An Overview Of Our Solution
Loss of wetland habitat and on farm biodiversity is a perennial concern for the beautiful Begnas and Rupa lake watersheds. The challenge is to take advantage of tourism boom on the horizon to generate broad based support for watershed conservation in the long term. However, conventional models of development rely on mass production of single of few commodities that decrease diversity, the very element that makes this landscape beautiful. Instead, we are using a place-based marketing, represented by a landscape label, to promote the diversity of products and services of the landscape. This helps us combine the tourism and conservation objectives of the local stakeholders in the landscape.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Asia
General Information
Organization type
Nirlaba
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Freshwater
Population impacted
70,000
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
3000 ha of farmland, 1700 ha forests, 450 ha lake and wetlands
Production quantity
50 tons fresh fish, 8 tons coffee, 170 tons of banana
People employed
60 people in fisheries, 275 farmers in coffee
Solution
Describe your solution
Heterogenous mosaics of land uses and production systems led to rich biodiversity and natural beauty of the landscape. These are the foundations for rural tourism based sustainable development, a policy goal of the local government. However, heterogeneity typically means distributed and relatively small scale of production making single commodity-based marketing difficult.
Our solution uses place-based marketing of agricultural products and tourism services instead. A unified landscape label was developed to market diverse products and services that a) were produced in the landscape and b) the producers contribute a portion of their profit to a conservation fund. The label, being widely promoted, will help smallholders get recognition in the marketplace, especially among buyers that have an affinity for Begnas and Rupa lakes in particular or conservation in general. It targets local and nearby markets and introduces buyers to niche products to create new demand.
An effective label conveys a powerful story. An information center was built as a platform to document and share cultural, ecological and agricultural data and stories of the landscape. Awareness can inspire further support for conservation from visitors and locals. By working together with upstream and downstream communities in different sectors we generated social capital and solidified local policy support for continued collaboration through the institutional mechanism of the information center.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
Our implementation was guided by four principles: i) letting locals lead, ii) building on local knowledge, innovations and practices, iii) diversifying options and iv) creating a platform for learning and collective action. Empowerment of local groups, transparency with the stakeholders and favorable policy environment of the local government were the key success factors. The following general steps were taken. Specific actions within will necessarily be context specific.
1) Several traveling seminars were organized in which diverse stakeholders hiked around the landscape to get inspired, appreciate the need, share ideas and furnish commitments to work together.
2) We participated in several local events, especially those organized by the Hotel and Restaurant Association and the municipality. This helped build rapport and trust for cross-sectoral work.
3) To address soil erosion in Syankhudi river, we organized exposure visits to Ratu watershed in Mahottari for upstream and downstream stakeholders to see the possibilities of working together. This was followed by construction of check dams with bioengineering in strategic locations with technical supervision of the District Soil Conservation Office. It was a big improvement compared to the past when check dams would be constructed near the delta and be less effective.
4) Information center was created to give visibility to current and past work and act as a forum for collaboration between local producers and businesses. Since October 2016, visitors have paid a nominal entrance fee and we have generated USD 1200 in 6 months, 40% of which will be invested in conservation.
5) A landscape label was created to promote the diversity of products and services of the landscape and to generate funds for conservation work. The label was used for the first time in this year's Lekhnath festival and small businesses made sales of USD 4000 in a week giving great visibility to the label among 250,000 visitors.
External connections
Lekhnath Municipality: Planning; Cash & In-kind contribution; favorable policy environment; landscape label finalization, Chair of Begnas conservation fund.
Jaibik Shrot & member groups: Management of information center; landscape label finalization; wetland and migratory bird habitat conservation; Supply fruits and fodder saplings.
Rupa Fisheries Cooperative: Manage Rupa lake; conservation of Tor spp.; sedimentation control in the watershed; lobbying for dam construction in Rupa lake; landscape label finalization.
Hotel & Restaurant Association: Participated in meetings; Begnas Lake clean up; funds for Begnas Conservation; training; landscape label finalization.
Lekhnath Chamber of Commerce & Industries: Organize Lekhnath festival; participated in meetings; eco-tourism training; landscape label finalization.
Majthana VDC: Participated in meetings; monitoring of project activities; representation of upstream government partner.
Begnas Boaters’ Association/Fisheries Association: Water hyacinth removal; participated in meetings.
DSCO: Check dam construction and bioengineering.
DADO: Training on banana cultivation.
UNEP - National committee of Korea: USD 9000 in funding for awareness activities with schools & construction of the information center.
DADS, CSA, SAKS and IFAD-NUS are the projects of LI-BIRD that provided cash contribution for various agrobiodiversity management and promotion of climate smart and low cost agricultural technologies in the landscape.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
Lekhnath is the “Garden City of 7 Lakes.” Begnas and Rupa are its largest and most famous lakes but their future is uncertain. Soil erosion, due to rural road construction on steep hills and landslides, is a major cause for decrease in size. From 1978 and 1993, the Rupa lake shrunk from 117 to 115 ha and is now at 107 ha. Construction of a dam in Begnas lake in 1988 helped increase its size from 224 ha measured in 1978 to 373 ha in 1993. It has since decreased to 323 ha. The landscape is home to 104 species of birds including 36 wetland birds, 19 species of native fish, 34 species of mammals, 174 species of butterflies and 20 species of orchids. Wild rice, Oryza rufipogan, a potential source of new alleles is found in the wetlands, while farmers grow 63 varieties of rice, 17 varieties of finger millet and 95 varieties of vegetables in the diversified farming systems. The loss of wetland and on farm diversity is a major ecological and economic concern in the landscape.
Describe the context in which you are operating
The landscape is 49 km2 in area, 600 to 1400 masl in elevation and home to over 70,000 people. Agriculture is the primary source of income for most families. Rice, maize and finger millet are the main cereals, while fisheries and organic coffee are important high value commodities. Migration of young adults for jobs is common and draws labor away from farming. Tourism is growing but has poor infrastructure compared to nearby Pokhara. At least 72 hotels and restaurants are registered, while dozens more operate informally.
Agriculture, forest and wetland are the main land uses. Reforestation efforts by CARE four decades ago reversed deforestation trends by empowering community groups. Two decades ago LI-BIRD, NARC and IPGRI started work on agrobiodiversity management and conservation wetland biodiversity. This led to the development of community-based biodiversity management approach. There is high level of community awareness and innovativeness in wetland, fishery and agrobiodiversity management. However, many good practices, while well known to experts in the field, remain hidden to the average visitor. This is an area of opportunity as the stories we tell non-experts can help generate more economic activity and support for this work. Local legislation has declared it as an Agrobiodiversity Area and thus provides favorable policies for sustainable development. Opening of the international airport in 2020 with bring more opportunities and challenges we need to be ready for.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Community restrictions on pesticide use and fishing are in place. Areas are designated as habitat for birds, native fish, white lotus and wild rice. Soil erosion hotspots have been managed while community nurseries are helping increase perennial cover.
Positive changes need an appreciation of biodiversity and a mechanism for action. Being knowledgeable about biodiversity helps create an appreciation for it and motivates action. The information center created catalogs of wetland birds, fishes, butterflies and crop and vegetable varieties. Diversity blocks for crop, medicinal plant and orchids help with awareness and conservation. Resource mapping and assessment of ecosystem services helped people see their dependence on biodiversity.
Favorable local government policies and number of active community groups provide a good mechanism for action. Empowered local groups led many activities, especially logistics. Increased visibility has helped them leverage more funds to continue the work.
Language(s)
Nepali, Gurung, Magar, Tamang, Newari, English
Water
Construction of check dams with bioengineering have helped reduce soil erosion and water quality in Begnas lake. Water source conservation in Chandi river has made irrigation possible for additional 55 ha of land. Installation of drinking water tank has provided the last 65 households in Sundaridanda with access to drinking water. A village of 71 families in Majthana now have access to irrigation with construction of community pond, plastic ponds and taps.
Food Security/Nutrition
Trainings on home gardening, nutrient management and sanitation have increased production of fruits, vegetables, and improved hygiene. Awareness of local varieties have helped farmers make income from aromatic rice Jethobudho, sticky rice Anadi and foxtail millet. These new income sources help households improve their purchasing power for other foods. Low cost solutions, such as growing yam in sacks have enabled farmers to utilize nooks and crannies in the terraces for greater food production.
Economic/Sustainable Development
The information center gives greater visibility to the existing sustainable development initiatives. As seeing is believing, more people are now willing to participate in the cause. The annual fish festival has committed 30% of their proceeds to conservation, while the view tower has earmarked 40% of theirs to conservation. Connections between locally based economic activities have been forged. Hotels in the area have started sending their guests to various local conservation initiatives.
Climate
Several climate smart agricultural practices have been tested and promoted. Plastic sheets and nets are used to protect vegetables from unpredictable hailstorms. Drip irrigation, rain water harvesting and plastic ponds have been adopted to combat drought. Cattle urine collection and manure management has improved soil health rather than just increase methane emission. Cross-sectoral collaboration in bioengineering for erosion control has helped reduce the risk from landslides during heavy rains.
Sustainability
The solution can start small and then expand as membership grows. Investment is needed to do the initial work of information gathering and sharing between stakeholders to build rapport and trust. This method assumes that there are already people and actors in the system that are committed to the cause but have so far been working independently. Place-based marketing using a landscape labels helps consolidate existing grassroots initiative for greater visibility and a coherent story. In lean funding periods, the core activity is to continue promoting existing works, provide data and information, and function as a forum for actors to come across each other and forge new partnerships. With enough members, membership fees should sustain this.
Return on investment
A 3-year grant of USD 150,000 from the Swiss Re Foundation helped put erosion controls in place, build the information center, document past and current initiatives, develop the landscape label and forge cooperation across sectors. Local communities, municipality, and other projects provided an equal amount in cash and kind support. This consolidating effort has helped create buy-in from all major actors in private and public sectors in the watershed to collaborate for sustainable economic development and fully participate in the PES scheme under development. Continued engagement will lead to vibrant culture, thriving local economy and biologically diverse lake and agroecosystems in the coming decades. That is a great return on investment.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
This practice is similar to value-based marketing, place based marketing, agriculture of the middle and Buy Local Buy Fresh movements in the USA. The Tropical Fruit Tree Project in India, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia used similar principle to market diversity of fruits rather than rely on marketing a single variety. The key element for success is constant visibility of the label and the story behind it esp. in the beginning. This will get a core group of early adopters and thus build credibility. To maintain visibility at least one full time staff is needed to coordinate an annual forum between stakeholders, curate information and share the analyzed information and data through websites and publications. Since our landscape has a number of community events, festivals and meetings, it provides opportunities to be engaged at a low cost and keep the virtuous wheel in motion. With additional it is easy to scale up and try new innovations.