HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Nepal credited with conservation efforts

Kathmandu, Nov. 11: The selection of Kathmandu as the venue for the 31st annual conference of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is a recognition to Nepal's efforts on conservation, said Professor Doctor Ruud E.M. Lubbers, President of WWF International and Dr. Claud Martin, Director General of the WWF.

The two arrived here today for the 39th annual conference of the WWF under the theme: The Journey to Kathmandu: Sacred gifts for a living planet. Around 600 conservationists will take part in the ceremony beginning November 14 through 17 this month.

"Nepal has been a very strong ally in conservation in the past. Nepal has many important histories in conservation with its very important national parks in the Tarai including Chitawan, Bardiya and Shukla Phanta. These are the places with the endangered species well-protected," said Dr. Martin

"Since Nepal has quite good tie with nature and is blessed with the scenic beauties and the Himalayan ecosystems, it has received our highest priority in the field of conservation efforts. The culture and the tradition has also made it easy for us to work here."

He said that WWF has had important programmes in Nepal for many years. "It is not just wildlife but we also have our conservation efforts in the Himalayan Region."

He said that his organisation's annual conference was pegged with religion for the second time so that the conservationists could talk to religious representatives on what could be done together on conservation.

"We felt Nepal lent itself ideally as a historical and a religious site. We believed that it would attract a lot of attention not only from Nepal but also from other interested parties," Dr. Martin said reasoning why Nepal was chosen as the venue for the religious summit of the WWF.

The first religious summit of the WWF was held in Italy in 1986. Representatives of seven religious faiths had then participated in the summit while this time representatives of 11 religions practised around the world will be taking part in the WWF annual conference.

He said that the WWF annual conference would benefit Nepal by creating awareness on conservation since the country has so many world important assets. "We also believe that this celebration will strengthen our own programme in Nepal by the fact that we are involving religions in world faiths who will all come to Kathmandu to give us the scared gifts."

Dr. Martin said that there would also be direct benefit for Nepal. "The government may dedicate certain areas important for conservation. The discussion in this regard is ongoing."

He also said that a large number of commitments on conservation would be made during the conference's opening ceremony -- scheduled to be held in Bhaktapur on November 14. "This will be disclosed at the ceremony in Bhaktapur," he said.

"We will not only receive donations in kinds but also very concrete commitments from all the world's faiths in terms of contribution either of land that will come under new protection or forest areas that will come under sustainable forest management or commitment in terms of their behaviour to use saving energy for the contribution to reduce the level of CO2."

Professor Lubbers, President of WWF, said that the idea of the conference is to capitalise on religious members for the sake of conservation. "We see that religion can create dialogue among the members. And we believe that in this dialogue, environment can feature as a key point."

"We always talk about the differences of religions. But, may be here is a very positive point. So, we think that this will stimulate the dialogue to make a nice bouquet of sacred gifts to the earth."

He said that conservation is not only about preserving nice places but also about conserving the important places to sustain the ecosystem.

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