“The meeting is being organized by ICIMOD and Royal Government of Bhutan and expected outcomes will create a roadmap leading to the proposed ‘Climate Summit for Living Himalayas, Bhutan 2011,” read a press statement released by ICIMOD here Wednesday.

Opening the meeting, Dr. Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, vice president of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Nepal, congratulated the Royal Government of Bhutan for taking the initiative to develop a regional framework and national adaptation plans to climate change, to reduce the vulnerability of local populations living in the region, including the lowlands.

A board member of ICOMOD, Pokharel commended the role of ICIMOD in providing technical backstopping to the summit which had an important objective of assisting the populations in the eastern Himalayan region to adapt to climate change.

Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Minister for Agriculture and Forest of Bhutan, said that the countries should work together in developing medium and long-term strategies as citizens of the eastern Himalayas.

“We share a common geography, common problems and a common destiny and need to take collective action to tackle the problems posed by changing climate. We have to start working together on an urgent basis, he added.

“We also need to gain a clearer picture of temperature rise and its local effects. There are heavy fluctuations in weather patterns and their implications at the local, national and regional levels are going to be significant. We have to work towards developing our own adaptive strategy at the regional level.”

Nawang Norbu of Bhutan presented the rationale for the proposed Climate Summit for Living Himalayas, Bhutan 2011 and its links to the process and the rationale for focusing on the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayan region.

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KATHMANDU: Gaurishankar Area Conservation (GCA) has become the third Conservation Area as per the Nepal Gazette dated January 11, 2010.

Earlier, only Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) and Mansalu Conservation Area (MCA) were recognised as conservation areas.

“Now, Gaurishankar will be conserved by NTNC for 20 years. We need to develop GCA,” said Juddha Bahadur Gurung, member secretary, NTNC. “We are trying to develop GCA as climate-friendly tourist destination,” he said.

According to the Nepal Gazette dated July 19, 2010, Gaurishankar Area Conservation responsibility has been entrusted to the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) for 20 years. ACA and MCA are already under the responsibility of NTNC.

GCA covers an area of 2,179 square kilometers and encompasses 22 Village Development Committees of three districts. Along with outstanding bio-diversity, GCA has been recognised as new tourist destination for the Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011. “GCA is a wildlife corridor that connects to Langtang and Sagarmatha,” said Dr Siddhartha Bajra Bajracharya, executive officer, NTNC.

“It is a new tourism product. As the existing tourism destinations can not be sufficient for the tourism year, we need to promote GCA with special infrastructure development programme there,” Bajracharya said. According to Bajracharya, Gaurishankar can be developed as carbon neutral tourism destination as its main attraction.

“Compared to ACA and MCA, GCA has easy accessibility through roads as one can easily drive to the destination if necessary,” he said. Gaurishankar however, connects Langtang and Sagarmatha. It is relatively less visited and there is no exact data about the tourists arriving at GCA. Annually, more than 60,000 tourists visit ACA, while above 30,000 visit Sagarmatha and more than 10,000 visit the Langtang area.

Bajracharya said different tourist products can be promoted at Gaurishankar. He said, “Along with high-altitude, the region has a number of variations which need to be explored.”

“On an average, 1,000 tourists visits the area annually. However, the number can be increased with proper infrastructure and publicity,” he said. GCA can be developed for Trekking Tourism, Wildlife Tourism, Nature-based Tourism, Adventure Tourism, and Mountaineering.

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