Work and play                                                              3rd March 2010

Now it cant be all work and no play and in my spare time (we work 6 days a week here, so what I really mean is on Saturdays!) I have been participating in bird watching with the bird charity Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN). Now I will be the first to admit that birds have never really been my thing…In the UK I could just about identify a few garden birds and a red kite, but could probably count these species on one hand. Now before you all start labelling me a ‘twitcher’, I defy any of you to visit Nepal and not get into birding. In such a small area Nepal hosts a whopping 861 species – 8% of the world’s population in a mere 142km² (that’s a rough estimate of area of Nepal). And the diversity is staggering - ranging from the colourful hornbills in the Terai to eagles and vultures in the hills and mountains. And then there are what seems to be hundreds of little brown/yellow birds that consist of warblers and babblers, and oh and not forgetting my personal favourite and regular afternoon office visitor, the hoopoe bird! It is addictive. Whats more, is it is a great way of meeting people and getting out into Kathmandu valley. A couple of weeks ago we hiked up Champadevi (2279m!) and in addition to spotting over 50 bird species, we were blessed with an amazing panoramic of the Himalayas and birds eye (excuse the pun) view of Kathmandu valley.

This weekend I took part in a rafting event on the BhotekosiRiver, raising awareness of river conservation in Nepal with the National River Conservation Trust (NRCT). The NRCT are currently lobbying for the 28^th of February to be recognised as national river day, and for those of you that have smelt the BagmatiRiver youll know how important this project is. The stench literally makes your eyes water. The problem is that rivers here are used for all sorts, and it breaks my heart to see people, birds and other animals using this water because no good could possibly come from it. One of the issues (one which many conservation projects face!) is that everyone is waiting for someone else to take the initiative, thinking that it is not their responsibility to keep these habitats clean. Surely, as we all depend upon these vital habitats in some way it is all of our responsibilities?

The NRL Technicians Workshop                           4th February 2010

We have just held our first workshop for the Nepal Red Data Lists projects - this was specifically aimed at field staff and technicians. The workshop was held at NTNC Biodiversity Conservation Centre in Chitwan 30th-31^st of January and covered a selected number of species that technicians would be aware of and are easily identifiable in the field. 

This workshop was vital to fill in species information gaps, as many of the participants were in the field every day and have over 20-30 years of knowledge and experience that would go unrecorded. The workshop ran for the whole day on Saturday where participants were split into different working groups to work on selected species, however, these groups were rotated so that all participants had the opportunity to comment on all species. During the second half-day, morning presentations were given by group leaders to review the information collected and to give a final opportunity for comments. Then the species for which there is a lot of information for were reviewed as one large group. This included the tiger, leopard, snow leopard, river dolphin, blackbuck and wild water buffalo.

Everyone in the workshop worked extremely hard and we were able to collect a lot of information including more exact details of species distribution. It has also created a network of field staff and technicians who will participate in further Red Data Lists of Nepal projects. We would like to thank all participants for their efforts!

Workshop preparations                                            18th January 2010

So with the New Year comes the busiest time for the Nepal Red List of Mammals. We are currently preparing for a technicians workshop which is being held at the National Trust for Nature Conservations Biodiversity Conservation Centre in one of my favourite places… CHITWAN! Preparations are in full swing. This workshop is an information collecting exercise and no species will be formerly assessed.

It is an opportunity for field technicians (many of which have been out in the field for longer than I have been on this earth), to share their wealth of species-based knowledge, and as most of this information is not published in any papers or scientific literature, this is a key part of the National Red Listing process.

And! Proving that my Christmas in Chitwan was not all play, after meeting with the WWF Terai Arc Landscape Research Officer, I was invited to the WWF-Nepal Offices upon my return to Kathmandu. I spent the day speaking to the research staff, gaining further invaluable species information in addition to full access to their impressive library.

Christmas in Chitwan                                                18th January 2010

Working on the National Red List of Nepal has not only given me a great opportunity to meet some brilliant researchers and field technicians, but also to truly experience Nepal and its culture. I am lucky that many of my colleagues and people I have met along the way I now consider to be good friends and for this reason (as well as for work related ones), I headed back to ChitwanNationalPark for the Christmas period. Whilst there the NTNC staff made me feel like it was a second home and also provided me with vital information and resources: their information helped to give species a preliminary conservation assessment where before many were considered ‘Data Deficient’. I was also able to join the field staff in the jungle almost everyday, including a trip to set up observation posts for an ongoing study observing how species (especially herbivores) are using Mikania-infested habitats. I also got the opportunity to visit some of the other conservation projects such as the gharial and vulture breeding centres and meet up with the tiger monitoring team.

As for my Christmas, it is certainly one I wont easily forget! On Christmas eve I went on a tiger patrol and after spending the night in the heart of the jungle, I woke up on Christmas day to a sloth bear pottering around the NTNC Head Quarters in Kossoura. For those who have read or seen the jungle book this is what Chitwan is like, it is such a magical place.

Boxing day marked the opening ceremony for the 2009 Elephant Race. The whole town gets involved and starts with a huge procession of the different ethnic groups: the Tharu,  Newari and Gurung to name but a few, all in traditional dress, singing and dancing! At the back of this long procession are the elephants. The procession ends with a large performance in a large open field where the racecourse is set up. And then of course there is the elephant race. I have never seen anything like it. The whole festival goes on for 3 days.

Although most dont celebrate Christmas in the strictest sense, it is still a time of friends and family coming together and during this time I was able to meet with some great conservationists and key people in Chitwan, including the Chief Warden of Chitwan National Park, the Colonel of the Army, WWF Terai Arc Landscape Research Officer and several DNPWC staff, including the current Director General. So although it may sound like I was not particularly hard at work this was an excellent opportunity for talking about the project, and gaining their vital insights, experiences and knowledge.

Maoist strikes and load sharing                         14th December 2009

For those of you who dont know what load sharing is... it is essentially a power cut for several hours everyday and starts in the winter time when the water tables get low.

It can happen at any point in the day (though usually in the morning and evening when you most need it). This is definitely something I could not have appreciated back in London. The thought of sitting in the dark for hours in the evening without some sort of distraction is almost impossible with ipods, laptops and generators. It is also incredibly annoying - when I first arrived in Nepal load sharing hadnt yet started, but it has since gone from 2 hours up to 4 and now overlaps with my working hours - thank goodness for laptops and their back-up batteries! But it has given me a new appreciation for just how much of my lifestyle depended on electricity. I think you should all try it. Sit at home one evening and see how long you last before trying to switch on something that needs electricity, only for you it will still work! Water saving is also an incredibly important aspect out here and I can honestly say that I will be taking home with me many of the energy saving lessons I have learned. It makes me feel incredibly guilty of just how much energy I have been wasting, when many people dont have it when they need it, let alone have the ‘luxury’ of wasting it. 

Oh and if you think the royal mail strikes and occasional tube strikes are annoying, try having a couple of Maoists strikes a week! They have been particularly active recently and they tend to enforce road blocks, stopping ALL traffic on the roads. On one hand its quite peaceful without the noise and crazy traffic, yet some of my colleagues had to walk for two hours just to get into the office.

December in Nepal                                               11th December 2009

We are nearing our deadline for our species reports, which need to be ready for a technicians workshop in January and we seem to be running on time - with only bats and rodents left to complete. Unfortunately these make for long days as I dont believe Ive had any population estimates for a single rodent species out of the 40 that Ive done. I estimate using the phrase there is no information on the population abundance of this species for over half of my species reports. It makes me want to get out and do some species monitoring! Especially for the less charismatic species who go highly underrated.

Soon I am off to Christmas in Chitwan and to collect info from the resources there and develop the January workshop plan. Really looking forward to getting there, nothing more inspiring than seeing conservation in action and trying to find the species I have written reports on. The team in Chitwan are superb and hopefully my friend and wildlife guide Naresh will be helping me out. He is currently doing important work on the invasive species Mikania micrantha which is having a very serious effect on the habitat in Chitwan, especially for the rhinos. The extent of the problem is something you cannot appreciate until you see it. I think most tourists dont realise the problem as the jungle still looks lush and green, but on closer inspection you realise that Mikania micrantha is the one plant taking over. Unfortunately, they have not yet found a herbivore that feeds on it and do not have an effective management plan to control it.

Oh and if you think the London tubes get busy: i got a bus the other day which was so full I had to hang out of the side door. The joys of public transport. Having said that for 10 NPR I dont think I can complain too much!

Arriving in Nepal                                                     3rd December 2009

Before setting of for Nepal I ensured that I had done as much species information searches as possible, scanned and printed relevant sources, had my species list, had my assessment training and had my plane ticket.

The next thing was to meet the rest of the team in Nepal. The Nepal team consists of myself, Dr Hem Baral, Dipesh Joshi and Saroj Uphadyay. We also have a project steering group that includes members of the Government of Nepal Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, National Trust for Nature Conservation and WWF.

Currently we are undertaking the main task of species reports, compiling all the collected information and inputting it into our database. The species information search continues and we are also establishing a list of species specialists and field staff within Nepal.

In The Beginning...                                               3rd December 2009

My first task was to try and establish a comprehensive list of the mammals of Nepal. This was done by consulting several sources of literature and online resources to establish which animals were believed to be currently existing in Nepal including those whose presence are uncertain.

Of all the lists of mammal species for Nepal ours in the longest but undergoes constant change. It would have been good to get a confirmed finalised list of mammals before the information search began but it is a bit of a ‘catch 22’ – by cutting down the species list you reduce your work load, but you cannot cut down the list until you have done some research to establish whether or not the species does currently exist or previously existed in the country. I expect the species list to continue to change until all the preliminary species reports have been completed.

Once you have your species list you can then start the search for species information. This is a huge task of searching for all available material for each species that will help to assess their conservation status and build a complete profile for each species. This process takes a huge amount of time and is very much an ongoing task. From London I had excellent access to online resources and libraries such as the ZSL library and British library, however what I found was although there was general information available for species, very few were specific to Nepal.

Another cause of constant frustration is that many online journals and articles require subscriptions. The best place to get hold of country specific information (in this case anyway) is from within that actual country. Since being in Nepal I have had access to to a wealth of country specific species information. This information is not available online and is more often held within the libraries of the local organisations such as the Government of Nepal Ministry of Forests and Soils, WWF Nepal, IUCN Nepal, NTNC and also from the contacts made in country. Another excellent resource are the local universities. Being here has enabled us to get hold of theses produced by students, which are all country and species specific. It also provides the latest information.

The great thing about this project seems to be that everyone is so willing to help and to share what information they have. When I have been unable to get hold of articles many specialists have not only given me advice but also sent me the articles that they have authored and have also provided further contacts. Their help and knowledge has been and continues to be invaluable. Also it turns out the conservation community is quite small and every one seems to know everyone else which has been great - there’s nothing quite like coming across a query and being able to get hold of the countries leading expert in phone call.

A major concern with the species information collection and use is consistency. This is an extremely difficult thing to achieve but in the long term is something that I hope National Red Lists will be able to facilitate. With so many studies and so many species it is very rare to find studies that have followed the same methods, standards and consistencies. But one of the outcomes of the Red List should be to facilitate research in the areas where it is most needed and guide those undertaking it to follow repeatable processes.

Another very important task is to familiarise oneself with the assessment process that you will use to assess the species conservation status. For this project we are using the IUCN Categories and Criteria. Before starting any species reports I read and downloaded all the relevant documents and practised my Red Listing using the case studies available online. I am indebted to the Sampled Red List Team at ZSL who were a constant source of training, support and advice. I would advise those undertaking a Red List to make contact with people with previous experience as they have invaluable knowledge and experience that can guide you through and give advice when needed, which they continue to do for me. Contact ZSL on the email address  info@nationalredlist.org if you need help and advice in completing a Red List.

Contact Sam Lee on samantha.lee@zsl.org if you have any information, data or questions on the National Red List of Nepal