Nepal group wins Mountain Protection Award
28.10.2015
Nepal-based project KTK-BELT (in full ‘Koshi Tappu Kanchenjunga Biodiversity Education Livelihood Tera Studio') has been confirmed as the third winner of the UIAA Mountain Protection Award (MPA).
Created in 2013 as a response to forest loss, habitat decrease and a drop in biodiversity, KTK-BELT is a platform for farmers, teachers, designers and environmentalists working together to build community-based biodiversity conservation strategies in the eastern region of Nepal.
KTK-BELT was chosen from an impressive list of 22 inspirational candidates nominated to receive the MPA, sponsored by Western University and Golden Rock.
"We are honoured to be recognized amongst so many important mountain conservation projects from around the world. We see the Award as recognition of both the critical importance of conserving species and habitat in the eastern Himalayas, as well as recognition of the determination, creativity and drive of local leaders, especially Kumar Bishwakarma of Yangshila Nepal, who is really our inspiration on this project,” explained KTK-BELT co-founders Rajeev K Goyal and Priyanka Bista. "The threats to biodiversity in eastern Nepal which include deforestation, wetland degradation, and depletion of freshwater resources from land use changes and impacts of climate change are severe and urgent. We see this Award as giving us the resolve to take KTK-BELT to the next level with the help of UIAA and the global scientific community."
"This is an ambitious project that covers all facets of mountain stewardship, from the educational value, to the livelihoods of people and the preservation of biodiversity and natural resources,” revealed assessor Marjorie von Strien, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
Valérie Thöni, International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) Project Officer, added: "The project is the fruit of collaborative work between research and practitioners. This is quite unusual, as most of the time the scientific world and other stakeholders don’t interact so much. It is based on extensive research about the biodiversity and indigenous knowledge of the region. Then this knowledge will be passed onto local communities through place-based education and educational exchanges.”
Following the pillars of collaborative design, community-based conservation and environmental education, the goal of KTK-BELT is to create a continuous forested belt from Koshi Tappu (67m/220 ft), Nepal's largest aquatic bird reserve, to Mt Kanchenjunga (8 586m/28 169 ft), the third tallest peak in the world. The creation of this BELT will help conserve, and raise educational awareness about, the more than 6 600 plants, 180 mammal species, and 500 bird species found along this 8 000m vertical gradient.
The BELT, a biodiversity corridor, would serve as a ‘Living Classroom’ and ‘Vertical University’ to teach place-based knowledge. At present, the first prototype of this ‘Vertical University’ is being created in Yangshila, located in the Siwalik hills. More than 20 'learning grounds' have been assembled. "By creating community-owned 'learning grounds', we hope we are creating a new infrastructure and tool for conservation and education which is sensitive to the particularities of each village, while also feeding into a larger movement,” explained Priyanka. This model, if successful, will be applied across the vertical gradient to cover 107 habitat types and reach more than 150 000 people living along this it. These people come from many different caste and ethnic groups and possess rich indigenous knowledge about the landscape. Farmers will be the teachers and citizen scientists of the vertical university.
"This is a major growth year for KTK-BELT,” revealed the winners. "We will also be training our first cohort of KTK-BELT fellows who will learn human ecology mapping, nursery design, and biodiversity mapping using GIS and other technologies, through training and master classes with experts. We will also be identifying new sites in the landscapes of eastern Nepal to grow the 'Vertical University' through the BELT campaign. We will be engaging in permaculture design work and development of medicinal and aromatic plants nurseries within Yangshila.”
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Photo: KTK-BELT, Nirman Shrestha
News by International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA)
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