Increased human population and industrialisation has caused degradation of wildlife habitat and, with that, biodiversity. The major steps adopted globally for the conservation of biodiversity are the establishment of protected areas, including national parks, wildlife reserves and conservation areas; enforcement of conservation laws and activities aimed at raising awareness. However, the problem still remains critical, especially in the developing countries, where local people heavily depend on biodiversity resources for their livelihood. Scientific monitoring is required to ensure conservation and sustainable utilisation of resources. Recent observations on climate change have also increased global attention for the need for biodiversity monitoring. The initiative Building Capacity for Biodiversity Monitoring and Assessment was launched to devise, test and recommend a biodiversity monitoring system for protected areas of Nepal. The project is funded by the UK Darwin Initiative and implemented by the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC) and UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, with support from Edinburgh University.

Conserving Biodiversity
Biodiversity in Nepal came under threat in the 1950s, when large tracts of forests were cleared for human settlement in hills and mountains. Conservation efforts began in the 1970s. Today, Nepal has established sixteen protected areas across the country: the total area under protection is 18.2% of the country’s area (147,181km2). With an area of 7,629km2, the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA: see sidebar) is the largest protected area in Nepal that has successfully experimented with the philosophy of an Integrated Conservation and Development Project (ICDP), now a model conservation philosophy for several developing countries.

Monitoring Systems
Though conservation has come a long way in Nepal, few biodiversity monitoring systems exist, and those that do address only some large mammal species of the Terai region. Monitoring involves taking repeated measurements and comparing them to understand the causes of change. Thus, biodiversity monitoring involves:

• carrying out repeated surveys to find out the size and extent of the population of a certain species and the quality of their habitat
  
• analysing results to find out trend and rate of change.

• Tucker, G., Bubb P., de Heer M., Miles L., Lawrence A., Bajracharya S. B., Nepal R. C., Sherchan R., Chapagain N. R. (2005): Guidelines for Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring for Protected Areas. KMTNC, Kathmandu, Nepal.