by Julie Shaw
CEPF grantees in the Eastern Himalaya Region had no shortage of achievements to report during an assessment workshop held in Paro, Bhutan, Dec. 6-8.
During CEPF’s five-year investment, which ends this month, grantees from Bhutan, Northeast India and Nepal improved the management of more than 1 million hectares across 11 key biodiversity areas.Through grantee initiatives, governments adopted four national or local policies to support mainstreaming conservation into development policy at the local, state and national levels. A total of 1,500 households benefited directly from CEPF projects that included alternative and sustainable livelihood programs, park management implementation, sustainable agriculture, watershed management and ecotourism. CEPF-funded projects established and/or strengthened five multi-stakeholder collaborative networks in a region that historically has been characterized by isolated and fragmented approaches to conservation.
But these grant recipients did more than tick off their successes at the workshop. They came together to share their experiences and lessons learned, and to discuss how to convert the progress made under CEPF’s $5 million investment into continuing conservation achievement for the region.
"We in the region—from Arunachal, from Northeast India, from Bhutan, Nepal—actually started coming together because of CEPF, and that, I believe, is a very huge step forward," said Tariq Aziz, who heads WWF's Living Himalayas Initiative. "The Eastern Himalayas is not divided by political boundaries. It’s a single unit, and we in conservation have started looking at it as a single unit more and more, even at the highest political levels," he said.
"It’s very critical that we continue with something like this because it is bringing us together for the first time at a scale never seem before, at least in my lifetime," Aziz said. "We as responsible citizens, civil society, have to pull ourselves together and pull our decision makers together, and see what we can do from within."
Kamal Bawa, founder and president of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment(ATREE), stressed the importance of maintaining civil society organizations at all levels and encouraging innovation among them as a means to ensure that conservation initiatives can be continued. He and others at the workshop also stressed the need to continue working to integrate conservation concerns into government policies and practices.
The workshop received strong support from host country Bhutan, with remarks at the opening ceremony provided by the Honorable Lyonpo Minjur Dorji, minister of home and cultural affairs for Bhutan. CEPF donor partners also showed their support for the region, with representatives from the government of Japan, l’Agence française de développement (AFD) and Conservation International participating in the event.
Additional results from the CEPF investment include:
- CEPF contributed to a reduction of agricultural encroachment and poor land use in 11 key biodiversity areas, as well as the recovery of degraded lands and wildlife populations;
- Researchers funded by CEPF conducted field assessments for five Critically Endangered species and 16 Endangered species. Projects brought together a network of more than 30 experts and conservationists and built new capacity for species conservation;
- A nascent civil society in Bhutan was boosted by CEPF grants. New policies in Bhutan now permit civil society organizations to engage in conservation work and receive international funds. Through grants such as one to the Nature Conservation Committee of Trashiyangtse to restore habitat for the black-necked crane through community-based initiatives, CEPF helped demonstrate the positive role such groups can play; and
- A final report on the results of the Eastern Himalayas investment is expected to be available in April on CEPF’s Web site. An explanation of CEPF’s investment strategy in the region, and a listing of all of CEPF’s grants in the Eastern Himalayas, is also available in the "Where We Work" section.