22/04/2005– WWF's programme
office in Nepal has signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with a biogas company to promote
alternative energy sources.
Under the MoU, Biogas Sector Partnership-Nepal
and WWF will help local communities install
over a period of five years 10,000 toilet-attached
biogas plants, which will cover 30 per cent
of households within Nepal's Terai Arc Landscape.
One of the major goals of the WWF-initiated
Terai Arc Landscape Programme – which covers
49,500km2 of conservation area – is to conserve
the area's biodiversity, forests, soil and
watersheds in order to ensure the ecological,
economic, and socio-cultural integrity of
the region.
In particular, the programme aims to restore
corridors of forests linking protected areas
of lowland Nepal and the trans-border protected
areas of India to facilitate wildlife movement,
including that of tigers, elephants and rhinos.
"The critical areas in Terai Arc Landscape
are biologically significant to maintain ecological
integrity through maintaining functional link
between protected areas in terms of dispersal
or migration path of wildlife and gene flow,"
said Dr Chandra Gurung, WWF Nepal's Country
Representative.
"Environmental benefits of bio gas plants
will be instrumental to restore the degraded
forests in critical areas through reducing
pressure on the forests for fuel wood."
Biogas in Nepal has become popular in recent
years as the technology is relatively simple,
reliable, accessible, and risk free.
With the installation of biogas, it is expected
that pressure on the forest of critical areas
within the Terai Arc Landscape would be reduced
significantly, saving some 45,000MT of fuel
wood annually. Biogas plants would also be
instrumental in reducing acute respiratory
infections and related health hazards, especially
for women of 10,000 households, as well as
improving sanitation and helping reduce chronic
diarrhoeal diseases among 60,000 people. In
addition, household chores of women would
be reduced, as time spent on gathering fuel
wood would be saved.
"The MoU represents a joint effort being
made to improve rural livelihood through biogas
plants," said Sundar Bajgain, Executive
Director of BSP-Nepal. "This has potential
impacts such as the creation of physical assets,
time saving and reduction in health hazards
among the beneficiaries."
The Netherlands Development Organization
(SNV Nepal) will provide advisory services
to BSP-Nepal and capacity-building support
to organizations involved in the MoU's implementation.
