Restoring the Rupa lake watershed in Nepal
15 years of using a landscape approach to conserve biodiversity are presented in this new publication by LI-BIRD and Bioversity International, showing how collective action can change the social and ecological landscape of an entire watershed.
Conservation of agricultural biodiversity increasingly depends on the empowerment of local communities to restore and sustainably manage landscapes.
Community-based biodiversity management (CBM) in Nepal's Rupa Lake Watershed is a great example of how integrated landscape management and collective action can improve agricultural biodiversity and livelihoods. For 15 years, local farmers' umbrella organization Jaibik Shrot Samarachyan Abhiyan has brought together a group of local cooperatives, community development committees and women's groups to transform the watershed through CBM. The network includes a saving and credit scheme, a benefit-sharing scheme, and a forum to access information, learn and plan activities.
Working closely with partners such as LI-BIRD, Bioversity International has supported CBM in the region through: participatory plant breeding, training workshops, diversity fairs, seed exchanges and community seedbanks.
Read more about the Jaibik Shrot case study in the new publication by LI-BIRD and Bioversity International.
Also see recent photos from Rupa Lake in this Flickr set.
