The tiger that leapt on Bhadai Tharu in the forests of Nepal took the sight from his left eye with a swipe of a paw. But it also helped the community leader understand that people must leave room for nature while pursuing economic development.
“The tiger attacked me because I went to his home. Otherwise, it never attacks humans,” says Tharu, who leads anti-poaching patrols in a forest in the Terai region, a stronghold of the big cats in the foothills of the Himalayas.
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Terai is rich in wildlife. But it is also home to nearly 8 million people who rely on its forests for everything from timber to medicine, and have cleared large areas for farming. That has led to environmental degradation, and put rhinos and elephants, as well as tigers, on the list of endangered species.
But in recent years, those pressures have eased under the Terai Arc Landscapes initiative. This government-led effort is helping to protect and restore Terai’s forests, reversing the loss of Nepal’s rich biodiversity and enhancing the benefits of intact ecosystems for the region’s people.
Launched in 2001, the initiative has secured habitat for threatened species including the greater one-horned rhinoceros and the Asian elephant as well as the royal Bengal tiger. A key element is the restoration of seven corridors to connect more strictly protected areas, including wildlife refuges in neighbouring India.
The corridors programme, with its measures to reduce human-wildlife conflict and support rural economies, was recently recognized as a United Nations World Restoration Flagship. Presented as part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the award showcases outstanding undertakings to restore ecosystems for the sake of both people and wildlife.
“The transboundary Terai Arc Landscape serves not only as a biological hotspot. It also serves as a true testament to the effectiveness of the landscape approach of conservation,” says Birendra Prasad Mahato, Minister of Forests and Environment of Nepal. “We are incredibly grateful for this recognition from the UN and are encouraged to continue tackling existing and new challenges faced by our forests, wildlife and communities.”
Himalayan hotspot
The Terai Arc Landscape initiative is reviving a biodiversity hotspot that covers 2.47 million hectares and is home to 7.5 million people. Many of its rural areas, especially those outside Nepal’s national parks, had been seriously degraded as a result of deforestation, fragmentation, encroachment and poaching.
In the corridors between protected areas alone, about 65,000 hectares of degraded land has since been reforested, 13 times the size of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. Some 40,000 local community members have teamed up with government and civil society groups to run activities including anti-poaching patrols, wildlife monitoring and ecotourism. About 500,000 households have benefited from the project.
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Nature has quickly rebounded, capturing carbon, storing water and increasing the resilience of human and wildlife populations in the face of climate change. Camera traps and radio collars have helped detect tigers, elephants, rhinos, leopards, hyenas and many other species shuttling between previously isolated protected areas. These movements are helping to maintain genetic diversity and reduce the risk of extinction. Nepal's tiger population has tripled, rising from 121 in 2009 to 355 in 2022, according to the latest national survey.
“The Terai Arc Landscape initiative does not protect nature by pulling people out of it but by bringing people and nature closer together,” says Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
“After decades of uncontrolled exploitation and degradation, resources are now urgently needed to rebuild that connection and restore vital ecosystems. This is key to tackling climate change, biodiversity loss and rampant pollution,” Andersen says.
Community support
A good example of the restoration push is the Khata Corridor, a 200-hectare mosaic of forests, grasslands, villages and farmlands that connects Bardia National Park in western Nepal with the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in India.
Officials had to win over communities who relied on the area’s natural resources, some of whom were skeptical about restoration. They did that in part by developing alternative energy sources, such as biogas to cut reliance on firewood. Teams also supported new economic activities, including tourist homestays and sustainable furniture making.
As the pressure on the land has eased, restoration activities have kicked on. Tree nurseries have supplied seedlings for the reforestation of an expanding number of community forests, and cattle grazing has been regulated so the forest can recover naturally. As a result, forest cover in the corridor has risen from barely 1 square kilometre to about 100 square kilometres in just two decades.
"I think that was the challenge, to show if we can do those integrated approaches together, where people see their lives being improved because of conservation,” says Ghana S. Gurung, Country Director of WWF Nepal, a key partner in the landscape initiative.
Balancing conservation needs with those of local communities is an aim of The Biodiversity Plan, a global framework to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. Among its four goals and 23 targets are Target 2 to restore 30 per cent of all degraded ecosystems and Target 10 to ensure sustainable management of areas under agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry. The Terai Arc Landscape initiative shows how cooperation between governments, partners and local communities is helping the world to achieve the plan’s targets.
Success has also bred challenges. Fencing is needed to prevent large mammals from entering villages or eating crops. Some farmers have also switched to less palatable produce, like chamomile or mint.
Preventing human-wildlife conflict also means taking pre-emptive action to reduce the risks. On a recent forest patrol to deter poachers and monitor wildlife, Tharu lifted his stick to point out claw marks high on a tree trunk.
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“By seeing this, everyone must know that this is the tiger’s domain,” he instructed his fellow khaki-clad rangers. “So, while patrolling we need to be careful. We can tell others that a tiger has passed this way and tell them to be cautious.”
With its recognition as a World Restoration Flagship, the Terai Arc Landscape will now be eligible for technical and financial support from the UN. With additional assistance, the initiative hopes to restore an area of almost 350,000 hectares by 2030.
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“We have created history in rhino conservation (and) almost tripled tiger numbers,” says the WWF’s Gurung. “How that could be possible under the sea of human population, the sea of development – that is something unique that Nepal has delivered.”
The planet is experiencing a dangerous decline in nature. One million species are threatened with extinction, soils are turning infertile and water sources are drying up. The Biodiversity Plan, formerly known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, sets out global targets to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. It was adopted by world leaders in December 2022. To address the drivers of the nature crisis, UNEP is working with partners to take action in landscapes and seascapes, transform our food systems, and close the finance gap for nature.
The UN General Assembly has declared 2021–2030 a UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by the UN Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, together with the support of partners, it is designed to prevent, halt, and reverse the loss and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It aims at reviving billions of hectares, covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. A global call to action, the UN Decade draws together political support, scientific research, and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration.
