produced good results. The information generated by the Lumle and Pakhribas farms has helped promote improved grasses and fodder trees in project areas. The hydro-met information collected by the Department of Irrigation, Hydrology and Meteorology is being used in the design of erosion control structures and other aspects of watershed management.

Technical research should have been the fore-runner of any implementation plan, but the urgency of the situation in Nepal dictated that action programs be initiated first with the help of research experience gained in developed countries and India. In most cases it has worked satisfactorily. However, there is a need to collect additional baseline data on watershed condition as a prelude to technical interventions and to adopt research results to the highly variable natural and social sytems in the hills of Nepal.

Institutional and Planning Research

The physical and social setting of watersheds in Nepal is different from those of developed countries. The first experiment of His Majesty's Government to grapple with watershed problems was to establish a self-contained department staffed by multidisciplinary professionals. This Department has faced considerable difficulty but has survived for 10 years, and is assuming the challenging responsibilities as a front runner in the area of integrated natural resources management. It is taking the lead in the implementation of five different watershed management projects and is participating in several other rural development projects. A national level survey of watershed conditions has been completed and all 75 districts of the country have been classified in terms of the severity of watershed problems. Methodologies for reconnaissance planning, semi-detailed planning and detailed planning have been developed and are in draft form. Several field documents have been prepared to help technicians and extension workers. All of this happened because of the government's decision to create a specialized unit for watershed protection.

DSCWM started its activities without any plan. It was not sure how to define the scope of watershed management in a complex physical and socio-economic setting. With limited resources DSCWM tried to cover many aspects of development excluding social sectors like education, health, and family planning. it did not work well. Gradually, the interventions were reduced and the program focus was reorganized. It started dealing only with agriculture, forestry, bioengineering, and erosion control work. With this model DSCWM faced problems with communities because they demanded basic needs programs like water supply, trail improvement, stockponds, and improvement of irrigation. In the meantime DSCWM was directed by the government to expand its action area. While doing do, the department was not allowed to encroach on the jurisdiction of other sister departments. At this point, it was decided to implement multifaceted projects with interagency coordination. Therefore, out of the five ongoing watershed management projects, three are integrated but executed through the interagency approach and two are being implemented under the one umbrella approach of DSCWM. The five projects vary in size, scope and organizational setup. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. DSCWM is observing this experience closely in order to incorporate lessons learned into future programs.

The emphasis on community participation in conceiving, designing and implementing development projects has been increasing at a fast rate over the past five years. This policy direction attained its peak in December 1984 when His Majesty's Government decided to implement the long-pending Decentralization Act. In order to reinforce the Decentralization Act and to protect the national interest of managing watersheds for the benefit of the rural poor, DSCWM drafted the Soil and Watershed Conservation Act in 1981 and recommended that the National Panchayat (National Assembly) consider the Act for promulgation. On the advice and with the approval of the National Panchayat, His Majesty King Birendra enacted the Act in 1982. This Act has made a provision for a National Council for the Conservation of Natural Resources at the central level and Catchment Conservation Committees at the District Level. These bodies will be responsible for shaping watershed programs conducive to the spirit of the Decentralization Act. At present these bodies have not been formally activated but they are operating as informal bodies until the bylaws are promulgated. A process of decentralized planning for watershed management has already been started under the auspices of two major projects, the Resource Conservation and Utilization Project under USAID assistance, and Tinau Watershed Management Project assisted by SATA/GTZ. These projects are testing field models for planning at the Panchayat level (village level). Though the ultimate goal is the same, three different models are being tested. They are PRDP (Panchayat Resource Development Plan), PDP (Panchayat Development Plan) and "Gaun Sallah" (village dialogue).

DSCWM is waiting for the results of these models and will adopt a single model which can orchestrate community needs with the inherent physical characteristics of community resources. Then the approved model will be applied throughout other watershed areas.

The watershed management problems in Nepal have their roots more with institutional issues than technical issues. Therefore, if institutional research is addressed well in advance it will be easier to promote conservation through prevention. It is a matter of satisfaction for DSCWM that it is trying to improve the institutional aspects of watershed management. The support of UNDP, FAO, USAID, and the Swiss and German governments for the work in watershed management in Nepal is highly appreciated at this moment.

GAPS IN KNOWLEDGE TO IMPROVE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT IN NEPAL

Farming systems in the hills rely to a great extent on local resources and the condition of land around the farm. However, community owned lands around the farms are the worst victims of increasing human and livestock population. One group of biologists and land use experts indicated that under a high standard of management these lands can be improved and the productivity of the farms can be increased. Another group raised doubts about the ability to generalize this observation and apply it all over Nepal. According to them, farmers are the best managers and they understand better than anyone else the intricate relationships between farm productivity and the adjoining physical resources. These expects feel that in many village panchayats the present human and livestock numbers far exceed the carrying capacity of the physical resource base. They have expressed reservations about investing limited resources in such areas. This issue is vital and should receive high priority in future research plans. Several options and modalities can be identified if a well-designed adaptive program research can be implemented.

Intensity of land use in the hills is very high. Land evaluation models being applied in other countries have limited application for these areas. Without changes in the present land use it will not be possible to reverse resource degradation. Farmers in the hills are reluctant to change present land use patterns because it is a risk that could threaten their basic existence. The only possible way to convince farmers is to provide several options with some incentives. Without an adequate evaluation of the land resources it is very difficult to propose viable options. Farmers demand options that do not require high risk. This gap in knowledge about the assessment of inherent capability of land has impeded large scale watershed land rehabilitation activities in ongoing projects. Land evaluation methodologies and land use models can be developed if a research/demonstration Panchayat in the hills can be selected for a systematic research program under DSCWM.

During the process of rehabilitation of degraded lands, quite often field technicians cannot make the distinction between naturally eroding land areas and erosion triggered by human activities. At present, efforts are being made to rehabilitate even highy-degraded land. In the absence of a good land evaluation methodology and data it is difficult to make such distinctions. No attempt should be made to stabilize naturally fragile areas unless there is risk of damage to life and valuable property. Therefore, some pilot activity to investigate the nature of eroded land and develop rapid assessment methodologies are highly desirable.

Large chunks of budgets are being used for engineering structures. Attempts are being made to stabilize even slip scars and gullies on very steep slopes. There are cases where engineering structures designed for one purpose are being applied in a different and inappropriate setting. Because of these problems, the rate of failures in engineering structures has damaged the credibility of DSCWM. A study on appropriate design criteria, suitable structures for different forms of open erosion, and a benefit/cost study on structural measures of erosion control will save resources and help retain the credibility of the watershed program.

DSCWM has not been able to develop guidelines for impact monitoring and evaluation of watershed management projects. Periodic monitoring of the agreed upon annual plans and programs are mandatory. The National Planning Commission has developed national criteria for such monitoring. Impact assessment is being done by donors in the form of mid-term reviews. Different donors are using different formats. Since there are very limited national guidelines for impact monitoring, quite often the benchmarks are not established during the project design. The mid-term monitors cannot definitely answer whether the project is going in the right direction or otherwise. Project funds are sometimes frozen because DSCWM has a difficult time answering questions like: What is the scale of the problem?, and how much has the project achieved after the lapse of the first phase? How can project management answer such complex questions when projects are designed without thorough examination of biophysical characteristics of watersheds and socio-economic conditions of the people residing in the watershed areas. DSCWM is committed to develop a research program which will enable it to generate national guidelines for watershed evaluation and monitoring.

There are many other areas of watershed management research that can be initiated in Nepal. The gaps identified above are of prime importance. Given the economic, organizational, and technical constraints outlined above, it would be unwise to initiate an overly ambitious watershed management research program at the present time.

IMMEDIATE NEED TO PROMOTE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT RESEARCH IN NEPAL

Quite often planners in the developing world shy away from implementing projects with a heavy emphasis on basic research. This is understandable, since the track record of basic research projects implemented in the past is not encouraging. Donor assisted, time bound, long gestation research activities have not been successful because they could not be sustained after donor inputs ceased. Another problem with research projects is the question of immediate beneficiaries. During the initial stage of research projects the beneficiaries are the urban elites. The rural people rarely benefit. Therefore, research projects without some field action are very difficult to sell. "Action research" will be less sensitive and more institutionally sustainable. The basic principles of Nepal's Seventh Plan has recommended "Action Research on Watershed Management."

The shape and size of this action research has not been determined at this stage. However, dialogue with potential donors will be initiated in the near future. Based upon a recently developed draft proposal, a brief outline of the "Action-Research Project" in Watershed Management is presented below.

Name of the project :
Watershed Management and Demonstration Centre.

Executing Agency :
His Majesty's Government of Nepal.
Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation
Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management

Objectives:
i) To strengthen DSCWM with the capability of providing technical guidance and direction for watershed management programs in Nepal.
ii) To develop technology to bridge the existing gap experienced in the areas of planning, implementation, evaluation and monitoring.
iii) To establish a documentation centre, and share and disseminate knowledge on watershed management with national and international organizations involved in the promotion of watershed management.

Goals : 
i) Primary goals include:

a) Improve watershed planning through an understanding of biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics of target areas so that maximum community participation can be achieved.

b) Improve the quality of field implementation by examining technical and economic feasibility and social acceptability for each component activity.

c) Develop guidelines and procedures to assess physical and socio-economic impacts generated by program interventions.

ii) Other goals will be to support, collaborate and exchange information with related agencies by promoting interagency

Program Details :
Still remains to be worked out.

Location :
Central Development Region with Headquarters in Kathmandu.
No new network will be established. Field sites will be watershed project areas. Facilities of other sister agencies in the field will be used as much as possible.

Organization :
A Watershed Management Steering Committee will be established with representation from all relevant agencies. Close cooperation with the institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Institute of Forestry and ICIMOD will be maintained.

Budget and Financing :
Still remains to be worked out.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The analysis, comments and recommendations made in this paper do not necessarily represent the statement on behalf of His Majesty's Government of Nepal. The comments and suggestions extended by Mr. Anis Dani (ICIMOD), Mr. George Taylor (USAID/N) and Dr. John Cool (ADC/N) have been very helpful and I would like to thank all of them.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS