The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is designed to safeguard the world's threatened biodiversity hotspots in developing countries. It is a joint initiative of Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank.
A fundamental purpose of CEPF is to engage civil society, such as community groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions and private enterprises, in biodiversity conservation in the hotspots. To guarantee their success, these efforts must complement existing strategies and programs of national governments and multilateral and bilateral donors. CEPF promotes working alliances among diverse groups, combining unique capacities and reducing duplication of efforts for a comprehensive, coordinated approach to conservation. CEPF focuses on biological areas rather than political boundaries and examines conservation threats on a hotspot-level basis. CEPF targets transboundary cooperation, in areas of high importance for biodiversity conservation that straddle national borders, or in areas where a regional approach will be more effective than a national approach. CEPF aims to provide civil society with an agile and flexible funding mechanism complementing funding available to government institutions.
This document represents the ecosystem profile for the Eastern Himalayas Region, which comprises Bhutan, northeastern India and southern, central and eastern Nepal. At the time this document was prepared, the Eastern Himalayas Region was part of the Indo-Burma Hotspot. Subsequently, a new hotspots appraisal released in 2005 now classifies this region as part of two hotspots: Indo-Burma and Himalaya, with the latter being a newly classified hotspot. This profile and subsequent CEPF investments focus strictly on the Eastern Himalayas Region as defined in this document.
This profile deals with the region that covers the eastern Himalayas and northeastern India. It comprises the lowlands of western Nepal and the montane regions of central and eastern Nepal; the State of Sikkim, the northern extent of West Bengal in India including Darjeeling District; Bhutan in its entirety; and the northeastern Indian states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland (Figure 1 - Download the full profile in PDF format to view figures, tables and appendices). This area is referred to as the Eastern Himalayas Region throughout the rest of this document.
This ecosystem profile provides an overview of the biodiversity contained within the Eastern Himalayas Region. Based on the distribution and status of biodiversity and conservation opportunities, the profile provides a suite of conservation outcomes, expressed as a hierarchy of species-, site-, and corridor-level targets that must be achieved by the conservation community to prevent biodiversity loss.
The profile also provides an overview of the socioeconomic and political issues that will impinge on and influence biodiversity conservation, with a focus on the major threats to biodiversity and underlying causes. Although the Eastern Himalayas Region spans only three countries, it includes a multitude of ethnic groups and tribes, several religions, languages, and dialects. Because of the extension of ecosystems and protected areas networks across international and state boundaries, close cooperation between countries and state governments will be essential for effective conservation.
Based on these parameters, as well as current investments in conservation and funding gaps, the profile defines an investment niche for CEPF to support biodiversity conservation in this biologically important region. In keeping with CEPF’s mandate, the profile includes recommendations on strategic ways to involve civil society in biodiversity conservation and to build partnerships to increase the breadth of conservation effort.
The profile is not intended to provide or propose specific projects and actions. Instead it includes a series of “Strategic Directions” or themes and their related “Investment Priorities.” Civil society groups applying for CEPF grants then prepare and submit detailed proposals for specific projects, describing the interventions and performance indicators to measure success, consistent with these funding directions and investment criteria.
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