Pangolins are among the most widely traded taxa in the southeastern Asian illegal wildlife trade because of which they are at great risk of extinction.  Yet, little is known of their trade status in Nepal.  This research was carried out to unfold the status of pangolin trade in Sankhuwasava District of Nepal.  We used mixed methods such as semi-structured questionnaire (n=75) and, focus group discussion (n=4) and key Informant Interview, (n=30) to assess the trade status.  Seizure data (2009–2017) were gathered from law enforcement agencies to predict major trade routes.  The major threat perceived was hunting especially by unemployed local youth and children.  The majority of hunters were opportunistic.  Sankhuwasava District has become both source and transit for the illegal pangolin trade rather than for local use.  The involvement of non-timber forest product traders was high in the illegal trade business, however, there seems a rapid decline in the seizure of pangolin in the last two years, mainly because of the deployment of the Nepal army in the Makalu Barun National Park, which had long served as a major route to China.  Thus, we recommend continuation of strong border security.  Our study calls for capacity building of enforcement agencies for detailed investigation of seizure data.  For sustainable conservation of pangolin and its habitat we recommend sustained conservation awareness programs in addition to alternative livelihood opportunity.  Furthermore, formation of community based anti-poaching units followed by motivation, anti-poaching trainings, security assurance, and incentives for worthy conservation outcomes in pangolin-rich communities might aid in conservation.

There exists limited information on biodiversity including avifaunal diversity and habitat condition in community forests (CF) of Nepal; thus we aimed to fulfill such gaps in Tibrekot CF of Kaski district. We used the point count method for assessing bird diversity and laid out a circular plot size of radius 5-m within 15-m distance from each point count station for recording the biophysical habitat characteristics. Bird species’ diversity, richness and evenness were calculated using popular indexes and General Linear Model (GLM) was used to test the respective effect of various biophysical factors associated with the richness of bird species. In total, 166 (summer 122, winter 125) bird species were recorded in 46 sample plots. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index was calculated as 3.99 and 4.09, Margalef’s richness index as 16.84 and 17.53 and Pielou’s evenness index as 0.83 and 0.84 for summer and winter, respectively. The influencing factors for richness of bird species were season (χ21, 90= 112.21; P= 0.016) with higher richness in the summer season and low vegetation cover (χ21, 89= 113.88; P= 0.0064) with higher richness in lower percentage cover. Thus, community managed forest should be protected as it has a significant role in increasing bird diversity, which has potential for attracting avifaunal tourism for the benefit of the local communities.

This paper assesses the interrelationship between poverty, climatic and non-climatic shocks, and shock coping strategies adopted by farm-based rural households in Nepal. An analysis is based on a comprehensive data set collected from 300 randomly selected households from three purposively chosen villages of Gandaki province. The study utilizes binary and ordered probit regression models to analyze the determinants of poverty, shocks, and coping strategies. Findings reveal that the Dalit (ethnic group), large-sized, and agricultural households are more likely to be characterized as poor. The study further shows that majority of the households are exposed to the severe shock of climatic types. Patterns of shock exposure vary with the household’s characteristics. In particular, poor households in the hills primarily dependent on forest for livelihood are more likely to experience severe shocks. Further analyses indicate that the households ex-post choose dissaving, borrowing, shifting occupation, and migration to cope with severe climatic shocks. The analyses also reveal that the nature of shocks, socio-economic, demographic, geographic contexts, and factor endowments effect adopting a particular coping strategy. Findings suggest household level-specific support should be provided to mitigate the effects of shock, and appropriate measures are taken to protect their means of living.

The wildlife population is an important part of the forest ecosystem and plays a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem health and integrity. In many grassland ecosystems, wild herbivores face substantial competition for space and resource use from livestock over grazing resources. Livestock and ungulates have shared a large portion of the Terai forest resources for decades, but little information has been explored about the influence of livestock on the grassland ecosystems of the protected areas of the Terai region of Nepal. We assessed the impact of livestock grazing on wild ungulate habitat in the Khata Corridor, Bardiya, Nepal. We used direct field observation, key informant interview (n = 10), focus group discussion (n = 5), and a questionnaire survey with local households to study the seasonal occurrence of wild ungulates in multiple habitats, livestock rearing practices, stocking density, and resource use by domestic livestock in and around the forest land of villages located in the Khata Corridor, Bardiya, Nepal. We followed livestock herds from the early morning to their return for consecutive days in each sample village to estimate the grazing circuits. We individually recorded a total number of grazing cattle in five different habitats while following the cattle grazing path by direct and indirect observation. Morisita’s index was used to evaluate the habitat overlap between domestic livestock and wild ungulates. The domestic cattle had a higher habitat overlap and effective stocking density in winter than wild ungulates in summer in the corridor forest. Lower availability of forage around the village led to the concerted effort of grazing in the forest, increasing the higher effective stocking density in winter, leading to the competition with wild ungulates. However, the carrying capacity is highly unevenly observed across the region, and overgrazing is found in many areas of the forest corridor. We recommend the development of comprehensive wildlife livestock grazing strategies for planning sustainable livestock farming and for important wildlife areas to maintain long-term landscape connectivity to protect migrating endangered wild species.

This paper is based on the case study which was carried out to investigate post institutional and external support to hazard events in Barpak village of Gorkha district. Primary data were collected from household survey where one hundred households were interviewed using structured schedule. An economic stratum of the household was used as variables for the study. Sampled households were categorized into three sub strata i.e. rich, medium and poor. More or less equal number of each stratum participated in household survey. Simple descriptive statistics was used for data analysis where percentage, weighted mean were used to interpret the results. Perceptions of the sampled households were tested with independent chi-square. Result shows that media plays an important role to disseminate about the knowledge on climate change and associated impacts in the villagers. Climate change information, loan as well as donation for coping to climate variability and technical know-how are the major support that people obtained in the village for coping climatic hazards. Poor villagers are almost dissatisfied with almost all supports experiencing while coping against climatic hazards than that of rich and medium strata family of the village.