LOCALS AGAINST GOVERNMENT DECISION - NEPAL

Locals are against the government’s decision to relocate the endangered wild buffaloes from Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve to Chitwan National Park, eastern Nepal. Koshi Tappu Eco-Tourism Preservation and Arna Safety Campaign Committee had strained the safety issues of wild buffaloes in the reserve as they are connected with the identity of the area.

February 24

http://epaper.gorkhapatraonline.com/the-rising-nepal-newspaper.html

PANGOLIN SCALES DETAINED- NEPAL

Police nabbed a couple with four kilograms pangolin scales from Attarpur of Sindhupalchowk, central Nepal. The couple was arrested from a police team, while ferrying pangolin scales to Khasa Bazaar of China.

February 24

http://thehimalayantimes.com/rssReference.php?headline=Couple+nabbed+with+pangolin+scales&NewsID=4458 Celebrating 25 Years of Excellence ……www. resourceshimalaya.org 2

TIGER HIDE AND BONES SEIZED- NEPAL

Police arrested three people including an Indian national, in possession of endangered tiger’s ten-foot long hide and twenty-one kilograms bones in Kanchanpur district, western Nepal. The seized animal parts were purchased at NPR 1.25 million from Sampurna Nagar, India and were being smuggled to Nepal.

February 24

http://www.ekantipur.com/2015/03/01/national/tiger-hide-bones-seized/402253.html

THE WANGARI MAATHAI SCHOLARSHIP FUND

• CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
• CfA No: WMSF/R3/2015

INFORMATION NOTE & GUIDE TO APPLICANTS

All interested applicants are encouraged to carefully read and fully understand these guidelines before attempting to complete the application forms.
Failure to strictly follow the guidelines may result in incomplete or rejection of submitted proposals.

Background of the fund

The Wangari Maathai Scholarship Fund is an environmental innovations fund set up in memory of Professor Wangari Maathai that is aimed at developing 
action-oriented young people with strong values and commitment to the conservation of the physical and social environment in Kenya.

http://www.kcdf.or.ke/index.php/work-with-us/call-for-proposal

Collaborative Partnership on Wildlife (CPW) launches sourcebook on bushmeat

Message from member organizations of the CPW on the occasion of World Wildlife Day - 3 March 2015/ 3 March 2015, Rome - The Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW) today launched the Bushmeat Sourcebook, an online resource, on the occasion of the second World Wildlife Day.

The term “bushmeat” used refers to non-domesticated meat from terrestrial wild mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians harvested for food or other purposes, including medicinal use, primarily in tropical and sub-tropical forests.

The sourcebook examines bushmeat’s vital contribution to food security, local livelihoods, and other aspects of human well-being in many parts of the world. It also shows, however, how unsustainable harvesting can affect the ecological stability of forest ecosystems, as well as human health.

Against this background, the sourcebook also looks at the options for management and regulation of bushmeat use at the community, national and international levels, including the recommendations of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Liaison Group on Bushmeat. “The sourcebook represents a valuable awareness-raising tool, which will help bring attention to key facts,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Chair of the CPW and Executive Secretary of the CBD. “It also shows us how indigenous peoples and local communities can play a positive role in helping to sustainably manage our valuable wildlife resources. “The scale of the benefits that wildlife provides is a compelling reason for maintaining wildlife populations and habitats in a productive and healthy state, strengthening local capacities to use the resource sustainably and to mobilize international cooperation to help address specific needs,” Ferreira de Souza Dias added. “During the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, World Wildlife Day reminds us that it is important to do our utmost to preserve these key components of biodiversity.” Robert Nasi, Deputy Director General of the Center for International Forestry Research, said: "If we do not address upfront the use of wildlife for food, exemplified by the bushmeat issue, we are going to face hard times in many tropical countries.

“Wildlife populations will decrease while human populations will increase, creating an immense "protein gap" that in the short term cannot be filled by domestic animals without huge environmental costs,” Nasi explained. “It is therefore of the utmost importance to sustainably manage this often forgotten resource by conserving what needs to be conserved – large, slow-reproducing species – and sustainably use what can be used – fast-reproducing, resilient, smaller species. The sourcebook will be a reference for all those working on solving these wicked problems.” CPW Vice-Chair Jan Heino from the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) said: "Sustainable use of species that are well-suited for bushmeat harvest needs to be moving from the grey ground of illegality to a permitted activity. Only then one is able to introduce conditions to the use of bushmeat, which ensure sustainability."

The sourcebook was jointly prepared by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with contributions from other CPW members.
Bushmeat Sourcebook: http://www.fao.org/forestry/wildlife-partnership/bushmeat-sourcebook

MESSAGE OF THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY BRAULIO FERREIRA DE SOUZA DIAS on the occasion of WORLD WILDLIFE DAY 3 March 2015

At the 12th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Parties recognized in Decision XII/18 the considerable scale of illegal trade in wildlife and its detrimental economic, social and environmental consequences. They also recognized the importance of embedding a livelihood and governance perspective to address the challenge.

This decision demonstrates that governments are coming to realize that monitoring and curbing wildlife crimes both in and outside protected areas requires a coherent and cross-sectoral approach that integrates wildlife values into policies and plans of relevant economic and social sectors. It requires us to go beyond enforcement policies and look at governance, institutions and empowerment, including of indigenous peoples and local communities.

The limited distinction between illegal activities driven by large scale profits, versus those driven by poverty poses serious threats to local communities. The challenge for many countries is to counter the strong economic forces in the illegal trade of wildlife that far outmatch incentives to conserve and sustainably use wildlife resources. The impact on livelihoods of declining wild populations of species that are important for subsistence use or income generation cannot be overlooked. In this context, empowering indigenous peoples and local communities and incentivizing them through co-management approaches to sustainably manage wildlife, will be crucial.

The words of Dr. Elinor Ostrom are instructive “we will all be the poorer if local, self-organized institutions are not a substantial portion of the institutional portfolio of the twenty-first century”  Communities themselves can often define ways to govern the commons to assure its survival for their needs and those of future generations. Communities develop monitoring mechanisms consistent with the customs that characterize the way in which those communities live. Effective examples of “governing the commons” have been reported in her research in Kenya, Guatemala, Nepal, and Turkey, to name a few.

Through the work of the Collaborative Partnership on Sustainable Wildlife Management (CPW), fourteen likeminded partners, including the CBD Secretariat, have been devising initiatives to safeguard biodiversity and sustainably use wildlife resources, strengthen local capacities and foster international cooperation where it matters most. The E-sourcebook on bushmeat launched today is an example of the type of joint awareness raising initiatives developed by the CPW.

On World Wildlife Day, as we seek to work to combat illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products, let us look at ways to combine enforcement with empowerment, and therefore protect the “Future we Want,” a future of life in harmony with nature.

MACOUN MARSH IMAGES- Canada

 Large flocks of Bohemian waxwings dominated the sky over the past week. February has been unusually cold this year.  

 Chickadees continue to approach local people

 Redpolls are still common around the feeders.

Bohemian waxwings on the move.