Managing Tourism in Wetlands in Nepal

Shree Kumar Maharjan
Published in “Nepal Travel and Trade Reporter” Vol X, Issue 16, pp 26-29 on 09-15 April, 2007


Wetland is geographic area with characteristics of both dry land and wet with water. Wetlands provide habitat for a wide variety of plants, invertebrates, fish, and larger animals, including many rare, threatened, or endangered species. The plants and animals found in wetlands include both those that are able to live on dry land or in the water and those that can live only in a wet environment.
There are three general categories of wetlands: marshes, swamps, and peat lands. Within each of these categories, wetlands may vary widely. Because wetlands depend on water sources, their boundaries can change. The characteristics that describe each category include vegetation, soil type, water supply, and water chemistry. There are four types of wetland ownership occur in Nepal: 1. State ownership - wetlands lying within forest areas are owned by the MFSC. 2. Gazetted land ownership – wetlands lying in protected areas. 3. Corporate ownership - wetlands registered under autonomous organizations. Ponds inside cultural heritage precincts fall under the Guthi Sansthan. 4. Private ownership and simple ownership- small ponds built for aquaculture and fisheries and deep-water rice fields owned by individuals upon payment of government land revenue.
The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, known as the Ramsar Convention, was signed in 1971 and came into force in 1975, which is an independent international convention designed to protect the wetland ecosystems from further destruction. It calls on all signatories to conserve Wetlands, promote their sustainable utilization, and set aside special areas as wildlife reserve. Every country is required to designate at least one wetland for inclusion on the list of wetlands. Government of Nepal ratified the Ramsar Convention in 1987, and designated Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) for inclusion in the list of Ramsar sites. Beside this, some other wetlands Bishazar tal, Chitwan covering 180 hectares, Jagadishpur reservoir, Kapilvastu covering 156 hectare, Ghodaghodi Lake, Kailali covering 150 hectare were listed in Ramsar list as internationally important wetland sites. Recently there are some more proposed wetlands of Nepal to the Ramsar lists. In addition to these, other important sites Gaindahawa Lake of Rupendehi, Badahiya of Bardiya, Narcrodi Lake, Rampur tal, Deukhuria of Kailali, Patriyani and Betkot of Kanchanpur are important in terms of biodiversity and tourism as well.
Wetlands have been recognized as one of the important ecosystems that harbor about 25% of the biodiversity of Nepal. There are different types of wetlands found in Nepal. Different categories of wetland found in Nepal are rivers possessing 53% of the total land, lakes possessing 0.7%, reservoirs possessing 0.2%, village ponds possessing 0.7%, paddy fields possessing 43.6% and marshland possessing 1.6%. Altogether there are 242 wetlands in Nepal representing 42 from eastern region, 52 from central region, 50 from western region, 34 from mid-western region and 64 from far-western region. In terai, there are 163 wetlands and 79 wetlands are found in hills and mountains.
Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. The wetland inventory for Nepal indicates that in the Terai, fishing occurs in 94% of wetland sites and animal grazing in 70% and water for irrigation is extracted from 69% of the sites surveyed. These wetlands also serve as habitats for wild relatives of cultivated crops, endangered and threatened flora and some rare birds. Land uses around wetland sites include barren land, settlements, commercial establishments, cultivated land, pasture, grassland and open forest.
Tourism is one of the world's largest and most rapidly growing industries. It has been significantly contributing to the national economy, playing vital role in earning foreign currencies, creating employment and conserving and promoting natural, cultural, historical and archaeological sites of the nation. UNEP estimates that it generates 11% of global GDP and employs 200 million people. Wetlands are key targets for a large number of tourists. But it is also true that the effects of uncontrolled tourism in natural sites, such as wetlands, can destroy the very resource base upon which it depends. As tourism industry has both opportunities and challenges, excess tourists flow beyond the carrying capacity in some sites, create problems like wastes, socio-cultural changes etc. And while tourism has the potential to bring great benefits to countries and play an important role in poverty reduction, it is too often the case that the economic benefits go to tour operators, leaving local communities, who depend on the natural resource base for their livelihoods, with few if any economic benefits.
Here in Nepal, some of the wetland sites are well known sites for tourism like different lakes of Pokhara, Gosainkund of Rasuwa, Gokyo, Phoksundo lake (deepest lake of Nepal about 650 meters, also called lake of mystery located at an altitude of 3600m from sea level and contains no any living creatures), Rara lake, Taudaha Lake of Kathmandu, Tilicho Lake (the lake at the highest elevation in the world), Ghodaghodi lake of Kailali. Among these wetland sites famous for tourism, some of them located in the high mountains and hilly areas are inaccessible whereas some sites of the Terai area have problems like solid wastes, water pollution due to discharge from nearby agricultural fields and industrial discharges, land encroachment by the local people. Although, Nepal became a signatory of the Ramsar Convention in 1987, it still lacks well-defined wetland policy and management plan for proper management and development. Wetlands in Nepal are suffering from land and water pollution while others have been drained and converted to agricultural land. These problems create much more barriers in management of tourism in these areas. Some philosophers said that “Management” word is made up of four word/letters viz. Manage, me, n and t. which means managing me, men (me±n) and territory. First of all, manage self, then society and then territory.
The potential to attract tourists into new areas is associated with the long- haul market. It is essential that every wetland region in different VDCs and/or DDCs of the country should understand the potential benefits, costs and limitations of tourism if they want this industry to be successful and sustainable. Not every VDC can look to tourism to significantly bolster, or diversify its economy. Obstacles to successful tourism development in such areas include: (a) limited accessibility and drawing power of destinations, (b) dispersion and/or poor quality attractions and services, (c) unflattering rural images, (d) internal community conflicts, (e) bureaucratic over-regulation, (f) difficulties in identifying and reaching niche markets, and (g) destination life cycles
There is little institution with a clear mandate for wetland management for tourism development in Nepal. Such weak institutional co-ordination hampers the conservation and sustainable or wise use of wetlands and its resources, while irregularities in existing laws contribute to an ineffective legal and policy framework. In addition, multiple ownerships of wetlands make prescriptions challenging for uniform policy and management.
The biodiversity inventories and tourism potentialities of most of these wetlands are still unknown. Such significant national and international wetland sites should be identified and explored in the hills and mountains in order to prioritize projects to conserve wetland biodiversity, sustainable use and promotion of tourism industry in these sites. There are very little data is available on wetland degradation and conservation in Nepal. Some precious wetlands have been given protection within PAs by Nepalese Government. It is essential to develop monitoring mechanisms to measure spatio-temporal changes in wetlands and to determine the rate of degradation as a result of human use with the participation of local people in order to maintain healthy wetlands on a long-term basis for conservation and tourism.
No protected area can be conserved and managed without the support of local people. The lack of awareness about the ecological functions of wetlands amongst communities who depend on wetland resources contributes to their degradation. At present, it is not important to conserve the resource but it is important to optimum use or rational use of these resources with utmost possible benefits from it without hampering or damaging its originalities. Exploration and Management of tourism in these sites generate extra income and employment to the surrounding community people.
Over many years, there were many projects either wholly or partly on the development of tourism/ecotourism in these sites. The Convention has not as yet addressed tourism in wetlands as a management issue. But the first step has, however, been taken in 2005 considering opportunities for development of sectoral guidance on the tourism/ecotourism sector.
There is a great deal of interest within the Convention on the development of sustainable tourism in wetlands, and this article aims to help at some of the many materials available on managing tourism in these potential sites for diversification.
Organization of Taudaha Jamboree in Kathmandu, Wetland Day Celebration are some of the important steps taken to undertake actions for raising public awareness; disseminating information on values and benefits of wetlands; and promoting them as tourism destination. Such tourism promoting activities and events at wetlands attract tourists to these sites at one end and create awareness among nearby publics and enhance public participation in the conservation and protection of such important historical and natural sites in other hand. Some of the wetland conservation guidelines and plans that have already been developed can assist those involved in developing tourism at wetland sites. Some other publications on wetlands provide useful information and experiences in sustainable tourism development in these areas.