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NEPAL
Nepal Forest Figures
Forest CoverTotal forest area: 3,636,000 ha % of land area: 25.4%
Primary forest cover: 349,000 ha % of land area: 2.4% % total forest area: 9.6%
Deforestation Rates, 2000-2005Annual change in forest cover: -52,800 ha Annual deforestation rate: -1.4% Change in defor. rate since '90s: -28.9% Total forest loss since 1990: -1,181,000 ha Total forest loss since 1990:-24.5%
Primary or "Old-growth" forests Annual loss of primary forests: -7000 ha Annual deforestation rate: -1.8% Change in deforestation rate since '90s: 918.2% Primary forest loss since 1990: -35,000 ha Primary forest loss since 1990:-10.7%
Forest ClassificationPublic: 99.9% Private: 0.1% Other: n/a Use Production: 5.1% Protection: 12.1% Conservation: 21.4% Social services: n/a Multiple purpose: 14.7% None or unknown: 46.8
Forest Area BreakdownTotal area: 3,636,000 ha Primary: 349,000 ha Modified natural: 384,000 ha Semi-natural: 2,850,000 ha Production plantation: 43,000 ha Production plantation: 10,000 ha
PlantationsPlantations, 2005: 53,000 ha % of total forest cover: 1.5% Annual change rate (00-05): 200,000 ha
Carbon storageAbove-ground biomass: 718 M t Below-ground biomass: 251 M t
Area annually affected byFire: 400,000 ha Insects: n/a Diseases: n/a
Number of tree species in IUCN red listNumber of native tree species: 225 Critically endangered: 0 Endangered: 0 Vulnerable: 3
Nepal is one of the world's most diverse, yet poorest, countries. High population pressures have led to deforestation on steep mountain slopes, causing massive soil erosion and flooding on the plains. Only a small portion of Nepal was ever covered by rainforests, but what does exist is threatened by fuelwood collection and subsistence agriculture.
Between 1990 and 2005, Nepal lost 1.2 million hectares of forest representing about 25 percent of its total forest cover. Primary forest cover was diminished as well, falling by nearly 11 percent during that period. While overall deforestation rates have fallen since the close of the 1990s, rates of primary forest loss have jumped significantly.
Nepal has some 1,240 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles, according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 2.9 percent are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 5.6 percent are threatened. Nepal is home to at least 6,973 species of vascular plants, of which 4.5 percent are endemic. On paper, 7.6 percent of Nepal is protected under IUCN categories I-V.
Nations vulnerable to global warming present demands: carbon levels below 350ppm and billions in aid
(11/10/2009) A group of nations especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change have released a declaration calling for developed countries to keep CO2 emission below 350 parts per million (ppm) and to give 1.5 percent of their gross domestic product to aid developing nations in adapting to the myriad impacts of climate change.
Apple's Snow Leopard helps real-life cats
(09/07/2009) Apple's release of its new operating system, dubbed "Snow Leopard", is helping raise awareness of the plight of one of the world's most endangered big cats, reports the Snow Leopard Trust, a group working to protect the real-life snow leopard in its mountainous habitat across Central Asia.
Photos: hundreds of new species discovered in Himalayan region, threatened by climate change
(08/10/2009) Scientists from a variety of organizations have found over 350 new species in the Eastern Himalayas, including a flying frog, the world’s smallest deer, and a gecko which has walked the earth for 100-million-years, according to a new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The report, entitled Where World’s Collide, warns that these rare biological treasures, as well as numerous other species, are threatened in the Eastern Himalayas by climate change.
Rhino poaching rises sharply due to Asian demand for horns
(07/09/2009) Rhino poaching rates have hit a 15-year-high as a consequence of demand for horns for use in traditional medicine, according to new report published by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. Asia-based criminal gangs run the illegal trade.
UN: Population growth rates fall to 1.1 percent in Asia-Pacific
(05/19/2009) The population growth rate in the Asia-Pacific region has dropped to 1.1 percent, according to the Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2008, compiled by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The 1.1 percent growth rate is the lowest in the developing world.
How to Save Snow Leopards
(10/28/2008) The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is one of the rarest and most elusive big cat species with a population of 4,500 to 7,500 spread across a range of 1.2 to 1.6 million kilometers in some of the world's harshest and most desolate landscapes. Found in arid environments and at elevations sometimes reaching 18,000 feet (5,500 meters), the species faces great threats despite its extreme habitat. These threats vary across its range, but in all countries where it is found — Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and possibly Myanmar — the species is at risk. In some countries snow leopard are directly hunted for their pelt, in others they are imperiled by depletion of prey, loss of habitat, and killing as a predator of livestock. These threats, combined with the cat's large habitat requirements, means conservation through the establishment of protected areas alone may not be enough save it from extinction in the wild in many of the countries in which it lives. Working to stave off this fate in half a dozen of its range countries is the Snow Leopard Conservancy. Founded by Dr. Rodney Jackson, a biologist who has been studying snow leopard in the wild for 30 years, the Conservancy seeks to conserve the species by "promoting innovative grassroots measures that lead local people to become better stewards of endangered snow leopards, their prey, and habitat."
Nepal's tiger population plummets due to poaching
(07/02/2008) Nepal's tiger population have plummeted due to poaching and a booming trade in their parts, according to a government survey released Tuesday.
Asia's tigers could get big boost from small conservation efforts
(11/05/2007) Small changes to the management of wildlife reservers in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal could dramatically boost endangered tiger populations, reports a new study published in the journal Biological conservation.
conservationists killed in Nepal helicopter crash
(09/25/2006) 24 people were killed in a helicopter crash in Nepal on Saturday September 23rd. Seven of the victims were staff members of WWF, a leading conservation group. The helicopter was carrying them from a conservation site at Ghunsa, in the remote eastern mountains of Nepal, according to WWF.
Why some Himalayan glacies aren't melting due to climate change
(08/25/2006) New research into climate change in the Western Himalaya and the surrounding Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains could explain why many glaciers there are growing and not melting. The findings suggest this area, known as the Upper Indus Basin, could be reacting differently to global warming, the phenomenon blamed for causing glaciers in the Eastern Himalaya, Nepal and India, to melt and shrink.
