Nepal: Red List of Mammals Workshop

Nepal: Red List of Mammals Workshop

The National Workshop for the Red List of Nepal Mammals was held April 7th and 8th 2010 at the new NTNC (National Trust for Nature Conservation) Conservation and Research building in Lalitpur, Nepal. In attendance were Nepal’s finest in the conservation community and after a lot of nervousness (mostly from me) the workshop went very well indeed.

40 participants attended the two day workshop, coming from different organisations and with different backgrounds in species conservation, including participants who have worked in the Himalayas, the Tarai and those who have worked across Nepal. Between the group the conservation status of over 200 species of mammals was reviewed and a final conservation assessment was applied. In addition, main threats and recommendations were made for each individual species.

A working group at the Nepal Red List workshop

As part of the preparations for the workshop, participants had been sent species reports so that  they could make comments on them ahead of the workshop, in theory making the actual time spent on each species more efficient. However (and slightly anticipated) each species still required a lot of discussion and at lunchtime on day one, we all thought this would be an impossible task as each working group had only covered a single species… yet peoples enthusiasm and motivation did not wane and after getting into the swing of Red Listing there was no stopping us!

Dr Raj Amin concludes the Nepal Red List of Mammals workshop

The workshop concluded with a summary of the assessments made during the workshop and whilst many know the conservation status of well known species such as the rhino, and tiger it was the first time that Nepali species had been looked at as a whole bringing to attention to the fact that almost 25% of all mammal species in Nepal are considered threatened (Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable). The workshop also highlighted that the small mammals were the most underrepresented group of species with 50% listed as Data Deficient. One of the most important outputs of the workshop was the recommendations made for each species and post-workshop it is now important for all involved to move forward and implement these recommendations for effective species conservation.

If you are interested in conservation in Nepal please visit the following sites. These organisations play a key role in the conservation of species and habitats in Nepal and whose help and support and wealth of information were invaluable to this project.

http://www.dnpwc.gov.np/       http://www.ntnc.org.np/       http://www.wwfnepal.org/
                               http://www.smcrf.org/       http://www.fonnepal.org/


Sam Lee is a Project Assistant on Nepal’s National Biodiversity Databank and Red List of Mammals. She will be blogging regularly on the process, providing insights into the details of producing a National Red List