Competition of resources between livelihood needs and conservation
	Analysis of the sustainability aspects of sanitation planning
	Related publications

The research on the nexus between development, environment and resource management was vital since the beginning of NCCR North-South activities in Nepal and this research focus will continue during the third phase.

Competition of resources between local livelihood needs and conservationist interests (continuation from 1st and 2nd phase)

Dr. G. Gurung, U. Müller-Böker, Dr. M. Kollmair, Dr U. Müller, W. Schubiger, F. Toccoli, S. Gamper, M. Locher

In Nepal, a large number of people live within protected areas. In view of an increasing number and size of protected areas and changing societal needs, one leading question emerged: How to enhance livelihoods of local people without compromising the protection of biological diversity? Thus, research analysed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of the concept of "Integrated Conservation and Development Projects" that emerged in the 1980s, taking the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Project as case study.

The results show that people-orientated participative conservation projects can successfully reconcile conservation interests with the livelihood needs of local people through long-term interventions that carefully integrate development issues into conservation strategies, and are implemented transparently through local institutions with skilled facilitation. However, the study also suggests that it is crucial to obtain continuous external support for conservation areas.

 

Analysis of the sustainability aspects of sanitation planning approaches in urban/peri-urban areas of Nepal (continuation from 2nd phase)

Mingma Galzen Sherpa (PhD), Dr Thammarat Kattatoop (AIT), Christoph Luethi (EAWAG)

The project deals with sanitation planning and programming. It analyzes and compares the sanitation planning process of selected key agencies and the newly developed Household-Centred Approach to Environmental Sanitation (HCES) . The existing sanitation planning approaches of ADB, UN-HABITAT, WaterAid and the HCES approach developed by EAWAG will be taken into consideration.

The main reason behind selecting these approaches is that the former three agencies are the major agencies working in the urban sanitation sector in Nepal while the fourth is a new approach which is different from the conventional approach of top down planning. Further, the project conducts sustainability analyses (economic, environmental, socio-cultural/institutional, technical, health and hygiene) of the sanitation programmes implemented under these planning approaches to determine the effect of planning on the sustainability of various sanitation systems. The major thrust of the overall research lies in the quest to find out means to improve sanitation planning in Nepal and to assist in achieving sustainable sanitation services.