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Observation tour of Bird Conservation Nepal to Salakpur, Rong Rural Municipality, Ilam
Observation tour of Bird Conservation Nepal to Salakpur, Rong Rural Municipality, Ilam
26 Nov 2024

Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN) organized an observation tour to Salakpur village, Rong Rural Municipality of Ilam on 26 and 27 November 2024 to explore alternative livelihood practices in the rural municipality. The activity was conducted under the Mai Valley Forest Landscape Conservation Project. The project is supported by BirdLife International.

A total of 23 participants representing farmers involved in non-timber forest product farming and animal husbandry, homestay owners and community forests participated in the observation tour, where they visited Cardamom (Alaichi) farms, Jaskelo Community Homestay and Kumar Beekeeping and Training Firm. The observation tour team also visited Rong Rural Municipality and interacted with the chairman of the rural municipality Mr. Mani Kumar Syangbo. During the interaction, Mr. Syangbo briefed the initiative forwarded by the rural municipality to promote agriculture, conservation and eco-tourism in the area. Mr. Syangbo also highlighted the importance of birds in nature and mentioned that Rong Rural Municipality have established a vulture statue in Karsong foot-trail to raise conservation awareness of the species.

During the visit, the participants learned about agricultural resilience through cardamom farming after the area saw steep decline in orange production which used to be the main crop in the area. The participants also learned about management practices of the Jaskelo Community Homestay. The observation tour team had very lively interaction with Mr. Kumar Moktan, a conservation practitioner and beekeeping entrepreneur who shared his experience in bird and biodiversity conservation and importance of bees in the environment. He also highlighted the need of using native and local bee species in the bee-keeping practices. The observation tour motivated the participants to carry forward conservation and livelihood activities side by side in their respective areas too.