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 formally 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.
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