USAID, WWF U.K., WWF U.S., WWF
Finland and WWF Canada among other
donors, carried out multiple initiatives.
Local communities managed community
forests in the buff er zone and the
Kamdi corridor connecting Banke to
Suhelwa, where natural regeneration,
aff orestation, anti-poaching and
sustainable natural resource use was the
order of the day. The communities were
also encouraged and supported to adopt
alternative livelihoods and lifestyles to
reduce their dependence on forests.
“Carefully-crafted community-
focused programmes on alternative
energy and sustainable livelihoods by
the TAL programme helped to reduce
pressure on forests and avenues for
local people to support their livelihoods
was created, which eventually motivated
them towards conservation,” recalls Tilak
Dhakal, Co-Manager of TAL-Protected
Areas and Buff er Zone Support Project.CHANGES AND RELOCATIONS
Within the park, monitoring and
protection mechanisms were improved.
Firelines were constructed to interrupt
forest fi res and prevent them from
spreading, and also to facilitate patrolling.
Anti-poaching camps and watchtowers
were created, and capacity-building forMore at http://www.sanctuaryasia.com | Report
ABOVE Army soldiers on patrol inside the
Banke National Park in Nepal. The tiny country
often deploys its army for the protection and
management of its wildernesses.
FACING PAGE A community-managed
grassland near Banke in Nepal. Community-
centric conservation eff orts have led to a
heartening revival of the park’s biodiversity.nation’s success story. This is the story
of Banke – a young national park created
to boost the country’s eff orts to double
its tiger population. “Banke is one among
many victories that helped Nepal’s case
for the tigers,” she said.
A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
Spread across 550 sq. km., this western
Nepal Protected Area is part of the much
larger, 49,000 sq. km. transboundary
Terai Arc Landscape (TAL). Contiguous
with the Bardia National Park, it is
connected to the Suhelwa Wildlife
Sanctuary in India and supports over
300 species of birds and 34 species of
mammals including tigers.
In 1998, two decades prior to its
notifi cation as a national park, Banke was
recognised for its rich biodiversity, as a
‘Gift to the Earth’ by the WWF Network.
Nonetheless, comprising rather dry
habitats – Churia (Shivalik) Hills to the
north and Bhabhar forests to the south,
Banke’s potential to host tigers remained
largely ignored and underappreciated.
As with other unprotected forests, it
faced immense pressures from resource
extraction, poaching and encroachment.
In the late 2000s, as tiger range
countries prepared to commit to
doubling their tiger populations, it
was evident that in Nepal, improving
conservation in existing Protected Areas
and notifying still more suitable habitats
would be critical to securing wildlife
through linkages/corridors that enabled
free movement. This brought the focus
sharply on Banke and eff orts were
reinitiated to preserve it.
In 2010, Banke was declared a
national park but fringe communities
perceived the move as a threat to their
livelihoods. By defi nition, the national
park status would prohibit the extraction
of forest resources and grazing. It was
a matter of the long-term sustained
benefi ts that people were unaware
of, versus short-term gains that they
currently depended on.
Protests ensued, and many faced
arrests, including Sabitra Pun, who was
to later become President of the Buff er
Zone Management Committee (BZMC)
of Banke National Park. “We were not
protesting the creation of the national
park, but rather the way in which it was
declared. It should have been done in
consultation with the public,” she stated.PEOPLE POWER
The TAL Nepal programme – a joint
initiative of the Nepal Government’s
Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation
(MoFSC) and WWF Nepal – began to
undertake multi-dimensional eff orts to
revive Banke, starting with reaching out
to the community. Generating awareness,
the programme allowed people to
understand the benefi ts that would
accrue over time, for themselves and
their progeny. Moreover, revenues
generated from the park would be
shared with the buff er zone communities,
as stipulated in the fourth (1992)
amendment to the country’s National
Park and Wildlife Conservation Act.
With community support, the TAL
Nepal programme in Banke–funded by
Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF),SIMRIKA SHARMA/WWF NEPAL