HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Missing for the Year of Mountains -focus!

BY KRISHNA SHARMA

Kathmandu, Dec. 13: While the countries across the world are joining hands with the United Nations to celebrate 2002 as International Year of Mountains, Nepal seems to be lagging behind in coming out with focussed policies and programmes to serve the theme in the best way possible.

Keeping in mind the widespread poverty which leads to unending conflicts in the mountains, the United Nations has designated 2002 as the International Year of Mountains so that the struggle against poverty of about one-tenth of the world’s poor, who live in the mountains, could be intensified.

The government had formed a National Preparation Committee, under the then Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola, to mark 2002 as the International Year of Mountains at the national level some six months back but because of the change in the portfolio and other reasons, the committee had failed to give necessary impetus to the policies and programmes.

Now that the Year is just round the corner, the government recently reconstituted the Committee under the chairmanship of Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) Gopal Man Shrestha.

The recently held meeting of the nine-member Committee has decided to launch some kick-off programmes in the first week of January 2002.

As part of the kick-off programme the government is going to develop a botanical garden at Daman, Makawanpur district. That will be the second such garden in the country after Godavari Botanical Garden at Lalitpur.

Similarly, the government is going to declare a buffer zone around Sagarmatha National Park (SNP) so that the local people could contribute in maintaining the Park and also they could be benefited from the National Park.

Kick-off programmes

"This is being done to not only mark the International Year of Mountains but also the Silver Jubilee year of SNP," Joint Secretary and spokesman at the MoFSC Dr. Udaya Raj Sharma said.

According to him, after the declaration of the buffer zone, about 50 per cent of the income of the SNP will be distributed to the local community so that they could help themselves in their fight against poverty.

The year 2002 is also significant for the Department of Forest since it is celebrating its Golden Jubilee. To mark the year for both the occasions the Ministry will release postal stamps bearing pictures of different mountains and many other facets related to them.

"Along with its plan of launching awareness raising programmes about the importance of mountains throughout the year, the Committee will identify gaps regarding mountain development and set up policies for integrated mountain development," Dr. Sharma told The Rising Nepal.

However, the most challenging part before the Committee is collecting enough funds to support the programmes. Dr. Sharma also conceded that lack of enough funds was the main reason behind the Committee not being able to introduce specific programmes.

So far, the government has allocated only Rs. 500,000 for marking the International Year of Mountains. However, Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and FAO have promised to support the Committee in its secretarial and other projects.

As to what is being done to draw international attention since the country houses eight out of 14 peaks above 8000-meter along with Everest, Sharma said that the Committee would form a special sub-committee to look into that matter.

"And that sub-committee, which will be comprised of institutions related to mountaineering, will look after the mountaineering activities," he said.

The nine-member Committee includes one representative each from SDC, International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)-country office, King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), RONAST, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), Dr. Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha from among the mountain experts along with Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Gopal Man Shrestha as its chairman.

Meanwhile, officials at NTB are skeptical about the success of the Year. "In order to achieve UN’s noble aim of alleviating the crippling poverty among mountain people thereby focussing the importance of mountains as the source of bio-diversity and more than half the world’s fresh water, the government has to do so many things," an official at the NTB said.

"We have to draw the attention of the whole world while celebrating 2002 as the Year of Mountains because ours is a unique mountainous country where there is Mount Everest, highest number of mountain peaks of more than 8,000 m, rich bio-diversity plus many more things," he said.

However, other Committee members say there still is time for all these things.

The United Nations, the recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize for Peace, is committed to make the International Year of Mountains a complete success realising that the majority of conflicts (23 conflicts out of 27) in the world today are being fought in mountainous areas and that could be stopped only when people there are well off.

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