25th March 2016 – With support from USAIDs Hariyo Ban Program, a national workshop to share knowledge on vulture safe zones and landscape level conservation approach was organized by Bird Conservation Nepal with a joint effort from District Livestock Services Office, Parsa and IUCN. One day sharing workshop was organized at Birgunj, Parsa witnessing wide participation of people from government line agencies and all concerned stakeholders. Dr. Narendra Man Babu Pradhan, CEO, BCN welcomed all participants and elaborated the need and importance of this workshop. Vulture Conservation Program Officer Mr. Krishna Bhusal presented the update, progress and output of the project; this was supported by Dr. Bhuvan Keshar Sharma's presentation where management plan of Vulture Safe Feeding Sites were highlighted. Bhupal Nepali, Field Officer from BCN also shared an update on Diclofenac Free Districts of Nepal. Similarly, special guest Dr. Balkrishna Khakurel, Director General - DDA, Dr. Maheshwar Dhakal DDG – DNPWC, Ganesh Jha DDG – DoF, Program Director of Animal Health Directorate - Dr. Bijay Chandra Jha, Yubraj Regmi – Chief Conservation Officer at Parsa Wildlife Reserve, Jagdish Kuikel from WWF – Nepal, and Chiranjivi Pokhrel, NTNC presented their remarks and praised all those direct and indirect helping hands put forward.

The major objective of this program was to share knowledge on vulture safe zones and landscape level conservation approaches along with the dialogue on incorporating vulture conservation agenda in government programs. The program agenda also stapled hand-over of Vulture Safe Feeding Site's Management Plan 2016-2020. Five management plans were handed over to the respective authority of Vulture Safe Feeding Site at Bijauri and Lalmatiya in Dang, Gaidatal in Rupandehi, Kutiya at Kailali and Kawasoti in Nawalparasi.

The date also marked Parsa district as a Diclofenac Free Zone. The petition of declaration was signed in the same event jointly organized by Bird Conservation Nepal, District Livestock Service Office and IUCN at Birgunj, Parsa. With this declaration, total DFZ in Nepal has surmounted to 49 districts in total, including Bara and Rautahat that were declared DFZ earlier this month on 14th and 17th March 2016 respectively. This particular DFZ declaration not only recognized Bara, Parsa and Rautahat as safe habitat for vultures but also achieved specific objectives of integrating Vulture Safe Zones (VSZs) with landscape-level conservation to reduce the vulnerability of vultures to climate change, enhancing community engagement and ownership of Vulture Safe Zones. With this, all Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) is now a Diclofenac free area in cattle treatment.