NP - 353 new Himalyan species commemorated as part of a WWF initiative to bring attention to a looming ecological crisis in the Eastern Himalayas.

[Guest guest]

http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/2009/08/16/265

 

*'Where Worlds Collide'

**353 new Himalyan species commemorated as part of a WWF initiative to bring

attention to a looming ecological crisis in the Eastern Himalayas.*

 

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched ;When Worlds Collide globally on

Saturday to commemorate the 353 new animal and plant species? discovered by

researchers and travelers in the Eastern Himalayas over the last decade. The

event was part of an initiative called 'Living Himalayas' to bring together

Bhutan, India and Nepal to conserve the flourishing ecosystem in the

mountains that straddle their borders.

 

The Eastern Himalayas is the one of the biologically richest areas in the

world and contains four important ecoregions. The 353 new animal and plant

species discovered there over the last decade includes 242 plants, 16

amphibians, 14 fish, two birds and mammals and 61 invertebrates.Among them

is the first new monkey discovered in over a century, the Maca Munzala.

 

Its wealth of animal and plant life is exceptionally diverse since the

region includes the Tibetan Plateau as well as the gangetic lowlands.

 

94 of the 353 new species and more than 50 per cent of the invertebrates,

fish and reptiles were found in Nepal.

 

But poaching, land-encroachment, population expansion and climate change

have threatened mountain habitats. Chief guest and Minister of of Forests

and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara said 90,000 hectares of land in Nepal

have been illegally settled.

 

The Himalayan region?is also exceptionally vulnerable to climate change with

some figures suggesting temperatures there are rising up to five times more

than the global average.

 

The Nepali, Indian and Bhutanese governments have agreed to work together to

protect the region's biodiversity and stave off a looming ecological crisis,

but haven't worked out the particulars.

 

Tariq Aziz, head of the Living Himalayas Initiative, is optimistic that the

cooperative venture will be successful but warns that testy bilateral

relations could interfere.

 

The WWF facilitated two similar international projects in recent years in

the Mekong basin and the Coral Triangle, both in Southeast Asia.

 

 

--

Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Nepal - Netherlands