Kathmandu, Aug. 24
Finance Minister Dr.
Prakash Sharan Mahat has updated the global environment and
development bodies about
Nepal's progress in forest conservation and wildlife protection.
During his participation
at the 7th
World Conference of
the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) being
held in Vancouver, Canada, on Wednesday, he
discussed bilateral issues
with heads and representatives of various international organisations,
informed the Ministry of Finance in a
statement issued on Thursday.
On the occasion,
Finance Minister Dr.
Mahat held bilateral
meetings with Chief
Conservation Officer of
the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF), Nick
Shekharan, the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP)'s Administrator, Achim
Steiner, and Director of the
International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN), Dr. Grethal Aguilar and discussed the global impact
of climate change and the challenges
that Nepal has to deal with and the ways to minimise it.
During those meetings,
Dr. Mahat highlighted the efforts and achievements of Nepal in
the field of environmental protection.
He informed that
Nepal has increased
the area occupied
by forests to almost 45 per cent with the
implementation of the concept of community for-est. Likewise,
the number of
tigers has tripled
and the number
of rhinos has
almost doubled in the last one decade.
In addition to
this achievement, FM Dr. Mahat informed the high officials of the
world bodies that
there was a
conflict between human
and wild animals
in Nepal, and due to this, lives and properties were
lost. So the
country had to
spend a lot of resources to
combat this.
Likewise, Minister Dr.
Mahat requested those
global agencies for
support in the
construction of infra-structure including
roads for forest
and wildlife protection, construction of
wildlife-friendly
infrastructure, risk insurance
for communities affected
by human-wildlife conflict
as well as
self-employment and income generation.
At the same time, he mentioned the need for
skill and capacity
development as well
as channelling financial
resources to support Nepal to keep up with its international
commitments.
Emphasising that environmental fund and
facility programmes should be
mobilised from the national system
to achieve concrete
results, he said
that such programmes should
bring positive changes
in the living
standards and economic
conditions of the local people.
Ministers from 83 countries
and representatives from 185
countries are participating in the
7th World Conference
of the GEF. The conference
will conclude on August
25.Building on recent diplomatic breakthroughs
on biodiversity loss,
toxic chemicals, and the high
seas, the GEF Assembly will be a
critical stocktaking for 2030
goals to end pollution and nature
loss, combat climate
change, and propel
inclusive, locally-led conservation, said the organiser.
The GEF was selected to manage the new fund at the COP15
Convention on Biological Diversity summit in December 2022 and its governing Council
approved plans for this in June 2023 in Brasilia.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 August 2023.
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