INTRODUCTION

Over the years, Nepal has put substantial endeavor in conserving and managing its natural resources. This can be seen by the fact that 44.74% of the total land area is covered in forest and 23.39% of it falls under the Protected Area system. The rich and vast biodiversity within these systems across different landscapes provides both ecosystem services and economic benefits to rural and urban indwellers alike. Yet, these natural resources and biodiversity are under constant threat by ever increasing human population that are dependent on these resources for their sustenance; natural disasters and non-climatic threats; development of linear and non-linear infrastructures like hydropower and rapidly increasing climate change. To contribute to address and minimize all the associated biodiversity threats and climate vulnerabilities, Hariyo Ban Phase II will build on accomplishments and learnings of Hariyo Ban Phase I. 

The main goal of the program is to increase ecological and community resilience in the GoN-identified biodiverse landscapes- Chitwan-Annapurna Landscape (CHAL) and the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL); and to improve its conservation and management reducing its climate change vulnerability is the main objective of the program.

It works on two core interwoven components – biodiversity conservation including livelihoods and climate change adaptation – with governance and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) being important cross-cutting themes. This five-year program has been made possible with a generous grant of USD 18 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The program finds its inspiration from the popular saying ‘Hariyo Ban Nepal Ko Dhan’ (Healthy green forests are the wealth of Nepal) which emphasizes the links between people and forests that underpins the project’s approach. The program is led by a consortium of four core partner organizations – World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Federation of Community Forestry Users in Nepal (FECOFUN) and the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) – with WWF serving as the managing partner for the program.

WORKING AREAS

Hariyo Ban Program phase II has established geographical priorities, building on results of its first phase. In TAL, it will work in four Hariyo Ban priority complexes: i) Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve – Brahmadev Corridor ii) Bardia National Park - Karnali Corridor, iii) Banke National Park – Kamdi Corridor; and iv) Chitwan National Park – Barandabhar Corridor. Based on threats and climate vulnerabilities it will put its major focus in all or part of eight districts (Dadheldhura, Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardia, Banke, Dang, Nawalparasi and Chitwan). In CHAL, activities will be implemented in three priority sub-basins: i) Seti, ii) Marshyandi, and iii) Daraundi with major focus in Seti river basin where we will closely work with Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) and other sectoral Government Line Agencies (GLAs) to pilot sub-river basin level institutions for overall conservation and development at sub-river basin level and scale-up for basin level.

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

Different interventions will be focused on several focal species, based on a range of factors including threatened status of the species globally and in Nepal; severity of poaching and wildlife trafficking, role in HWC; opportunities for umbrella species approach; relevance to landscape processes including climate and migration corridors; and opportunities for building strategically on Hariyo Ban I investments. The interventions will also use the best available science and multi-stakeholder engagement to support implementation of GoN’s TAL and CHAL strategies addressing key threats.

In TAL and CHAL, the main sources of household income are agriculture, animal husbandry, employment and remittances, including tourism. Hariyo Ban Program will focus to build Hariyo Ban I learnings by providing entrepreneurial skills, linkages with markets and other inputs services emphasizing on small scale enterprises focusing on the ultra-poor, women and forest 

dependent youths; medium scale climate-smart enterprises focusing in climate vulnerable and resource potential areas; and larger scale economically viable conservation enterprises focusing in resource available/potential areas.

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

Hariyo Ban will focus on mainstreaming of Community Adaptation Plan of Action (CAPAs) and Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPAs) in regular development planning process of government and other stakeholders at local, sectoral level. It will support to implement existing CAPAs and LAPAs in selected sites that were developed in Phase I, and some new activities including preparation of new ISWMPs incorporating CCA-DRR; and introduction of time and energy saving technologies for agriculture and domestic use. 

The program will support integration of LAPAs and Local Disaster Risk Management Plans (LDRMPs) and their implementation in pilot sites, considering GESI and governance issues. The Program will support incorporation of Environment Friendly Local Governance (EFLG) Framework in adaptation and DRR plans and vice versa, this will lead commonalities complementarities between all these plans and framework will be better understood. Learning from these pilot initiatives will lead to CCA-DRR integration and policy harmonization at national level. Hence duplication of efforts and resources to produce and implement separate plans will be avoided. 

GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL INCLUSION; AND GOVERNANCE

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) theme contributes in reducing gender and inclusion gaps ultimately helps in reducing threats to biodiversity and climate vulnerability. GESI mainstreaming under Hariyo Ban Program will promote and scale-up successful approaches of Hariyo Ban Phase I.  Institutional reforms targeting empowering women, Dalit, ethnic and other marginalized groups, addressing the differential impacts of climate change, engaging men and decision makers, challenging gender roles, supporting women’s and marginalized people’s economic empowerment alliances are the major strategies of GESI theme to achieve three result areas, which include: improved internal GESI policies, standards, and governance practiced by user groups; more women, youth, and marginalized people perform effective leadership, decision making and advocacy; and more equitable access to and benefit sharing from natural resources for women and marginalized groups.

Governance theme will focus on two broad areas which include capacity building (institutional, resource mobilization including cash, internal fund mobilization and resource leveraging, local knowledge/solutions) and institutional governance; and improvement of the policies and enabling environment to create capacity for user groups and other stakeholders to better conserve biodiversity and adapt to climate change.

There are four result areas, which include improved institutional capacity of user groups; improved capacity of user groups to leverage and mobilize resources; improved technical capacity of user groups to advance local solutions on biodiversity conservation and climate adaptation issues; and improved policy and enabling environment for biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation.  

SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM       

Small Grants Program (SGP) will be executed to ensure innovation, capacity building, research testing and/or promoting innovative science and technology, piloting new approaches, concepts or tools, rapid response to disasters and unanticipated issues; and to grab new opportunities in the fields of biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation, livelihoods, governance and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), focusing on ecological and community resilience-building.

The grants program will have four components: Student academic research grant; Civil Society Organization (CSO) grant; Government of Nepal (GoN) grant; and disaster management and opportunities that arise at short notice. Such grants will help further to achieve Hariyo Ban Program objectives in general, and directly contribute to one or more results, and have defined target(s) that, in most cases, also contribute to the M&E indicators specified in the M&E plan. The Small Grants Program will not be used to support routine operational activities such as maintenance, repair and day to day operations.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION (M&E)

M&E will be instrumental in improving overall Program effectiveness through regular field monitoring, periodic review and reflection meetings, capacity building, timely and routine feedback and adaptive management. M&E will also closely track the applications in the field for the concepts, plans, standards, strategies and protocols designed and developed at the central level.

Midterm and Final evaluations will be conducted in coordination with Social Welfare Council (SWC) and Hariyo Ban will also conduct periodic assessments to provide status of key results on specific thematic areas

Learning and knowledge management will be pivotal in Hariyo Ban phase II. Hariyo Ban will develop Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) Learning strategy that will identify knowledge gaps, pose specific learning questions, facilitate application of theories of change, and describe the process of capturing and sharing of knowledge across different stakeholders including the Consortium, GoN, USAID, civil society and communities.