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.