February 2005

• Rusty-throated wren babbler (Spelaeomis badeigularis) — No confirmed records of this species from anywhere since the type series were collected in 1947 from Dreyi in the Mishmi Hills, but it is probably widespread in the eastern Himalayas and northern Myanmar (BirdLife International 2001).
• The crowned river turtle (Hardella thurjii) was identified from Kosi Tappu Wildlife Sanctuary in Nepal during the expert roundtable, but its range distribution includes the Indus and Ganges-Brahmaputra river systems in Pakistan, northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh; thus it should also be found in the Terai Arc, North Bank and Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong landscapes.
• No sites were identified for the Narayanghat whipping frog (Polypedates zed).
• The Himalayas dragonfly (Epiophlebia laidlawi) inhabits wetlands along the foothills, especially in Nepal, and can likely be captured within the Terai-Arc Landscape.
• The range of Ludlow’s Bhutan swallowtail (Bhutanitis ludlowi) overlaps with the sites within the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex.
• Since the pygmy hog is the sole host for the pygmy hog sucking louse (Haematopinus oliveri), it is reasonable to assume that conservation of the Critically Endangered host will help to conserve the Critically Endangered louse.

• The Asian elephant, which requires extensive home ranges and spatial areas that include their seasonal migrations.
• The tiger, Asia’s largest carnivore, maintains large territories. Subadults disperse from natal areas to establish territories elsewhere. Thus, effective conservation of tigers will require maintaining conservation landscapes where dispersal corridors link core areas that harbor breeding populations.
• The snow leopard is a high altitude predator that has large home ranges and occurs at low densities.
• The clouded leopard, which is an elusive predator that occurs at low densities in lowland forests.
• Takin is a montane ungulate that ranges over wide areas, and undertakes seasonal migrations.
• The large bird species such as the vultures, adjutants, and hornbills, which require large spatial areas with specific habitats and habitat structures for roosting and nesting. These large birds range over wide areas and can be considered landscape species since their movements can transcend single sites.
• The greater one-horned rhinoceros can be managed within sites with intensive habitat management that will increase the carrying capacity of the site. This is being done now in Kaziranga, Chitwan, Bardia and Suklaphanta. But, such management compromises the natural ecology of the site and survival of other specialist species, such as the grassland birds, hispid hare and pygmy hog. Thus, a more effective way to conserve the rhinoceros is to treat it as a landscape species, where it is conserved at lower, more natural densities, over larger spatial areas. Such management will qualify the rhinoceros as a landscape species because of the larger spatial requirements to conserve a population at lower densities.

• Back-striped weasel (Mustela strigidorsa)— Known from across the region and into Myanmar, it should occur in the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex, North Bank Landscape and in Namdapha.
• Mandelli’s mouse-eared bat (Myotis sicarius)— Known from Bumthang in the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex and in Teesta-Rangit Valley.
• Rattus sikkimensis — Widespread across the Eastern Himalayas Region and extends into Myanmar, with isolated populations known from Thailand and possibly in Indochina, it should occur in the Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex, Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong and Namdapha.
• Baikal teal (Anas formosa) is a winter visitor to the region’s large rivers and can be conserved in the North Bank and Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong landscapes. But its main winter range is outside the Eastern Himalayas Region, being in China and Korea.
• Oriental stork (Ciconia boyciana) is a winter visitor that uses wetlands in the North Bank and Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong landscapes, but its main winter range extends into China and onto Taiwan, Korea and Japan.
• Spoon-billed sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus) is a winter visitor to the region and is likely included in the North Bank and Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong landscapes, but the winter range extends south to Sri Lanka and east to Vietnam and Singapore.
• Cheer pheasant (Catreus wallichii) is a western Himalayas species and the populations in the Eastern Himalayas Region are not significant.

1. Terai Arc Landscape
   The Terai Arc Landscape includes five priority sites, within the Eastern Himalayas Region, that harbor landscape species (Table 5). But the entire landscape extends further west to Corbett National Park. Thus, it is anchored in the east and west by two World Heritage sites: Chitwan National Park in Nepal and Corbett National Park and Tiger Reserve in Uttaranchal Pradesh, India. Between these two are 11 protected areas—including a third World Heritage Site, Lumbini—that provide nodes of core protection for important species and create transboundary links between Nepal and India. Although the list of site outcomes compiled by BirdLife did not consider important sites in India, such as Dudhwa and Katerniaghat, these protected areas nevertheless represent important sites for the focal landscape species of the Terai Arc landscape. The important corridors that link the site outcomes in this landscape are those between; Chitwan and Bardia, Bardia and Katerniaghat, Bardia and Suklaphanta, and Suklaphanta and Dudwa.
   The 14 mammal, 20 bird and seven reptile species outcomes in this landscape include a globally significant tiger metapopulation (Wikramanayake et al. 1999) and four important populations of the greater one-horned rhinoceros. The rhinoceros population in Chitwan National Park is the second largest in the world. The two populations in Bardia National Park and Sukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve are being augmented through successful translocations of rhinoceros from Chitwan. Although the rhinoceros is now more-or-less confined to protected areas across its range, in the Terai Arc Landscape, some animals have begun to wander out of the confines of these core refuges and live in buffer zones — the emergence of conservation program of the rhinoceros as a landscape species.
   The Terai Arc Landscape also harbors several elephant populations that still seem to undertake seasonal migrations. The elephant population in the western extent of the landscape was identified as a rangewide conservation priority (WWF 1998). The Terai Arc overlaps with Level 1 TCUs and its tiger population is globally important.
   Other priority species outcomes include the swamp deer in Sukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve in Nepal and in Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary, India (which lies outside of the region of analysis for this assessment, but has habitat linkages with Sukla Phanta). Several sites within the landscape have populations of hispid hare, and the rivers that flow within Chitwan and Bardia National Parks in Nepal harbor populations of the Gangetic dolphin.
   Among the priority bird species in this landscape are several grassland specialist birds, including the globally threatened Bengal florican and the smaller bristled grass warbler, Finn’s weaver (Ploceus megarhynchus), slender-billed babbler (Turdoides longirostris), Jerdon’s babbler (Chrysomma altirostre) and white-throated bushchat (Saxicola insignis). Wetlands, especially near the Lumbini World Heritage Site—the birthplace of Lord Buddha— support a population of saurus crane (Grus antigone). There are also several priority reptile species—three-striped roof turtle (Kachuga dhongoka), red-crowned roof turtle (Kachuga dhongoka), Indian eyed turtle, three-keeled land tortoise (Melanochelys tricarinata), elongated tortoise, gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), marsh crocodile (Crocodylus palustris)—in the landscape, with the gharial being an aquatic flagship species.

2. Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex
   This landscape includes five priority sites and represents a complex of transboundary reserves in eastern Nepal and Sikkim and Darjeeling in India. The landscape extends from Kangchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA) in Nepal, which is contiguous with Khanchendzonga Biosphere Reserve in Sikkim, India, to the forest patches in south and southwest of KCA in Illam, Panchthar (continuous with Singhalila National park, India) and Jhapa districts (continuous with the forests of Bengal Terai). The landscape has the potential to extend south and eastward in India to include Senchal, Neora and Mahananda in Darjeeling district (Yonzon 2000a). Although the approximate bounds of the landscape have been identified, the corridor outcomes in the landscape have to be defined through a combination of GIS analyses and ground surveys.
   The landscape in Nepal provides both north-south and east-west connectivity and includes some of the last remaining areas of relatively intact subtropical and temperate forests that have become highly fragmented and degraded throughout the Himalaya. One of the most outstanding features of this landscape in Nepal is the altitudinal gradient, from the tropical broadleaf forests of Jhapa district to the eastern subtropical and lower temperate forests of Illam and Panchthar districts and the diverse forest types of KCA. These subtropical and temperate forests and the small patches of tropical evergreen forests are important for bird conservation (Yonzon 2000a). There are also several floral hotspots, (especially in Kangchenjunga), in this landscape, which also contains large expanses of Endangered Himalayas larch forest.
   The 17 mammal species outcomes in the landscape include red panda, tiger, clouded leopard and snow leopard. Elephants migrate into the southern forests in Jhapa from West Bengal, but with forest fragmentation the numbers have dwindled and human-elephant conflicts have increased as the remaining animals are pocketed in small patches of habitat (Yonzon 2000a). Recently takin has been documented from this region (reported during the expert roundtable in Gangtok). The Mandelli’s short-eared bat is probably found in this landscape.
   Thirteen bird species outcomes are present in this landscape. The birds include the chestnut-breasted partridge and the rusty-bellied shortwing. In addition, to these species, in the Nepal portion of the landscape, there is a high diversity of birds which includes 34-35 species of birds considered at risk in Nepal including 14 categorized as Endangered (Yonzon 2000a)

3. Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex
   This large landscape extends as a network of corridors that link the protected areas system of Bhutan, which consists of nine national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and have been identified as priority site outcomes. The corridors that link these sites are priority outcomes.
   The southernmost protected area in the landscape, Royal Manas National Park, is directly linked with the Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam, India, which is immediately across the international border between India and Bhutan. Thus, Manas Tiger Reserve is included within this landscape.
   The landscape supports 17 mammal, 10 bird, 4 reptile, and likely one globally threatened invertebrate species. Recent surveys have shown that tigers occur in this landscape at elevations over 3,000 m (Yonzon 2000b) Thus, the habitat linkages between the protected areas were designed to allow an important landscape species, the tiger to disperse between, and even reside outside the core protected areas, in temperate broadleaf forests.
   The temperate forests also support several priority bird species outcomes, including important populations of the globally threatened rufous-necked hornbill (Aceros nipalensis), white-bellied heron, dark-rumped swift (Apus acuticauda), chestnut-breasted partridge (Arborophila mandellii), grey-crowned prinia (Prinia cinereocapilla) and the beautiful nuthatch (Sitta formosa). It also includes two wintering sites for the globally threatened black-necked crane.
   The corridors also provide altitudinal habitat connectivity between the range of ecoregions represented in Bhutan (WWF and ICIMOD 2001), from the lowland grassland and savannas to the alpine meadows, and the subtropical and temperate broadleaf forests, mixed conifer and subalpine conifer forests in-between. The mid-montane temperate broadleaf forests that have been cleared throughout the eastern Himalayas are still relatively intact in Bhutan. Many of the birds in these forests are not found at comparable elevations in Nepal, where the broadleaf forests are highly fragmented; most likely a result of fragmentation that prevents movements and distribution (Carol Inskipp, pers comm).
   The Manas reserve complex—Royal Manas National Park and Manas Tiger Reserve/World Heritage Site—also harbors elephants. It used to support an important population of the greater one-horned rhinoceros, which has now been extirpated by poachers who have taken advantage of an ongoing, two-decade insurgency. But there is good potential to re-establish the species if poaching can be brought under control. Manas also harbor important populations of the pygmy hog and hispid hare, and a small, nevertheless important population of wild water buffalo. The Manas reserve complex and the surrounding forests harbor important populations of capped langurs (Trachypithecus pileatus) and the endemic golden langur.
   In the north, Jigme Dorji National Park and Bumdaling provide large areas of snow leopard habitat. These northern reserves also support takin and the charismatic Himalayas endemic, the red panda, both of which are priority species outcomes. The Mandelli’s short-eared bat may occur in the middle areas of this landscape.

4. Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong Landscape
   The landscape includes six priority site outcomes that support landscape species. Kaziranga National Park is a World Heritage Site. The landscape was defined and designed to allow seasonal migrations of an important population of elephants that move from Kaziranga to Karbi Anlong. However, these corridors have to be defined on the basis of field research on seasonal elephant movements, GIS analyses of current land use and land cover, and field surveys.
   The sites within the landscape harbor several other priority species outcomes, comprising nine mammal, 26 bird and seven reptile species outcomes. Notable among these is the world’s largest population of greater one-horned rhinoceros, secured in Kaziranga National Park. The park also harbors globally important populations of wild water buffalo, swamp deer and tiger.
   Among the bird species outcomes represented in this landscape are the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) and the greater and lesser adjutant storks. The large spatial areas associated with landscapes are more conducive to conservation of these big birds than the smaller site outcomes. Another landscape bird species in this landscape is the rufous-necked hornbill, which inhabits the forested areas, especially in Intanki, Maratlongi and Dhansiri. Important populations of the white-winged duck are known to occur in several site outcomes—Garampani, Nambor, Intanki, Maratlongi and Dhansiri—within the landscape, although its distribution may be more widespread across the landscape. Kaziranga itself is rich in globally threatened bird species, with several grassland specialists such as the bristled grass warbler (Chaetomis striatus), slender-billed babbler, Jerdon’s babbler, Bengal florican, Finn’s weaver and white-throated bush chat, and several birds associated with wetlands, especially the white-bellied heron, swamp francolin (Francolinus gularis) and Marsh babbler (Pellomeum palustre).

5. North Bank Landscape
   This landscape harbors one of the world’s most important Asian elephant populations (Sukumar 1992). It also overlaps with a Level 1 TCU and supports an important tiger population. With nine priority sites, the landscape extends along the northern bank of the Brahmaputra River in Assam, and up into Arunachal Pradesh to include forest and alpine habitats in the Himalayas mountains. The habitat linkages within the landscape have to be defined on the basis of field research on seasonal elephant movements, tiger distribution, GIS analyses of current land use and land cover, and field surveys.
   Because the landscape includes a variety of ecosystems, from the wetlands and riverine habitat along the Brahmaputra River, and alluvial grasslands and subtropical broadleaf forests in Assam, to temperate broadleaf forests, mixed conifer forests, and even alpine habitats in Arunachal Pradesh, species diversity is high. The landscape species include elephants and tigers in the lowlands to snow leopards and takin in the montane areas. Overall, the landscape includes 22 mammal species outcomes. Bird species diversity is also high. The low elevation species include the grassland and wetland birds, such as the Bengal florican, slender-billed babbler, Finn's weaver, bristled grass-warbler, grey-crowned prinia, Jerdon's babbler and Sarus crane (Grus antigone), white-bellied heron, marsh babbler, black-breasted parrotbill (Paradoxomis flavirostris), swamp francolin, spot-billed pelican (Pelecanus philippensis), white-winged duck and Pallas's fish eagle (Haliaeetus leucoryphus). The lowlands also harbor wide-ranging large birds such as the slender-billed vulture, white-rumped vulture, and greater and lesser adjutants. In the forested submontane areas, birds such as the rufous-necked hornbill, wood snipe (Gallinago nemoricola), rusty-bellied shortwing, Blyth's tragopan, chestnut-breasted partridge, beautiful nuthatch are identified as important conservation outcomes. The landscape also includes sites with 10 reptile species outcomes and one amphibian species outcome.
   Back to Top
   Socioeconomic Features
   Humans have lived in the eastern Himalayas for several millennia, over the course of which they have adapted their customs, lifestyles and livelihoods to the local environments. The rugged terrain has precluded convenient movements and mixing of communities, as reflected by the diversity of ethnic and religious groups across the Eastern Himalayas Region. But, from about the last half-century or so, exposure to external circumstances has changed these sustainable lifestyles. Now, land tenure issues, increasing influence of both global and regional market economies, and a rapidly increasing population have combined to create and intensify socioecological conflicts.
   People use most of the corridors and even some of the smaller sites that are identified as outcomes; thus the anthropogenic changes also impact and influence the region’s biological richness at intensities never before experienced in the region. These threats to biodiversity are issues that have to be addressed to achieve the conservation targets in the region. Since many areas within the corridor outcomes will never become fully protected areas the solutions will have to involve a wide range of civil society.
   Institutional Framework
   The region includes three countries, each with subtle or conspicuously different political and governance structures. Even within a country, differences in state government regulations and policies have to be considered in a conservation strategy.
   Bhutan’s Institutional Framework: In Bhutan, all conservation and related activities are mandated with the Department of Forestry Services in the Ministry of Agriculture, better known as the RNR sector (Renewable Natural Resources Sector), and encompasses agriculture, animal husbandry, and forestry. The Department of Forestry Services fulfills its responsibilities through four functional divisions: the Forest Protection and Utilization Division, Nature Conservation Division, Forest Resources Development Division, and the Social Forestry Division. Field activities are implemented at the regional level through 11 Territorial Divisions and five national park/sanctuary offices.
   The Nature Conservation Division is responsible for all management and other activities within the protected areas. Although its focus is the protected areas system, its ambit extends to biodiversity conservation issues outside the protected areas, especially in the buffer zones and corridors. The Forest Protection and Utilization Division is responsible for protecting and managing all government forests outside the protected areas system, and the Forest Resources Development Division for developing management plans for sustainable utilization of governmental Forest Management Units.
   The National Environmental Commission (NEC) is an independent institution that is the national focal point for environmental policies and responsibilities outlined in the Convention on Biodiversity. Together with a Biodiversity Management Board (BMB) comprising of a 13 member cross-sectoral panel, the NEC oversees the implementation of the National Biodiversity Action Plan. The BMB is also responsible for advising, reviewing or reforming national policies, projects, and actions that pertain to the nation’s biological resources, including conservation and sustainable use. The Natural Resources Training Institute trains mid-level civil servants in forest, livestock, and agricultural extension services.
   The nongovernmental conservation sector in Bhutan is represented by two major conservation NGOs operating in Bhutan—WWF Bhutan Program and the Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN). Other relevant institutions include the National Women’s Association of Bhutan, the Youth Development Fund, and gewogs (village level development agencies). WWF has been active in Bhutan since 1977, engaged in training and capacity building, biological surveys, assisting with protected area management, helping to develop forestry legislation, and supporting conservation monitoring. WWF was also closely involved with the revision of Bhutan’s protected areas system and in designing the system of corridors that now constitute the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex.
   RSPN was founded in 1987, and remains Bhutan’s only national conservation NGO. Its focus is to promote conservation through environmental education in schools, integrated conservation and development programs, and advocacy. RSPN is now in the process of developing an endowment fund to ensure sustainable funds for financial security.
   The Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation (BTEF) is another parastatal conservation organization that was established in 1991 as one of the world’s first conservation trust funds to provide a sustainable source of revenue for conservation. This innovative program now contributes more than $1 million annually toward conservation, funding projects such as graduate training for conservation biologists, providing seed money for the RSPN endowment, support for protected areas management and development, and capacity building by providing scholarships.
   Nepal’s Insitutional Framework: In Nepal, the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MFSC), its departments and parastatals are the main policy-making agencies for forest and wildlife management. The MFSC is organized into three policy divisions and four implementing departments, the latter being the Department of Forests, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Department of Watershed Management and Soil Conservation, Department of Forest Survey and Research.
   The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) is mandated with conserving the country’s major representative ecosystems, unique natural and cultural heritage, wildlife protection, and research. While the earlier emphasis was on species protection, the DNPWC now stresses a participatory approach to biodiversity conservation and management. The Department of Forests (DoF) is responsible for managing, demarcating, controlling, and conserving all national forests outside the protected areas. The Community and Private Forestry Division of the DoF carries out forest development and management, and oversees utilization programs in community and private forests, while the Planning and Training Division formulates management plans and programs for the conservation and promotion of Nepal's forests and its rational use.
   Under the 1990 Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, there is provision to establish a Natural Resources and Environment Committee in the House of Representatives. This committee has the powers and functions to evaluate the policies and programs pertaining to conservation and natural resource management, in collaboration with the Ministries of Forest and Soil Conservation; Water Resources; Land Reform and Management; and Population and Environment, and relevant departments and agencies under these ministries. Therefore, these other ministries are also relevant to conservation activities in Nepal. For instance, the scope of the Ministry of Population and Environment extends to oversight of the National Conservation Strategy and the Nepal Environmental Policy and Action Plan. This ministry is also responsible to ensure compliance of various international conventions.
   The Environment Protection Council, established in 1992, provided the guidance and impetus for the government to ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Climate Change, the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. Nepal has also developed its institutional capacity for biodiversity protection and conservation management through national and overseas training, and recently produced the National Biodiversity Strategy.
   The nongovernmental conservation community in Nepal is much larger than in Bhutan. Some of the major institutions include WWF Nepal Program, the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, UNDP, IUCN-Nepal and The Mountain Institute. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is a regional organization based in Kathmandu.
   IUCN began work in Nepal in the 1960s, assisting early government efforts to protect environmentally sensitive areas and wildlife. Nepal became a State Member of IUCN in 1973 with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) as the active link. In the 1980s, IUCN supported the Nepal government in formulating a National Conservation Strategy (NCS). IUCN’s current focus in Nepal is wetland conservation and environmental education.
   WWF has been involved in conservation efforts in Nepal since 1967, and is considered one of the key organizations involved in conservation in Nepal. Over the years, WWF’s initial focus of species conservation has expanded to involve local communities in natural resource management, capacity building within nongovernmental and governmental institutions, conservation education and institutional support for a landscape approach to conservation based on ecoregional scale planning. WWF Nepal has also played an important role in imparting technical support to the government in biodiversity-related policymaking, planning and implementation issues, and issues related to transboundary conservation. Currently, WWF Nepal supports four major projects: Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) Program, Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Project, Sagarmatha Community Agro-Forestry Project (SCAFP) and Northern Mountains Conservation Project (NMCP) on medicinal plants.
   The King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC) was established in 1982. For nearly two decades now, KMTNC has successfully undertaken over 100 small and large projects on nature conservation, from Chitwan and Bardia in the lowlands to the Annapurna and Manaslu regions of the high Himalayas and Trans-Himalayas regions of Upper Mustang and Manang.
   The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICMOD) is a regional program based in Katmandu with the mandate to promote the development of an economically and environmentally sound mountain ecosystem and to improve the living standards of mountain populations in the Hindu Kush Himalayas Region. ICIMOD works mainly at the interface between research and development and acts as a facilitator to generate new mountain-specific knowledge to further conservation and development in the mountains. ICIMOD also facilitates sharing of new knowledge among relevant institutions, organizations, and individuals in the region, and thus functions as a multidisciplinary documentation and information center on integrated mountain development. It is also a focal point for mobilizing and coordinating applied and problem-solving research activities, and for training in integrated mountain development.
   In addition to the above NGOs, there are more than 100 local and national level NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs). Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists, Bird Conservation Nepal, Environmental Camp for Conservation Action, The Mountain Institute, and Mountain Spirit among others are active in raising awareness of conservation issues in Nepal.
   Northeastern India’s Institutional Framework: In India, the forests and wildlife are constitutionally vested as state subjects. Thus, the respective state Forest Departments are primarily accountable for managing forests and the Wildlife Wings of the Forest Departments manage the protected areas. The Chief Wildlife Warden is responsible for the implementation of Wildlife Act, and has to report to the central Ministry on select wildlife matters. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has overall responsibility for forests and protected areas in India.
   But, unlike in the rest of India, about 54 percent of the forests in the northeast hill states are categorized as unclassed state forests. These are largely under the control of private individuals, clans, village councils, district councils and other traditional community institutions. In Assam, two district councils manage 3,589 square kilometers (1 percent) of Reserve Forests and Proposed Reserve Forests, the rest being under the state Forest Department. In comparison, the neighboring hill states Meghalaya (97 percent), Nagaland (97 percent) and Tripura (84 percent) have much greater proportions of their forests managed by autonomous district councils as well as clans, village councils and individual families. Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram have about 63 percent, 52 percent and 46 percent, respectively of community managed and controlled forests (Down to Earth 2002). Utilization of unclassed state forests includes traditional usufruct rights.
   Thus, in these hill states the District Councils are an important part of the governance structure, and forest management comes under the purview of the Council Forest Departments. Despite the devolution of management rights to the states and districts, the central Ministry of Environment and Forests, in Delhi, retains responsibility for sourcing funds to the state departments, formulating legislation and amendments, and providing direction to state Forest Departments on major policy decisions in forest and biodiversity protection. Acceptance of central-level directives by the state departments is, however, discretionary.
   Even at the village level, there are institutions such as the village durbars and Village Development Councils that play a very important role in conservation of biodiversity and ecological services. These councils run the day-to-day village administration, including the management of village or community forests where fuelwood extraction, thatch grass collection, and gathering materials for house construction are permitted and regulated. Certain village durbars are also the custodians of sacred groves and community forests.
   Like the rest of the country, Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh in northeast follow the Panchayati Raj system, which governs a substantial portion of the common property resources, and is also an important decentralized institution in biodiversity conservation. In Arunachal Pradesh, the Anchal Samitis are the panchayat equivalents, and comprise of village clusters. A substantial portion of undisturbed natural community forests in Arunachal Pradesh is under the control of Anchal Samitis, which makes them important stakeholders of biodiversity conservation and management.
   There are more than 150 conservation-related nongovernmental organizations in northeast India. Most are organized at local and grassroots level, but several are regional, national, and international NGOs that have been working in the region for more than two decades. The activities of the grassroots NGOs vary from poverty alleviation through community development, education and awareness, community mobilization, advocacy and action projects, to ex situ and in situ conservation and biological inventory and surveys. Many were established by dedicated groups of individuals motivated to conserve species, biodiversity, or the environment where they live. For example, the Green Guards and Green Manas are two local NGOs based in Assam engaged in small-scale ex situ conservation projects; the former rescues, rehabilitates, and releases greater and lesser adjutant storks, and the latter has a captive breeding program for Pygmy hogs. In Sikkim, the local NGO, Ecotourism & Conservation Society of Sikkim (ECOSS) is involved in developing and promoting good ecotourism practices. In Assam, Nature’s Beckon is a small activist group striving to save the last few patches diverse rainforest in the remote Jaipur, Upper Dihing and Dirak districts of eastern Assam from industrialization.
   Some of the regional and national NGOs active in northeast India include ATREE, a NGO that promotes biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource use in the eastern Himalayas and the Western Ghats. Aaranyak is a regional NGO dedicated to biodiversity conservation and other environmental issues in Northeast India and coordinates activities of smaller, grassroots NGOS such as Nature’s Foster, Green Heart Nature Club, Green Forest Conservation, New Horizon, Green Manas, and Green Guard. Because many of these grassroots NGOs are unable to receive and convert foreign-currency grants from international donors, the larger NGOs function as “nodal agencies” to receive, disburse and coordinate activities of the former.
   CEE is a national NGO active in northeastern India. CEE is primarily engaged in environmental education programs, and is also the National Host Institution for the UNDP Small Grant Programme in India. The northeast regional cell of CEE in Guwahati (CEE NE) facilitates the program in the eight northeastern states where it implements 11 ongoing projects, of which five are in Assam, three in Manipur, and one each in one in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim. Other national NGOs active in the region include Wildlife Trust, India and the Bombay Natural History Society. Another major, national NGO active in the region is, WWF India, which has a regional office in West Bengal with sub-regional offices in Kolkotta, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. WWF undertakes diverse activities from helping to protect sacred groves, environmental education and tiger conservation to large, landscape-level projects, such as the ambitious North Bank Landscape project. Other NGOs include Inner Asia Foundation in Arunachal Pradesh, which is striving to create a reserve to the north of, and contiguous to, Kamlamg Wildlife Sanctuary and Namdapha National Park, and the World Pheasant Association which is active in Sikkim, Darjeeling, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.
   The ‘NGO Landscape’ in context: As evident, the civil society groups active in conservation vary widely in the different countries. For instance, in Nepal the national and international conservation NGOs as well as CBOs can undertake conservation activities with relatively few constraints. In Bhutan, the civil society groups in conservation are more limited, with one international NGO and one national NGO that is incorporated under the Companies Act. However, the village-level government authorities (gewogs) are essentially quasi-NGOs, since they have a certain amount of independence and authority from the central government. Northeastern India has hundreds of grassroots-level conservation NGOs and CBOs, but most cannot receive foreign exchange grants due to exchange control regulations. However, funds can be disbursed through local or regional “nodal” NGOs that have exchange control permits. NGOs, such as CEE and Aaranyak are already perfoming this role.
   Because many of the grants are expected to be in small amounts, it is best to identify a recognized NGO, or consortia of NGOs in each country to help the smaller NGOs, CBOs and other civil society groups develop and submit proposals. These “nodal” agencies would also be tasked with project monitoring and ensuring that reports and other outputs are submitted in time.
   Nature Conservation Legislation and Agreements
   All three countries have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity and prepared National Biodiversity Conservation Strategies and Biodiversity Action Plans. All three are members of IUCN, and have also acceded to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
   The Forest Act, 1969 governs Bhutan’s forestry and conservation sector. This Act guides development of forestry operations, and establishes central control over use of forest resources. The 1995 Forest and Nature Conservation Act provides the legal basis for protection and sustainable use of forests, wildlife, and other natural resources in the country, including protected areas management, wildlife conservation, social and community forestry, trade of forest produce, and soil and water conservation (from DoF 2002).
   Other relevant legislative instruments, especially with regard to landscape conservation include: the 1974 National Forest Policy which sets the policy for maintaining at least 60 percent forest cover; the Land Act of 1988 which deals with procedures of land registration and allotment to reduce forest encroachment, and land use regulations in forest lands; and the Environmental Assessment Act of 2000 which establishes the procedures for assessing and mitigating potential environmental threats from projects.
   In Nepal the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (NPWC) Act (amended 1974) establishes regulations for protected areas, and recognizes species for protection. The Himalayas National Park Regulations (1979) provide for people living in national parks to collect natural resources for subsistence. The Buffer Zone Management Regulations (1996) and Buffer Zone Management Guidelines (1999) are meant to design programs compatible with National Park management and facilitate public participation in conservation, design and management of buffer zones. These regulations, under the NPWC Act provide for 30-50 percent of the park revenues to be retained for community development activities in the buffer zone. The Master Plan for the Forestry Sector (1988) recognizes ecosystem and genetic resource conservation as a long-term objective, and states that a pre-requisite to reduce park people conflict is meeting the basic needs of the people through the forestry sector. Significantly for landscape conservation, it also emphasizes the need for a policy of wildlife conservation outside the protected areas through an ecosystem-based approach. This policy is reiterated in the government’s Tenth Five Year Plan (2059/60 – 2063/64). The Forest Act (1993) provides the government with the power to delineate any part of a national forest that has a 'special environmental, scientific or cultural importance' as a protected forest, which is relevant to landscape conservation.
   In India, the forested areas are governed under the National Forest Policy of 1988. Central legislation such as the Indian Forest Act, 1927, the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1972 apply in the northeastern region. But several state-based legislation, District Council Acts, and community customary laws also apply in each state to regulate forest management and extraction from forests broadly classified as Unclassed State Forests. These forests, under private and community ownership and management, are mostly unsurveyed (both in terms of area, biodiversity value) in the hill states. With 80 percent of the northeast region’s forests under private and community control, the customary laws are widely applicable. But the District Council Acts are too weakly enforced; thus, with the concurrent weakening of the influence of the traditional institutions over the land and people, access to these forests is now almost unrestricted.
   Many of the existing laws and policies require amendments to make them compatible with current biodiversity conservation goals. Traditional and customary laws also have to be documented and analyzed so adequate legal back up to appropriate customary and traditional laws could be extended. Biodiversity could be integrated into development sectors, making biodiversity conservation an integral part of all the development activities and to ensure that ecosystem services are valued.
   Economic Situation
   Bhutan’s economy is based on agriculture, export of hydropower to India and nature-based, high-end tourism. Bhutanese societies are primarily agrarian or pastoral; today, 79 percent of Bhutanese depend on agriculture, and most of the arable lands are already cultivated. Most Bhutanese still rely on natural resources such as fuelwood, fodder, building material, food, and traditional medicines from forests and other natural habitats. It is therefore clear that Bhutan and its people will have to depend heavily on the continued maintenance of environmental integrity for cultural, social, and economic well-being and growth.
   Cognizant of the economic dependence of an intact environment, Bhutan has persisted with a cautious approach to development. The government’s economic policy is underlain with an emphasis and need for conservation of its natural resources (MoA 1998). Thus, there is a deliberate attempt to control the pace of the transition from subsistence to a modern economy to ensure sustainability.
   The economy of Nepal is also closely bound to its natural resources—arable land, water, forested areas, and protected areas. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing a livelihood for over 80 percent of the population and accounting for 41 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In general, agriculture contributes more than 50 percent of household income (HMGN/MFSC 2002). Tourism is the second most important source of foreign exchange for Nepal, after agriculture. About 45 percent of tourists coming to Nepal visit protected areas, generating substantial revenue. Tourism revenues from Chitwan and Annapurna contribute substantially to the national and local economies. But there is more scope for increasing tourism revenue further, and nature-based tourism will be a significant component.
   The economy in northeastern India is primarily forestry and agrarian-based. The plains are dominated by settled cultivation, whereas jhum (slash and burn) is practiced in the hills. Forestry contributes between 40-55 percent to local economies (Rahul Kaul World Pheasant Association, pers comm). Development in the region has not been commensurate with its rich resource base. The CMIE (Centre for Monitoring India’s Economy) index of relative development of infrastructure (1966-67 to 1992-93) position shows that, with the exception of Assam (ranked 13), the remaining seven states rank below 15 among the 25 states of the country.
   However, the conventional parameters of development are not the best measures for understanding the social and economic status of the Hill communities. The prevalence of traditional lifestyles, barter trade, and common property dissociates tend to hide the level of poverty or prosperity of the highland people. The spread of market economy and policy interventions, and accompanying infrastructure, have impacted the socio-economic dynamics of the hill communities and the rate of exploitation of natural resources in the region. During the past few decades, economic development has been characterized by forest clearing, increased exports of medicinal plants, development of hydro power projects, construction of water resource works, increased tourism, exploration and extraction of minerals, conversion of forested lands to orchards and tea gardens, commercial horticulture, and establishment of cantonments and hill stations. The growth of industrial activity has been largely limited to the foothills. To this is added large scale of migration of people in search of better job opportunities. Overall, these developments are detrimental to the agrarian economic base of the region.
   Infrastructure and Regional Development
   Bhutan is one of the least urbanized countries in the world, but with the 6.7 percent annual increase in migration from rural to urban areas, this situation is changing at a rapid pace (UNEP 2001; NEC 2002). With urbanization there comes a need to secure more land to accommodate urban expansion and to provide infrastructure and services (UNEP 2001). Developing this infrastructure for urban areas, as well as for the population living in scattered and sparsely populated areas, is likely to have significant impacts on the environment and biodiversity in Bhutan. Roads will fragment currently continuous swathes of habitats and corridors. Provision of irrigation and hydropower, while enhancing the lives of the people, can have serious negative impacts on the environment, especially on aquatic biodiversity. Urbanization and infrastructure development also impacts negatively on forest cover on valley slopes as forests are cleared to make room for urban settlement, increasing the risks of soil erosion and disturbances in watercourses. It also increases the probability of landslides and flash floods, which have economic and human life-related consequences.
   Nepal offers its citizens one of the poorest levels of infrastructure services in the world (Nepal Country Paper 2001). Only 45 percent of the population has access to safe drinking water, 6 percent to sanitation (39 percent in urban areas) and about 21 percent of households have electricity. Road density is low, with coverage of about 6 kilometers per 100 square kilometers. Most of the existing and planned infrastructure is concentrated in the Kathmandu Valley and in the Terai—a response to the migration of people from the mountains to the Terai zones and to cities, Kathmandu in particular. However, providing infrastructure to the more remote areas is also a government priority.
   Several large hydropower projects are underway, which will substantially increase power generation. Road networks are seen as an urgent need, especially to connect villages with market and administration centers. All these projects will have environmental and biodiversity related consequences, in terms of habitat loss, fragmentation, improved access and settlement, human-wildlife conflicts.
   Most of the development in northeast India is urban-centric, with the regional governments lacking proper policy on developing villages and suburban areas. The rapid and unplanned urbanization leading to loss of forest cover, unsustainable resource utilization, lack of drinking water (underground as well as run off), poverty and slums in and around the urban areas. The population increased in the region is about 6.94 million between 1991 and 2001 .
   Roads are a necessity to connect interior villages and to improve communications, but roads also result in forest fragmentation, and lead to anthropogenic activities that are detrimental to the ecosystem. The Government of India has a priority to establish road communication to all the villages by 2020. Being a long border with China, Myanmar and Bangladesh the Department of Defense also has a priority to develop the roads along the border areas, most of which are fragile ecosystems and wildlife habitat, leading further fragmentation of habitat. Environmental impact assessments are not necessary for defense-related projects.
   Large numbers of hydroelectric dams have been proposed in the region, and some are being implemented. The hydroelectricity generating potential in the region is 34,920 MW, or 41.50 percent of all the hydropower in India, according to an assessment by the Central Electric Authority (CEA)2. The dams will inundate important ecosystem areas and increase settlement in forest areas. Further, installing transmission cables will destroy more forest areas.
   Agroforestry has a tremendous potential in the region, and may succeed in replacing the traditional slash and burn cultivation (jhum) practiced by the hill tribes. Input of resources from governments and international agencies like World Bank for development of this sector is increasing. However, unplanned and unscientific agroforestry may lead to potential threat to the existing ecosystems as well as monoculture.
   The tea industry in Assam is very old, and was started in 1837. Until 1997 there were 947 tea gardens covering over 230,000 hectares in northeast India. Since 1998-99, however, the tea industry has grown sharply, and now covers almost 280,000 hectares. This records a rapid growth of tea gardens in the region and corresponds to the loss of forest cover in the foothills and uplands in the valleys.
   There are an estimated 864 million tons of coal reserve in the region. Meghalaya State has the largest reserve of coal in the region particularly in ecologically sensitive area like Garo Hills. Several open cast and rat-hole mining operations extract these deposits, with scant heed for environmental impacts.
   Demography and Social Trends
   With only about 650,000 people, Bhutan has one of the lowest population densities in Asia, which is an opportunity for conservation. However, with the introduction of better health conditions and living standards, the population has begun to grow rapidly with the current level of increase at 2.5 percent per annum. Already, more than 42 percent of the population is under 14 years of age. As this cohort grows up, with increasing economic aspirations and resource needs, the pressure on the environment can be expected to increase tremendously. Although most of the population is still rural, there is an increasing migration into urban centers. Thus the government will be challenged to create more employment opportunities for these growing urban populations.
   Nepal’s human population is estimated at 23.2 million people and growing at 2.4 percent annually. At these rates, the population will double in 25 years. The distribution of the population is biased toward the lowlands. Since the eradication of malaria in the fertile Terai lowlands in the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of immigrants moved from the hills of Nepal (and also into Nepal from India) into the Terai. Between 1981 and 1991, the average net gain in the human population in the Terai due to immigration was 94.3 percent in eight out of 14 districts in the Terai (Khatri-Chhetri and Devkota 2001). The consequence of this high population growth rate is unsustainable forest resource use in the Terai. Approximately 80 percent of the households now hold less than 2 hectares of land, which is inadequate to support a family (Khatri-Chhetri & Devkota 2001). Therefore, the people have to depend on forests for their daily requirements of firewood and supplement their food with forest products. If the current trends continue, the Terai forests will be unable to support the resource demands from the increasing human population unless sustainable natural resource use and management regimes are instituted—quickly.
   In the mountains, the population as a whole is culturally and ethnically diverse, but the demographics in the mountains reflect the consequences of migration to the lowlands. In the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, for instance, the population density is only about 3 persons per square kilometer. Emigration to the lowlands and to nearby towns has depleted the population.
   Because of its location in the geographic periphery of India, the northeastern region has evolved its own distinct cultural and socioeconomic identities. Covering 255,083 square kilometers—7.7 percent of India’s total area (NEC 2000) —the region supports a population of just over 38 million people, or just about 4 percent of the country’s population that exceeds a billion people (2001 Census). The population density of 151 persons per square kilometer is one of the lowest in the country. More than 85 percent of the northeast region’s population lives in rural areas (Census of India 2001). However, there is a marked difference in the spatial distribution of the population among the constituent states; the more hospitable plains and valleys are much more populous than the difficult mountain regions.
   The mountain areas are dominated by a number of indigenous tribal communities who have evolved their economic activities and resource management strategies to exist and exploit the steep topographies, and contend with the inaccessibility and isolation. The indigenous knowledge and practices generally emphasized low intensity resource use, compared to modern commercial lifestyles. But in recent years, increased accessibility and political and economic integration of the mountain communities have impacted the traditional lifestyles and cultures. Economic amalgamation has reduced the autonomy of the local communities, with the risk of marginalization because of their inability to compete with the formal markets and modernized economics of the rest of the country. Socially, the migrant-urban encounters, tourism and exposure to urban life have raised economic aspirations of the local hill communities, and new values and modes of behavior have penetrated traditional norms (ATREE 2003). These changing values, resource-use patterns and demographies will be of consequence to biodiversity conservation in the region. As the traditional sustainable resource-use practices and protectionist values—such as sacred forests—give way to market economy-influenced values, the threats to biodiversity will surely increase.
   Back to Top
   Synopsis of Current Threats
   The world’s highest mountain range has not been spared from the anthropogenic threats to biodiversity loss that pervade this planet. Historically, the human population densities in the region were relatively low, suppressed by disease, low productivity of the land, and inaccessibility. But in recent years, successful disease control programs, improved road access and other development have been followed by in-migrations that have increased the human populations and overwhelmed the traditional cultures and lifestyles by market economies and increased material aspirations. Since development and access is still variable across the region, the severity of threats and consequent rates of biodiversity loss is also variable, which has to be considered when assessing conservation opportunities and actions.
   For instance, until the 1960s the highly productive Terai ecosystem in Nepal was rife with malaria and thus sparsely settled, except by the indigenous Tharu people. But since eradication programs significantly reduced the prevalence of malaria, there has been a massive influx of people into the Terai from the less productive hills, resulting in extensive clearing of forests and grasslands along the foothills and low valleys.
   But in northeast India, the migration patterns are reversed. Since political and economic integration of the resource-rich northeastern hill states, there has been an in-migration of people from other parts of India into the natural resource-rich hills, with consequent marginalization of the tribal groups.
   Other threats, such as grazing by domestic livestock are common across the different ecosystems. The lowland ecosystems are heavily grazed by large herds of cattle. In the Nepal Terai, free-grazed, “unproductive” cattle have essentially reduced forests to lawns with a few standing trees. The less productive and more inaccessible alpine meadows are becoming degraded because of intense grazing by increasingly larger herds of domestic yak. Although yaks have been grazed in these montane grasslands for centuries, the herds, usually owned by absentee owners, have increased in size. These sensitive ecosystems are placed under added stress by unsustainable harvesting of alpine plants for a lucrative traditional medicine trade. Chronic threats from non-timber forest product collection, cutting and lopping of trees in natural forests for fuel, fodder and timber for house building and agricultural implements also contribute to ecosystem degradation throughout the Himalayas, especially where the human population density is high. Thus, in places like the mid-hills of Nepal and the lowland forests across the Himalayas foothills, the biologically rich subtropical and temperate broadleaf forests have been widely cleared or, at the very least, highly fragmented. Large extents of intact subtropical and temperate forests still remain in Bhutan and northeastern India where human population densities are relatively lower, but changes in shifting cultivation regimes have resulted in more forests being cleared with inadequate fallow periods for regeneration, especially in the latter region.
   Timber is widely sought for building. With the depletion of forests elsewhere in the region, the remaining forests in the mid-hills have become attractive commodities. The demand, and economic rewards, has fuelled illegal logging practices in these forests. Because the majority of the remaining forests are on slopes too steep for well-managed, sanctioned forestry practices, the illegal timber harvest—or in some cases legal, but unsuitable practices—pose serious threats to the forests, environment and biodiversity, as well as the socioeconomic dimensions.
   Unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade is another major threat in this region. The great demand for wildlife products, especially from the large charismatic species such as tigers, rhinoceros, snow leopards and elephants has driven these populations to the brink of extinction and they now require considerable protection to ensure long-term survival.
   The unplanned growth of tourism in this exotic reach of the world has led to environmental and ecosystem deterioration. Despite the socioeconomic returns from tourism as an industry, unless regulated it can affect the ecological integrity and by extension, the industry itself which depends on a sound and attractive environment.
   The unstable Himalayas slopes have always been prone to erosion. But the exposure of bare soil and reduced compactness because the ground cover is removed through logging, unsustainable non-timber forest product harvest, intense grazing by domestic livestock, and badly planned infrastructure, has resulted in erosion being more widespread. Consequently landslides are becoming more common with accompanying environmental degradation and economic, livelihood, and human losses.
   A consequence of the widespread habitat loss and fragmentation is that the large, wide-ranging species are now virtually confined to remaining scattered habitat patches, mostly within the protected areas. But most of these refuges are small and unable to support ecologically and demographically viable populations over the long term. Therefore, the species are considered to be globally threatened and have been recognized as priority conservation outcomes.
   While there is a tendency to be preoccupied with conservation of the larger, charismatic species and threats to these species, many other smaller species go unnoticed. Because large areas of the region are biologically unexplored, it is very likely that there are many species that are as yet unknown and unrecorded. Therefore, a focus on the ecological parameters for conservation of the larger species that require corridor outcomes for effective conservation can serve as umbrellas for many of the smaller species, including those that are, as yet undocumented.
   The participants at the expert roundtables identified several of these major sources of threats and underlying causes of these threats across the region (Table 6). The resource documents that were commissioned provide additional information on the regional and local threats to biodiversity. Several of these threats are overarching, but there are others that are specific to certain areas. A more detailed exposition of the overarching threats with underlying causes based on the expert roundtables and resource documents is presented below.
   Habitat Loss, Degradation, and Fragmentation
   This emerged as a broad, overarching causal factor resulting in biodiversity loss. The underlying causes were identified as unsustainable levels of fuelwood and other non-timber forest product extraction; intense grazing by large herds of domestic livestock in forests, lowland grasslands, and alpine meadows; encroachment into forest lands by landless, migrants, and even ‘land-grabbing’ by rich people; and slash and burn agricultural practices, especially in hill areas.
   Conversion of forests and grasslands to agriculture and settlements is most intense in Nepal, and in the Indian States of Sikkim, Darjeeling and Assam. The mountain areas of Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh, Megalaya, and the other northeastern Indian states have not experienced as much conversion although, in general, shifting cultivation has been a widespread practice in northeast Indian hill states. The Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex is the least impacted by forest conversion from among the corridor outcomes, whereas the foothill landscapes, notably the Terai Arc and North Bank, are highly fragmented.
   The northeastern Indian states have the highest forest cover in the country, but are also experiencing losses as high as 31,700 hectares of dense forests annually (Down to Earth 2002). Here, shifting cultivation was, and still remains, the main source of livelihood for most hill tribal communities. On average, 3,869 square kilometers is put under shifting cultivation annually, and an estimated 443,336 households earn their livelihood from this practice. But, while in the past, a 10-30 year fallow period allowed for forest regeneration, the fallow period has now reduced to two years in some areas, making the practice unsustainable. As a result, the landscape has undergone tremendous changes, with extensive bamboo brakes that prevent succession to broadleaf forest. Because of uncertain land-tenure issues and usufruct rights, the incentives for maintaining the traditional sustainable practices are also disappearing.
   Extensive grazing by domestic livestock is another pervasive source of biodiversity loss throughout the Eastern Himalayas Region, from the lowlands to the alpine areas. The species-rich alpine meadows, when overgrazed by large herds of domesticated yak, become dominated by a few species of unpalatable shrubs like Berberis, Rosa, Caragana, or forbs like Euphorbia, Primula and Pedicularis. Severe overgrazing creates bare patches that are susceptible to wind erosion, but a more common pattern is for the rangelands to be cropped into lawn-like grasslands. In the lowlands and mid-hills, the forests grazed by herds of cattle have lost all undergrowth, and no longer possess or support the natural ecosystems and associated biodiversity.
   The biodiversity and ecological integrity of the alpine meadows, already subject to high grazing pressure, are also threatened by commercial collection of plants used in the traditional medicine trade. Some of these important plants include Fritillaria cirrhosa, Sausuria spp. and Cordyceps sinensis, the latter a species of caterpillar that becomes infected by a fungus and is highly prized by Chinese and Tibetans as a powerful tonic. Although some plants are collected for local use, large quantities are collected for export. Often entire plants are uprooted and removed even though only parts are used; thus regeneration and recovery is retarded (Lama et al. 2001). Despite efforts to regulate this trade, and in some instances to even prohibit it, the remoteness of the region, open borders in the north, and lack of human resources make enforcement of regulations difficult at best.
   Lopping and pruning trees for fuelwood and fodder for livestock have inflicted severe damage on forests, including changes in species compositions. The lowland forests are more productive than the montane forests and can withstand greater levels of extraction, but the human populations exploiting the lowland forests are also much greater. Thus, forests with trees lacking branches and sans undergrowth are common sights throughout the mid-hills and lowlands of India and Nepal.
   Wildlife Killing
   Unsustainable poaching and hunting for commercial wildlife trade was identified as a major threat to several high priority species outcomes. The high demand for tiger and rhinoceros parts places these species under extreme threat. The rhinoceros has even been extirpated from important, high-profile protected areas such as Manas Tiger Reserve. Currently, even relatively well-protected parks such as Chitwan and Bardia national parks in Nepal are subject to frequent rhinoceros poaching. Similarly, tiger parts are highly prized in traditional East Asian medicines, and the open borders encourage poaching since the probability of apprehension is low while the economic returns are high.
   Many of the tribal groups across the eastern Himalaya also practice traditional and customary forms of hunting, especially in the northeastern Indian states where animal pelts, feathers, and bird bills are used as adornments. Small projects are now underway to mitigate customary hunting of Endangered species; an example being the project to exchange beaks of Endangered hornbill species for models made of fiberglass.
   Wildlife killing also takes place as a result of conflict with humans. Retaliation against tigers and snow leopards for livestock depredation, and against elephants and rhinoceros for crop depredation is prevalent and continue to intensify as humans and wildlife compete for land and other resources. The North Bank Landscape is a prime example of intense human-elephant conflict with fatalities on both sides brought about by extensive and ad hoc land clearing and encroachment of forestlands.
   Because of the threats to wildlife from hunting, relevant authorities have imposed prohibitions. Yet, hunting and killing of wildlife continues. While subsistence hunting is largely restricted to the vicinity of settlements or travel routes, commercial hunting takes place in remote areas because of patrolling and policing close to travel routes (Rastogi 2000). The economic incentives from wildlife products are lucrative enough that poachers will suffer the hardships and risks of venturing far from easily accessible areas.
   Illegal Logging
   In Nepal, forestry contributes a significant amount to the GDP—up to 15 percent, according to Pudasaini (1993). Bhutan has pledged to maintain more than 60 percent of its forest cover, yet export timber to India and Bangladesh. And northeastern India has several Reserve Forests that are managed for timber. But the threat to biodiversity arises from large numbers of illegal, small-scale logging operations that continue to nibble away around the edges and from within the remaining forest patches. Some of the immediate anthropogenic threats from these logging operations include disturbance and loss of wildlife from the area, habitat degradation, which affects the habitat sensitive species, and hunting. But even more serious is that many of these illegal operations are extracting from slopes too steep to be logged in a sustainable, managed manner. The resulting erosion in steep slopes then triggers a cascading chain of consequential environmental problems which manifest far downslope and downstream from the sources.
   Floods
   High flood events were identified as significant threats in the North Bank and Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong landscapes. During high floods, Endangered species—the greater one-horned rhinoceros in particular—requires high-ground refuges. Since the Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong landscape in particular contains a significant proportion of the global population of greater one-horned rhinoceros, mitigation measures are necessary to provide flood refuges and access to high ground in the foothills to the south.
   Pollution
   Agrochemicals—fertilizers and pesticides in particular—were identified as significant threats to some globally threatened species. The decline of some large, Endangered birds such as the vultures and adjutants have possibly been attributed to agrochemicals, although it is also likely that there are multiple causes acting in synergy.
   Infrastructure
   Infrastructure is an inevitable part of development. But development also poses inevitable threats to biodiversity, although the severity can be ameliorated with judicious planning, appropriate choice of sites, mitigation, and sound implementation methods and practices. Throughout the Eastern Himalayas Region, large dams and roads are considered to represent development priorities. These same priorities also represent significant sources of threats to biodiversity, and to the corridor outcomes in particular. Roads enable easier access and encourage settlements. Previously inaccessible areas become available for hunting and poaching. Road construction itself causes disturbance, destruction, and degradation of the habitat and biodiversity. Road networks fragment large, intact habitat blocks and disrupt the integrity of corridor outcomes.
   In the eastern Himalayas the road network is most dense in the lowlands, where the human population is greatest, and road construction is easier. In the mid-hills regions, the network is relatively denser in Nepal than in Bhutan and the farthest northeastern Indian states.
   Large dams built for hydroelectric power generation is another source of threats to biodiversity, especially for the corridor outcomes. In some respects the dams have a positive effect on the eastern Himalayas ecosystems since the availability of hydropower can ease some dependence on fuelwood. However, because of the rugged and difficult terrain, it is unlikely that electricity can be supplied in a cost-effective manner and with minimal environmental costs to all remote villages spread across the Himalayas Mountains. Thus, many people would still depend on fuelwood for energy, and in all likelihood the excess power would be diverted to large cities far from the region.
   Dams also take up space. In Nepal, for instance, if all the proposed hydro-projects were actually built, more than 2,000 square kilometers of arable land would become submerged (Zurick and Karan 1999). The reservoirs usually submerge the fertile and arable valleys and displace the people into marginal lands, usually upslope. The generation of surplus energy drives industrial expansion in both surrounding mountainous lands as well as in the lower hills and plains. The seismic activity of the eastern Himalaya is such that a large earthquake could cause the dam to breach, wreaking havoc on the downstream watershed and communities in the densely settled lowlands. Moreover, building dams often require construction of new roads into previously inaccessible areas, opening the areas to settlement by outsiders who are likely to be more interested in higher levels of natural resource extraction than traditional and sustainable modes of existence.
   The effect of dams on fisheries and fish ecology is also of concern. Although little is known about the seasonal migration patterns of aquatic species in the Himalayas rivers, there is evidence to suggest that some species of fish and the Gangetic River dolphin move upstream during the monsoon season. Preliminary research at the Kali Gandaki Dam suggests that the fish ladders—designed along the line of ladders built for salmon in North America—do not work. Thus, alternative methods or techniques are required. Along the Karnali River, the dolphin population above the barrage in India is in decline. Dolphins from below the dam barrage cannot negotiate the dam to replenish the upriver population. The barrage also prevents fish migrations; thus, the prey base for the upriver dolphin population is also likely becoming depleted.
   The Nepali government has included 18 dam projects in its Ninth Plan. Bhutan tends to favor small, run-of-the-river projects for local energy production, but there is a large 60 MW hydro project—Kurichu Hydro Project—currently under construction close to Thrumsing La National Park. The relevant state governments in northeastern India also look favorably on hydroelectric power development. Sikkim has the potential to produce 8,000 MW of power, but has tapped only 33 MW thus far. The Teesta and the Rangit rivers are recognized as having the most potential for project development. Currently, various micro, small, and medium-sized projects are under construction. Although micro projects cannot provide large amounts of energy for export that large dams would, they would provide electricity for rural villages. Thus, the optimal solution for these areas would be micro hydro plants in villages that can be built and cared for locally, which would also create less damage, and cost relatively little. Further east, the proposed Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh with an installed capacity of 4520 MW will flood 4,039 ha of forestlands in Arunachal and Assam, including critical elephant corridors in the North Bank Landscape (Ecologist Asia 2003a). Because the economic interests of the State government officials and policy-makers overrule the ecological impacts, the environmental impact assessments and recommendations have become mere formalities that are often overlooked or ignored, rather than be considered for mitigation that can better inform the project plan. The impact of Loktak hydro scheme in Manipur, started in 1983 is now apparent with the absence of migratory water birds (because of higher water levels) and occurrences of flash floods (Ecologist Asia 2003b), and should serve as an example for development in the region.
   Mining
   Mining is generally quite destructive to habitats and biodiversity. The immediate area around mines can become converted to ecological wastelands as massive amounts of waste materials degrade surrounding land and water bodies, and huge landslides can result from blasting. Fortunately, because of inaccessibility to most deposits there is relatively little mineral extraction in the eastern Himalayas. However, as the road network expands, mining and its side effects could be much more pervasive.
   In Nepal, low-grade iron ore, scattered copper deposits, zinc, limestone are mined in some places (Zurick and Karan 1999). Bhutan has significant deposits of dolomite coal, limestone, and gypsum but extraction is currently negligible. In Sikkim, the Rangpo Copper Mine has potential for further development. Open cast mining and oil exploration are, however, major threats in the other northeastern states of India (Goswami 2000), where deforestation, soil erosion and air and water pollution (pH value as low as 2.7) are obvious manifestations.
   Forest and Grassland Fires
   Fires are lit in the forests to burn the understory and open the forest for easier access and induce a flush of vegetation for livestock. But these fires sometimes spread out of control, burning up into the subalpine zone. Thus, forest fires were identified as a major threat in Bhutan and in the Terai Arc Landscape.
   The current use of fire as a management tool in protected areas can also be a threat to some species outcomes. Many of the grasslands in protected areas are maintained by annual burning to provide suitable habitat for large ungulates, especially for rhinoceros and wild water buffalo. However, this management regime is detrimental to smaller, grassland habitat specialists such as the hispid hare, pygmy hog and several grassland birds, which are also Critically Endangered and require conservation management. Thus, the use of fire in these protected areas should be reviewed and appropriate measures taken to use it more judiciously, with due consideration for overall biodiversity characteristics of the grassland communities, rather than a few select species. This is especially important in the sites and corridors identified as outcomes in the Terai and Duar savannas and grasslands.
   Lack of Information
   Poor baseline data and unreliable scientific information are serious impediments to designing appropriate strategies and policies for biodiversity conservation and management in the region. Inadequate species inventories and distribution records, poor documentation of information, and absence of trained manpower to undertake scientific and analytical studies have retarded progress in conservation. In the absence of reliable data, unintentional habitat destruction may have occurred in the context of siting development projects, and even when designing and managing protected areas and conservation landscapes. Even the development of this profile has been hampered by lack of information on the distribution and status of most species, and much of the eastern Himalayas are biologically unknown. Thus, even these priorities are based on limited knowledge.
   Insurgency
   Political unrest manifested as insurgencies plague the region. Protected areas and forests that harbor wildlife also serve as refuges for insurgents, who indulge in indiscriminate poaching and felling of trees. Effective patrolling and protection in these refuges by protected area staff is then made difficult at best and impossible, usually. Manas National Park in Bhutan and Manas Tiger Reserve in India, where the rhinoceros population has been extirpated and the tiger population severely depleted, are good examples of the threat to biodiversity and conservation efforts caused by insurgencies. Outside protected areas, large tracts of plantation forests throughout the state of Tripura are being destroyed in the absence of Forest Department staff or Joint Forest Management committees due to the insurgency. Similar insurgencies occur in Nagaland. And in Nepal, the Maoist insurgency has severely constrained conservation activities on the ground.
   Back to Top
   Synopsis of Current Investment
   Investments in biodiversity conservation in the Eastern Himalayas Region come from the national governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, and international and regional NGOs. Below, we summarize the major funding sources and projects in the region. The summary does not represent an exhaustive list, but is only meant to act as a guide in determining funding gaps and opportunities for complementary investment by CEPF.
   In Nepal, the Terai Arc Landscape receives funding from several bilateral and multilateral donors. One of the largest investments is the $12.8 million GEF Nepal Biodiversity Landscape Project to be implemented from 2004-2011 for landscape conservation in the western complex of the Terai Arc Landscape within Nepal. The government’s contribution to this project will be $3.7 million, while $9.1 million will be sought from UNDP/GEF, WWF, the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) and GEF. The British Aid Agency (DFID) will implement the 10-year, GBP 8.2 million Livelihoods and Forestry Program in three Terai districts and 11 other hill districts. The three districts in the Terai and one hill district (Dang) are within the Terai Arc Landscape. The program’s focus is to increase benefits to the poor by assisting them move from passive to active community forest management. The program also seeks to move government and donors involved in forestry toward a sector-wide approach including supporting policy developments. USAID will invest $8.7 million between 2002-2006 to improve local control over conservation, management, and sustainable natural resource use, and to increase advocacy capacity of selected civil society organizations. From 2001-2006, SNV will invest $2.2 million under the BISEP project for forest management in the inner Terai and Siwalik Hills for biodiversity conservation and equitable economic development. SNV, KFW (German Bank) and HMG Biogas Support Program will fund 200,000 biogas plants between 2003 and 2010. Since 1997, Action Aid/DiFD has been implementing a 1.5 million GBP project to eradicate poverty through community empowerment of the poorest and most marginalized sectors by enhancing their capacities to have access and control resources, advocating in their favor, and strengthening local government involvement in poverty alleviation. The Save The Tiger Fund has invested more than $1 million in tiger conservation the Terai Arc Landscape. WWF Nepal has committed $800,000 per year over the next five years under the Critical Area Restoration Project (CARP) to restore degraded corridors. A comprehensive strategic plan is being prepared for the Terai Arc that may show large gaps in real biodiversity conservation.
   In the Kanchenjunga-Singalila Complex, the secured and anticipated budget for three years is roughly $500,000. Most of the secured funds are from the MacArthur Foundation. The Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Project has more than $20,000 from WWF-UK mostly on a snow leopard project and another $20,000 is expected from the ADB to develop ecotourism within the conservation area. The Kadoorie microhydro project is expected to receive about $75,000 in funding.
   In Bhutan, several bilateral donors have been investing in conservation of the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex. Between 1998 and 2003, the government of Denmark (DANIDA) invested $13.3 million in capacity building and training to establish an institutional framework of professionals to carry out environmental management and awareness. The European Union ($13.8 million for watershed management in western Bhutan, Germany/GTZ ($5.6 million), Helvetas/SDC ($3 million) and Canada/IDRC ($238,000) have been supporting projects to promote sustainable natural resource use and improve livelihoods of rural people. SNV has also been supporting protected areas management and community development, the latter with a $2.1 million investment, with $125,000 support for protected areas management. The Dutch government has also allocated $12 million over five years to establish an ex-situ plant conservation facility and information database. Since 1995, the Save The Tiger Fund has provided roughly $150,000 for tiger conservation within the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex. Since 1998, the Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation has invested $4.3 million in capacity building within the nature conservation and forestry sector through overseas and in-country training; staff recruitment to government institutions; management of protected areas, forests, and wildlife; and environmental education. Within the NGO sector, WWF has, and is supporting various activities such as anti-poaching, environmental education, database and information, capacity building, and protected areas management with an ongoing investment that has now exceeded $1.6 million. Much of this represents complementary support to large projects. However, WWF has also made significant investments through non-monetary support to the Nature Conservation Division in conservation and by promoting the creation of the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex. There are also several GEF-funded projects in Bhutan implemented by UNDP.
   Detailed investment portfolios are difficult to obtain from the northeast India states. Many small national NGOs cannot receive funds directly from foreign organizations, and central government and state funds are entrenched within a complex bureaucracy. Within the NGO sector, there are a few larger organizations that serve as overall coordinators for smaller grassroots projects. These NGOs are able to serve as ‘nodes’ to receive foreign exchange grants, and disburse grants to support work by the numerous grassroots NGOs and CBOs.
   Aaranyak is one of these nodal NGOs that have supported a range of projects, from education and outreach to research, surveys, and ex-situ conservation of Endangered species, to legal, advocacy issues and community-based conservation with investments ranging from $500 to $35,000. Aaranyak implemented these projects through collaborations with a number of grassroots NGOs such as Green Guard, Nature’s Foster, Green Heart Nature Club, Green Forest Conservation and New Horizon, and with larger regional institutions such as CEE and the Bombay Natural History Society. Several of these projects address conservation of priority species outcomes (greater one-horned rhinoceros, Asian elephant, golden langur, pygmy hog, adjutants and dark-rumped swift) and site outcomes (Manas National Park, Namdapha National Park, Kaziranga National Park), which are within the priority corridor outcomes in the northeast region of India. Financial support for these projects has come from a variety of organizations, such as the International Centre for Conservation Education, U.K., Primate Conservation Inc., Conservation International, The American Society of Primatology, Community Conservation Inc., USA, the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
   CEE administers a UNDP small grant program on environmental protection in the eight northeastern states. Currently there are 11 ongoing projects in the region. Over the last two years, WWF has invested about $70,000 to initiate conservation activities in the North Bank landscape with a focus on elephants, and will spend $120,000 this year. WWF offices in Guwahati (Assam), Ithanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Sikkim and Darjeeling (W. Bengal) implement many small projects with local NGOs and CBOs. The MacArthur Foundation has supported projects in the northeast Indian states of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh through various NGOs, as well as in Nepal and Bhutan (2002 to 2004, $2.5 million). Among the bilateral donors, the India-Canada Environment Facility (ICEF) has funded several projects that focus on developing natural resources and improving environmental management capacity within the government and NGO/CBO sector to address natural resource, water, and energy issues. Some of the projects funded by ICEF include: the Nagaland Environment Protection and Economic Development Project to regulate and improve productivity in traditional jhum by Naga farmers; a project to empower Village Development Boards to support and promote development through agro-forestry in Nagaland; to restore the ecology of Loktak Lake (a priority site outcome); and education and capacity building to promote nature conservation and environment among students and teachers in Arunachal Pradesh. The International Fund for Agriculture Development is implementing a FAO-funded project in six upland districts of Manipur, Assam, and Meghalaya to enable community institutions and self-help groups to manage natural resources. The project sites include the Kaziranga-Karbi-Anlong Landscape.
   Back to Top
   CEPF Niche for Investment
   During stakeholder consultations when compiling this ecosystem profile and from previous expert consultations when developing a biodiversity vision for the eastern Himalayas ecoregion complex, the regional experts emphasized the need for: a) large-scale conservation for saving the region’s megafauna and representative ecosystems; b) conservation efforts that transcend protected areas boundaries; c) innovative public-private alliances and partnerships for conservation and; d) the participation of local people in natural resource management.
   CEPF’s geographic focus for investments should be the 60 priority site outcomes and the corridor outcomes in the five priority landscapes (Figure 4, Table 5), which capture important populations of all the priority species (Table 4). While the 24 priority sites outside of the priority corridors (Table 5) capture species outcomes that can be conserved within sites, the landscapes are necessary to conserve the region’s wide-ranging megafauna. Landscape conservation requires maintaining landscape matrices that are compatible with conservation objectives. Most of these matrices and unprotected sites are—or were—managed under traditional systems that are now being eroded by external economic forces, introduction of new technology that can undermine the emphasis traditional systems placed on biodiversity and unsustainable use of land in attempts to increase productivity or support larger, denser human populations. Thus, CEPF should take up the challenge of building strategic alliances and coalitions among civil society groups to enable them to address key conservation issues in landscape conservation and seize opportunities for conservation presented by major national policy changes in favor of biodiversity.
   CEPF resources will make the greatest incremental impact in the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, the Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex, and the North Bank Landscape. These three corridors have traditionally received less funding for conservation than the Terai Arc and Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong Landscape. While all five priority corridors are eligible for CEPF support and are important for global significant biodiversity, particular emphasis will be placed on the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex, and North Bank Landscape. CEPF support in the Terai Arc and Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong Landscape will be used for very targeted and strategic activities that leverages, maximizes and complements the existing funding already going to these landscapes. CEPF will therefore invest the majority of its resources for the Eastern Himalayas toward building momentum in the lesser-funded landscapes in the region.
   National governments, bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, and several international organizations are already infusing substantial financial support to environment-related programs in the priority landscapes. But, as evident from the current investment analysis, many of these focus on natural resource management and lack adequate biodiversity conservation components. Thus, even with the relatively modest funds available, CEPF has a good opportunity to leverage matching funds and catalyze larger conservation programs. By collaborating with larger initiatives in the region, CEPF can provide momentum for a long-term regional conservation initiative in the eastern Himalayas.
   CEPF should also seek to build partnership approaches with grassroots NGOs capable of conducting species-specific conservation actions (e.g., Green Guards, Green Manas).
   Therefore, CEPF’s niche in the region should be to:
   • influence and add synergy to existing biodiversity conservation programs through civil society;
   • complement and leverage funds where large development projects do not directly address biodiversity conservation or where the investments are inadequate; and
   • support and strengthen civil society’s role in conservation, especially in species-specific actions and in influencing biodiversity policies.
   Back to Top
   CEPF Investment Strategy and Priorities
   Program Focus
   The CEPF program focus in the Eastern Himalayas Region is based on a subset of biogeographical priorities for biodiversity conservation—species, site and corridor outcomes—that are considered priorities for CEPF investment; an urgency to abate threats to biodiversity; socioeconomic realities; institutional capacity of civil society in the region; and an assessment of current investments, funding gaps and opportunities in the region.
   Government institutions and civil society are active in conservation in the region, but often lack coordinated action and capacity to implement biodiversity programs. CEPF can build on existing programs to strengthen the role of communities in biodiversity conservation. This includes empowering local and national NGOs and local communities to participate in natural resource management and to promote customary and usufruct rights to land managed under traditional, sustainable regimes that support important biodiversity. Civil society can play an active role in restoring degraded corridors with such traditional and contemporary land management to link existing protected areas and create reserve networks.
   Although protected areas are the cornerstones of biodiversity conservation, the current investments for protection and species management have been meager, relative to investments in community development in buffer zones and other areas within corridor outcomes. CEPF can strengthen protected areas in priority landscapes by supporting these sites. CEPF can also support field research and biological surveys through civil society—preferably through civil society-government partnerships—to enable more effective conservation planning and decisionmaking.
   Strategic Directions
   Four strategic directions and associated investment priorities were identified for CEPF investment based on the consultations during expert roundtable consultations, other discussions with civil society and governmental stakeholders, and from background research commissioned through consultants (Table 7). The strategic directions are underlain by scientific principles of conservation biology, especially with ecological and demographic needs that warrant landscape-scale approaches to conservation of priority, wide-ranging species in the region.
   Table 7. Strategic Directions and Investment Priorities for CEPF in the Eastern Himalayas Region

   Strategic Directions	Investment Priorities
   1.  Build on existing landscape conservation initiatives to maintain and restore connectivity and to protect wide-ranging threatened species in priority corridors with a particular emphasis on the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex, and North Bank Landscape	1.1  Identify important habitat linkages between site outcomes in the priority corridors.
   	1.2  Engage civil society in developing and implementing management plans for key habitat linkages.
   	1.3  Support targeted conservation education and awareness programs among communities, schools, journalists and decisionmakers in priority corridors.
   	1.4  Promote forest management practices that benefit biodiversity conservation in the priority corridors.
   2.  Secure the conservation of priority site outcomes (key biodiversity areas) in the eastern Himalayas with a particular emphasis on the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex, and North Bank Landscape	2.1  Support targeted efforts to manage, protect and monitor site outcomes (key biodiversity areas).
   	2.2  Provide incremental support to effective, ongoing alternative livelihood projects with local communities that ease threats to and enhance conservation of priority sites.
   	2.3  Support traditional land- and resource-use practices in projects that will ensure effective conservation of priority sites.
   3.  Leverage partnerships among donor agencies, civil society and government institutions to achieve priority biodiversity conservation outcomes over the long term.	3.1  Strengthen and support government and civil society partnerships that result in new funding for achieving conservation outcomes in the eastern Himalayas.
   	3.2  Support training programs to protect, manage and monitor species, sites and corridor outcomes.
   	3.3  Develop and strengthen capacity among grassroots civil society organizations to manage, monitor, and mitigate threats to biodiversity.
   	3.4  Support transboundary initiatives for conservation of wide-ranging species that require collaboration across international borders.
   4.  Develop a small grants program to safeguard globally threatened species in the eastern Himalayas	4.1  Support targeted, high-impact projects to conserve Critically Endangered and endemic species.
   	4.2  Support action-oriented research to enable or improve the conservation of priority species outcomes.
   	4.3  Implement a monitoring program for priority species outcomes.
   	4.4  Support conservation assessments of lesser-known taxonomic groups (plants, invertebrates, fish) for inclusion into the IUCN Red List.

   1. Build on existing landscape conservation initiatives to maintain and restore connectivity and to protect wide-ranging threatened species in priority corridors with a particular emphasis on the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex, and North Bank Landscape.
   The Eastern Himalayas Region contains globally important populations of several landscape species, such as the tiger, Asian elephant, snow leopard, clouded leopard, greater one-horned rhinoceros, takin and large birds such as vultures, hornbills and adjutants. These species cannot be contained and conserved within the bounds of small, isolated protected areas; instead their best chance for long-term survival is through a metapopulation conservation strategy where dispersal and migration routes link core populations within protected areas. Several smaller birds that undertake altitudinal migrations also cannot be effectively conserved within small sites. These migrations and dispersal events, together with the hydrologic regimes represent important ecological processes that depend on habitat connectivity.
   Creating, restoring, and conserving landscapes by linking the core protected areas, or site outcomes, within the larger corridors to allow dispersal and migration of focal species will require involvement of civil society since many areas within the corridors are used or owned by civil society groups. CEPF will support civil society to focus their work for the Eastern Himalayas towards building momentum in the lesser-funded landscapes such as North Bank, Kanchenjunga –Singalila and Bhutan biological corridors in the region.
   1.1. Identify important habitat linkages between site outcomes in four of the priority corridors
   The priority corridors for the Terai Arc Landscape have been identified, but the corridor outcomes for all other landscapes represent initial assessments and approximations based on expert opinions and cursory examination of remotely sensed data. GIS analyses coupled with field surveys and ground verification is now necessary to better define and delineate these corridors and their suitability as dispersal and migration routes for the priority landscape species in the North Bank, Kaziranga-Karbi Anlong, and Kangchenjunga-Singalila landscapes. These and the Bhutan Biological Corridor Complex also require further analyses and definition of the corridors using more recent remote-sensed data to establish a baseline for monitoring and restoration of critical degraded linkages. These analyses will provide the scientific basis for the configuration of the corridor outcomes, and should be done within the next three years since habitat loss and fragmentation is rapid, especially in the northeast Indian states.
   1.2. Engage civil society in developing and implementing management plans for key habitat linkages
   Throughout the Eastern Himalayas Region, traditional village-level and other community-level institutions have played dominant roles in protecting community resources. Even today, most local communities are heavily dependent on forest products, natural resources and ecological services for their livelihoods and for daily subsistence. In many areas, although local people have used the land and resources for generations, national laws do not usufruct rights; thus land tenure is undefined and the rights are uncertain. As resource demands grow and these communities become more integrated socially and politically, the laws of the land begin to have more influence than the traditional rights and customs. The assimilation into the broader socioeconomic and political framework causes a disintegration of the traditional sustainable management and harvest regimes, especially if the traditional rights and sense of ownership are perceived as being at risk. This is especially true in some of the northeastern Indian states, notably Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland, and in the Nepal Terai, where the local people and communities have had traditional rights over forestlands for generations.
   The corridor outcomes and several sites will, in most cases, consist of lands under community forestry, joint forest management, agroforestry, leasehold forestry, plantations and other traditional land-use regimes that are managed or owned by civil society groups. An important strategic direction for CEPF would be to support and strengthen the traditions of local communities and CBOs in conservation, especially within the context of landscape conservation.
   Thus, CEPF should support civil society to facilitate and conduct conservation initiatives in the landscape matrices by managing land and adopting land-use practices that are compatible with conservation objectives. This could galvanize other funding agencies to adopt holistic approaches to biodiversity conservation. CEPF funding to civil society is also likely to leverage large support from larger bilateral and multilateral partners as exemplified in the Terai Arc.
   1.3. Support targeted conservation education and awareness programs among communities, schools, journalists and decisionmakers in priority corridors
   An awareness campaign to highlight the need to conserve biodiversity in traditional and community lands in the face of increasing anthropogenic threats can help to bring about a renewed cognizance of the consequences of unsustainable harvests and extraction levels. Informed civil society advocacy groups can also advocate for changes in policy, against detrimental projects, unsuitable land use and land acquired illegally by outside interests. Thus, CEPF can support local capacity building to train environmental journalists and to form community-based groups, community ecoclubs and nature clubs in schools to educate others and raise awareness. All priority corridors and site outcomes within priority corridors should be eligible for funding.
   Some existing and planned investments by other donors, especially in Nepal, include building capacity of civil society to participate in decisionmaking about community rights and access to management of natural resources. Although information on the extent of similar investment in northeastern India is unavailable, it is likely that some may be present. Regardless, CEPF’s niche should be to raise awareness about and the ability to participate in biodiversity conservation for economic and ecological service-related benefits as well as ethical and stewardship reasons. The latter is an important cultural and religious component of the tribal people in the region who still comprise the majority of the population in the hill states.
   1.4 Promote forest management practices that benefit biodiversity conservation in the priority corridors
   The well-managed forest patches under community ownership in northeast India are testimony to the success of community initiatives in forest management conceived by the indigenous societies and have evolved through ages of practice. These viable systems include the sacred forests and groves of Meghalaya and Manipur, the village safety and supply reserves in Mizoram and Tripura and in the community-held forests of Arunachal Pradesh. Unfortunately, however, the protection these forests have enjoyed for centuries is being eroded by increased demand for resources; perceived loss of traditional rights; cultural, economic and political integration; and in-migration and settlement by outsiders.
   In Nepal, community forestry is of relatively more recent origin. But the economic benefits that accrue to the local communities has established the practice as a favorable land management regime by local communities, and recognized by state laws. Community forestry is also a management tool that can help to conserve biodiversity, especially in the buffer zones of protected areas and corridors. Thus, appropriate policy changes that recognize usufruct rights can ensure continued conservation of land held and managed under traditional rights. Precedence for this has already been established in Arunachal Pradesh, where the government and the land-owning tribes of Arunachal Pradesh jointly manage the forest resources under the Arunachal Pradesh Anchal Forest Reserve (Constitution and Maintenance) Act in 1975 that provides for revenue sharing between the government and Anchal Samitis.
   CEPF can empower local communities by supporting development and implementation of conservation plans based on traditional and cultural conservation practices in the priority landscape and site outcomes. The North Bank Landscape, Kanchenjunga-Singalila Complex, and sites in northeast India are some of the outcomes where traditional forestry practices can enhance biodiversity conservation. In the Terai Arc Landscape, Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex and the sites in Nepal outside landscapes, contemporary practices such as community forestry are viable options.
   2. Secure conservation of priority site outcomes (key biodiversity areas) in the eastern Himalayas with a particular emphasis on sites in the Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, Kangchenjunga-Singalila Complex, and North Bank Landscape.
   The Eastern Himalayas Region contains globally important sites supporting globally threatened species that only occur in those sites, or are one of few sites that are known to contain globally important populations of such species. For instance, Namdapha National Park in Arunachal Pradesh is the only site in the world known to support Namdapha flying squirrel and one of only two sites known to support the snowy-throated babbler, or Orang, which is the only site from where the Orang sticky frog has been recorded. World Heritage sites such as Kaziranga, Manas and Chitwan national parks harbor globally important populations of the greater one-horned rhinoceros, tigers, pygmy hog and several globally threatened birds. The populations of these species represent important core populations from which to increase the global populations through translocations or by providing additional habitat through landscape conservation to either augment smaller populations or establish founder populations. These key sites have to be secured through appropriate conservation and protection measures.
   2.1. Support targeted efforts to manage, protect and monitor key biodiversity areas (site outcomes)
   Protected areas play a critical role in in situ conservation and represent the core areas of larger, landscape-scale conservation initiatives. If core populations of Endangered species cannot be effectively protected within such sites, their future will not be assured. Since an important conservation goal for CEPF is to assure the future of these species outcomes, support for better management and protection of these site outcomes that represent core habitat and refuges should be a priority.
   Many protected areas are managed by government institutions, which are usually under-resourced and understaffed. Consequently, they lack effective management mechanisms. Non-protected key sites (e.g., Ada Lake, Teesta-Rangit Valley, Siroi, Rongrengiri, Siju Caves, Jatinga) should be managed to conserve and protect the globally threatened species they harbor, either by empowering and engaging local communities, declaring them as protected areas and thus placing the management onus on the responsible government institutions, or an arrangement where both government and local communities manage the sites jointly.
   CEPF should support partnerships and institutional mechanisms that will help to develop an adequately trained cadre in government sectors as well as stakeholders within civil society who are directly involved in natural resources management in key sites. Support for training will enhance capacity of a staff capable of multi-tasked jobs such as anti-poaching, social forestry, park management and protection, field research and community motivation.
   2.2. Provide incremental support to effective, ongoing alternative livelihood projects with local communities that ease threats to and enhance conservation of priority sites
   Despite the sustainable nature of traditional natural resource management practices, the rising population levels inevitably lead to increasing resource use and extraction rates. Eventually the extraction rates will exceed the sustainable use thresholds. Both in the hills and lowlands—whether in forests or grassland meadows—the sizes of domestic livestock herds have grown considerably over the past few decades. As a result habitat degradation has become widespread. Alpine meadows rich in plant diversity are becoming eroded, with consequences ranging from loss of biodiversity to landslides. Forests have lost all undergrowth and capacity to regenerate. Extraction of fuelwood, timber, medicinal plants and other forest products from these stressed ecosystems will inevitably lead to their collapse as functioning, natural communities. Since human communities also depend on these forests, the socioeconomic consequences are also obvious. Several donors are already investing in promoting alternative livelihoods among communities in the region. CEPF’s focus should be to promote alternatives that can ease pressure on natural systems, but with direct economic links to conservation of biodiversity, such as ecotourism, horticulture, and other cottage industries that utilize materials harvested from forests and depend on the well-being of the forests and other ecosystems. Support can take the form of complementing and coordinating with current investments. Filling this niche will ensure the explicit link between these alternative livelihoods and conservation, which other donors often under-emphasize.
   All the sites identified as site outcomes are potential candidates for CEPF investment.
   2.3. Support traditional land- and resource-use practices in projects that will ensure effective conservation of priority sites
   Throughout the Eastern Himalayas Region, traditional village-level and other community-level institutions have played dominant roles in protecting community resources. Even today, most local communities are heavily dependent on forest products, natural resources and ecological services for their livelihoods and for daily subsistence. But in many areas the laws of the land have begun to gain authority over traditional rights and customs and traditional usufruct and land tenure rights have become uncertain, even though the local people have been using the land and resources for generations. The assimilation into the broader socioeconomic and political framework has also begun a disintegration of the traditional sustainable management and harvest regimes, especially if the traditional rights and sense of ownership are perceived as being at risk. This is especially true in some of the northeastern Indian states, notably Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland, and in the Nepal Terai, where the local people and communities have had traditional rights over forestlands for generations.
   The sites outcomes under traditional use regimes and land tenure, community forestry, joint forest management, agroforestry, leasehold forestry, plantations and other regimes that are managed or owned by civil society groups should be targets for CEPF investment. Funds can be provided to strengthen and even resurrect or revive the traditions of local communities and CBOs in conservation, especially within the context of site and corridor conservation.
   3. Leverage partnerships among donor agencies, civil society and government institutions to achieve biodiversity conservation outcomes over the long term
   The conservation outcomes analysis showed that a large number of important species and sites fall outside of protected areas. Many species also require a landscape approach for effective conservation. Local communities directly or indirectly manage these unprotected sites and corridors. Thus, there is a need to build capacity within local, grassroots-level communities to manage natural resources at levels that can sustain biodiversity and enable conservation, while also providing livelihoods. But in doing so, there is also a need to build capacity within communities and government institutions to monitor and assess threats and unsustainable harvest or extraction levels. Effective conservation outside protected areas, and especially at landscape scales, requires much greater collaboration among a diverse group of partners and stakeholders, with a good understanding of common conservation objectives. Many civil society organizations and government agencies lack financial, technical, and institutional capacity to co-manage high biodiversity areas outside formally protected areas; thus presenting a great opportunity for CEPF to support development of partnerships and local stewardship of these areas. CEPF can also leverage funds from other, larger projects to implement mitigation and conservation measures. In a bid to strengthen and catalyze synergies between government agencies and community groups, CEPF can support joint measures to prevent poaching, illegal logging, and unsustainable or illegal trade in wildlife and timber.
   3.1 Strengthen and support government and civil society partnerships that result in new funding for achieving conservation outcomes in the eastern Himalayas
   Effective conservation of priority species and management of corridors require collaboration between communities and government institutions. For example, poaching, illegal timber extraction, medicinal plant harvest, and related trade have been identified as important, overarching issues that threaten biodiversity in the region. Often these activities are carried out or sponsored by interests outside the local communities. And often government departments are unable to implement effective policing systems because of a lack of resources and intelligence networks. Supporting joint community and government anti-poaching and informant networks was considered to be an important contribution CEPF could make. The collaborative efforts will also result in new funding (CEPF funds can leverage larger funds from both government and nongovernmental donors) as well as closer ties between government and civil society organizations.
   All priority corridor and site outcomes are eligible. The sites and corridors that harbor important populations of Endangered species such as the tiger, Asian elephant, greater one-horned rhinoceros, snow leopard and turtles are especially important in this regard. Support to civil society to develop partnership plans with donors and government in managing landscape level programs are worth considering. The transboundary corridor outcomes are also more Vulnerable to poaching and illegal logging because the international boundaries provide refuges from national-level policing, and entry points to poachers.
   3.2. Support training programs to protect, manage and monitor species, sites and corridor outcomes
   CEPF can support development of capacity within CBOs to assess and inventory biodiversity in their traditional and customary forests areas and community forests and to develop monitoring protocols to identify degradation from unsustainable extraction levels and external threats.
   CEPF should also support development of an adequately trained cadre in government sectors as well as stakeholders within civil society who are directly involved in natural resources management in all site and corridor outcomes. Such training support will enhance capacity of staff who are capable of multi-tasked jobs such as anti-poaching, social forestry, park management and protection, field research and community motivation.
   3.3. Develop and strengthen capacity among grassroots civil society organizations to manage, monitor and mitigate threats to biodiversity
   CEPF can also build capacity within civil society groups to advocate for and participate in effective local and central-level policymaking to mitigate threats—a logical follow-up step to the monitoring and assessment capacity building within civil society groups. In the Nepal Terai and the northeastern Indian hill states, land is frequently lost to outside interests. As a result the traditional users of these lands become marginalized and begin to use smaller, less productive areas of land more intensively with little thought for the environmental costs and long-term consequences. Informed advocacy from the grassroots level can often help to prevent such land grabbing, and the local communities are in the best positions to become effective watchdogs.
   The corridor and site outcomes in Nepal and northeastern India are candidates for such interventions and CEPF support. CEPF can support development of capacity within the CBOs to assess and inventory biodiversity in their traditional and customary forests areas and community forests; develop monitoring protocols to identify degradation from unsustainable extraction levels and external threats; and contribute to more effective laws, legislation and regulations.
   3.4. Support transboundary initiatives for conservation of landscapes that extend across international borders
   Three priority corridors for CEPF investment—Terai Arc Landscape, Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex, and Kangchenjunga-Singalila-Kangchenjunga Landscape—extend across international boundaries. The movements of species in these corridors transcend these political boundaries, exposing them to different levels of risk from poaching, retaliation due to conflict, and land conversion and land-use regimes, because threat intensities can differ across boundaries. Ecological processes such as hydrological regimes are also dependent on cross-border conservation initiatives; for instance, flows in the Manas and Karnali rivers that flow south into India would depend on land use, dams and other river manipulations in Bhutan and Nepal. Similarly, dams and other hydrological projects in India will affect fish migrations and the survival of species such as the Gangetic River dolphin in Nepal. Poachers are also said to cross international boundaries within transboundary reserve complexes. Thus, effective management of these landscapes will require cooperation and coordination between countries.
   CEPF can support dialog between the countries at the central, district, village and departmental levels through civil society mediators and facilitators. CEPF can also support activities that help to coordinate and mitigate threats to biodiversity, such as controlling cross-border incursions for poaching and logging, identifying and eliminating international trade routes, alleviating detrimental land use and habitat conversion practices across borders to maintain corridor integrity. In addition, CEPF can support international conferences for civil society and government to discuss conservation issues that relate to transboundary conservation of key species outcomes; exchanges between park managers, universities and institutions; and joint surveys and research.
   4. Develop a small grants program to safeguard globally threatened species in the eastern Himalayas
   Large areas of the eastern Himalayas are still biologically unexplored, and the full extent of biodiversity remains unknown. Effective conservation of even the largest and most obvious species, the Asian elephant, is hindered by lack of reliable information about its ranging behavior, while population declines of species such as vultures and adjutants require further investigations to determine causes.
   There are a few success stories in conservation from the region that are worth noting, however, such as the protection and translocations of the rhinoceros to increase the existing populations and establish additional founder populations. And the captive-breeding program of the pygmy hog has created a temporary refuge for this species that is Critically Endangered in the wild.
   CEPF can help to conserve these priority species outcomes through select small grants to support recovery programs and other strategic activities implemented by civil society to add to the successes.
   4.1. Support targeted high-impact projects to conserve Critically Endangered species
   There are several NGOs and CBOs in the region that are engaged in captive breeding and species recovery programs of Endangered species. These programs contribute significantly to conservation of species outcomes, and can benefit from CEPF funding. All priority species outcomes should be eligible.
   4.2. Support action-oriented research to enable or improve the conservation of priority species
   Successful conservation of species depends on good, reliable information about their ecology, behavior and demographics, especially for specialist species that require specific conservation actions. CEPF can support required research and specific conservation actions such as controlling illegal trade of Endangered species conducted by civil society organizations, identifying priority populations for conservation and spatial area needs for wide-ranging species.
   Many priority sites and corridors have had very little biological exploration, surveys and inventories. Thus, the current assessment is based on a limited taxonomic scope, and even within this limited group, the population status and reliable distributions of several species are unknown. CEPF can support civil society groups to conduct biological surveys and inventories to fill the information void and to develop databases that will be available for conservation across the region. All corridor and site outcomes should be priorities for biological surveys.
   The priority species, especially the landscape species, should be priorities for information on ranging patterns to better define the corridor outcomes and to determine spatial requirements for viable populations. Research should also be conducted on the effects of habitat fragmentation on migratory behavior of birds that undertake seasonal altitudinal migrations, and on the distribution and status of indicators species, such as the amphibians. The aquatic biodiversity has been neglected, and inventory and research is needed on the fishes and Gangetic River dolphins.
   4.3. Implement a monitoring program for priority species outcomes
   CEPF’s conservation goals are based on achieving species outcomes in the region. Progress toward achieving these goals can be measured by monitoring the population status of these species. Therefore, CEPF should support monitoring programs for the priority species outcomes and their conservation status.
   Back to Top
   Sustainability
   CEPF investment in the region can be sustainable beyond the 5-year term if it can leverage larger funds and fill current funding gaps in conservation, especially by supporting, complementing and creating synergy with ongoing efforts of other key partners in the priority corridors and sites. Improving corridor management through development and implementation of conservation action plans can help ensure that existing reserves and linkages are effective in achieving conservation objectives. Identifying and protecting sites that harbor globally important, isolated populations of globally threatened species are also an important objective. Increased transboundary cooperation will better assure effective conservation at regional scales, which is important since landscapes, species movements and distributions, and threats transcend national boundaries. Small grants targeted at conservation of globally threatened species would ensure that these species receive the attention of the conservation community and serve as indicators for conservation success in the region. Model projects to promote alternative income generation for local communities and sustainable resource use are good investments that will demonstrate the benefits of sustainable nature use and become self-financing in the long run.
   Assistance and training to NGOs, CBOs and other civil society institutions, and mentoring the future conservation leaders from the region will ensure that local organizations gain professional tools and training to participate in conservation with a sense of ownership and stewardship, and—importantly—a commitment to sustain conservation after external funds run out. But compensatory mechanisms such as sustainable resource use will provide incentives for conservation, while also boosting local economies, which is a critical motivating factor for civil society stakeholders. By investing in developing conservation awareness and advocacy among the local communities, CEPF will help derive support for biodiversity conservation from policy makers and politicians, emanating from the grassroots constituents. By focusing and supporting conservation strategies in priority corridor outcomes that support priority landscape species, CEPF can make wise investments that will make the best and most effective use of limited resources.
   Back to Top
   Conclusion
   This analysis presents five landscapes and a suite of site outcomes that contain the priority species outcomes for the Eastern Himalayas Region that should be the focus of CEPF investment over the 5-year funding period. These conservation outcomes, prioritized and supported by the regional experts, provide the best opportunities for conservation success for CEPF. While CEPF supports civil society organizations, these groups will also have to build partnerships with government institutions, since many of the important site outcomes are protected areas vested under the management mandate of the respective government institutions responsible for biodiversity conservation. Because partnership building is part of the CEPF mandate, joint civil society-government initiatives fit within the scope of CEPF. But large areas of the landscape matrices in the corridor outcomes are owned (either through purchase, lease or customary rights) and managed by civil society. Thus, conservation in these corridor outcomes will have to involve and include local communities, CBOs and NGOs.
   Several overarching proximate threats such as habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching and illegal logging, overgrazing by domestic livestock, and human-wildlife conflicts are causing irreversible damage to biodiversity in the region. Many of these threats are attributed to economic and social problems, although some are due to politically motivated issues. International donors are already providing considerable support to help resolve some of these issues, yet funding opportunities exist in many of the corridor and site outcomes identified in this profile, particularly since many major donors do not have specific biodiversity conservation foci in their projects. This should be CEPF’s niche and focus.
   Back to Top
   Eastern Himalayas
   
   Investment Priorities
   Full Strategy
   Project Database for this Region