India, Bhutan & Nepal agree on regional cooperation for conservation of Kangchenjunga Landscape

Participants at recent the 3rd Regional Strategic Consultative Meeting, held at the Headquarters of International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu (Nepal), for the Kangchenjunga Landscape stressed on the need for greater collaboration to protect the region’s rich biological and cultural diversity through strengthened partnerships and increased participation of people in the landscape. High-level government officials from the three member countries of the Kangchenjunga Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KLCDI), namely Bhutan, India, and Nepal, consolidated the activities of the initiative’s preparatory phase and apprised country delegates of the outputs and content of a draft framework for regional cooperation, which takes into account the need for greater collaboration across borders, as well as opportunities for socioeconomic development at the landscape level.

The 60 representatives at the meeting included ICIMOD, and strategic development partners Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).

The agenda of the meeting was the conclusion of the one-and-a-half-year preparatory phase of KLCDI. The meeting, jointly organised by Nepal’s Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MOFSC) and ICIMOD.

India, Nepal, and Bhutan proposed an area of about 25,000 sq km, covering parts of eastern Nepal, Sikkim, the northern part of West Bengal, and western Bhutan, to be included in the Kangchenjunga landscape, one of the seven trans-boundary landscapes identified by ICIMOD with its regional partner countries for prioritising conservation and development programmes in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.
Source: http://goo.gl/4z3OFK