Lake Conservation and Sustainable Development

So far NLCDC has accomplished conservation programs in more than 226 lakes and wetlands of Nepal. However, these works are not enough for the conservation of lakes. Therefore, the committee has been emphasizing on conservation and development of the lakes placed over seven provinces as the major tourist destinations. NLCDC facilitates the funds to the local conservation development committee, stakeholders; NGOS to conduct the various conservation and development reach programs to conserve the wetland biodiversity of entire Nepal. The funds are dispensed on the basis of lake conditions, their significance, possible threats and conservation status of lakes, daha, ponds and kunda of Nepal.

Moreover, NLCDC has conducted the technical research on all lakes of Pokhara with support of the SGF/08/NP/01 Ramsar Secretariat in Switzerland and shared the information by filling Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS). As a result, all the nine lakes of Pokhara Valley (Phewa, Begnas, Rupa, Dipang, Maidi, Gunde, Khaste, Neureni and Kamal Pokhari) to merge and declared as one Ramsar Site on February 2, 2016, (World Wetland Day) in the initiative of the committee.

NLCDC believes the import of the lake basins management in an effective and efficient way for the sustainable conservation of lakes and wetlands, the committee has been working on six pillars of lake governance in order to safeguard and manage the watershed of lakes. The six pillars of lake governance are as follows:

Institution: to conserve and use the services of lakes and wetlands

Policy: to control the consumption and minimize the effects of lakes

Local people’s participation: to conserve of watersheds of the lakes

Technology: maximum use of technology use in conservation until possible

Education/Information: use traditional and scientific education/ information system as needed

Sustainable economy: an integrated economy to help in conservational activities