RPN’s Asia team has accomplished a two-day refresher training with great success in the mountain villages of Taplejung district on October 11-12/2012 in collaboration with Himali Conservation Forum (HCF), one of our Partner Organizations in Eastern Nepal. Altogether 14 participants including 12 Forest Guardians, 1 Field technician, and 1 Chairperson of the recently founded Red Panda Conservation Committee, all of them members of local communities, participated in the training.
The major training topics were: an introduction to red panda biology and ecology; Biodiversity: meaning, importance, causes of threats and conservation efforts; Methods and techniques of red panda monitoring; GPS handling techniques; and legal provisions pertaining to wildlife (focusing on red panda) conservation.
RPN’s Database & GIS Specialist – Mr. Rajiv Paudel, RPN’s Community Conservation Coordinator (CCC) – Mr. Damber Bista, District Forest Officer of Taplejung – Mr. Naresh Thakur, and the HCF Program Coordinator– Mr. Ramesh Rai facilitated the workshop sessions. A three-hour field work was conducted on the last training day. The Forest Guardians practiced what they learned in the field, including the way of walking along each transect, quadrat sampling, GPS handling and data collection.

Two Forest Guardians, Dawa Sherpa from Yamphudin Village Development Committee (VDC) and Bikram Limbu from Sikaicha VDC rotated out of the active team and were acknowledged for their efforts over the past two years. The two newly recruited guardians were selected based on their superior qualification and they completed the training successfully. The best four Forest Guardians – from Mamankhe VDC and Kalikhola VDC – received rewards for their outstanding performance. Altogether 14 sets of rain gear were provided to the teams, and for the first time eight sets of GPS (Garmin eTrex 30) were entrusted to the responsibility of each VDC team, which will make their monitoring work more precise and represents a significant development in professionalism and capacity building of the community-based monitoring teams.

Photos from our Forest Guardian Trainings and Monitoring Work

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Red Panda Network is pleased to announce that the deadline for applications for the first ever Red Panda Research Scholarship in Nepal has been extended.
Due to popular demand and the Nepali Festival season in October/November, our team will accept proposals received until 30 November 2012.

For more information, early pre-registration, and to view the detailed application guidelines and form, please go to http://redpandanetwork.org/get-involved/scholarship

Contact: Rajiv Paudel
Email: scholarships@redpandanetwork.org

Find out more here: Red Panda Network Research Scholarship Nepal 2012

More than 25 community members worked with Red Panda Network to create a Red Panda Conservation Committee (RPCC) in the Pathibhara Area around Derauli, Taplejung District. Three attendees were from District level organizations (District Forest Office – DFO, Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal – FECOFUN, and Pathibhara Zone Conservation Committee – PZCC); 14 were from Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs), and 8 participants represented women groups and civil societies. The participants nominated a 13 member committee, including the representatives from eight CFUGs, women groups and civil societies from five villages (VDCs) including Tiringe, Hangdewa, Phawakhola, Phurumbu and Sikaicha.

Red Panda Network’s Taplejung partner organization, Himali Conservation Forum (HCF) as well as the PZCC are also members of the Committee. Mr. Prem Bahadur Sembu, the chairperson of Pathibhara Sembu Community Forest User Group in Phawakhola VDC, was nominated to chair the committee. An advisory committee of three members including the DFO, FECOFUN and RPN has also been formed on the day.

RPN community conservation coordinator Damber Bista facilitated the meeting: “Our long-term success in red panda habitat protection is founded on the strong commitment for action the communities in this area have shown since we started working here.” The newly formed RPCC is supposed to gear up the conservation initiatives by maximizing the community involvement.

Red Panda Network - Taplejung: Deurali Red Panda Conservation Committee founders, September 24th, 2012

The persons in the photographs from right, First row: Dev Bahadur Limbu, Yam Bahadur Limbu, Damber Bista, Indira Chaulagain, Chandrakala Bhattarai, Kishnamaya Bhattarai and Menuka Bhattarai; Second Row: Prem Bahadur Sembu, Tek Bahadur Basnet, Bijaya Dangi, Kamal Prashad Igam, Ashok Basnet, Sushil Kumar Mandal and Kul Bahadur Limbu; Third Row: Bharat Mani Basnet,  Syangmu Sherpa,  Krishna Ojha and Ramesh Rai; Last Row: Bal Bahadur Sherpa, Sharmila Limbu, Laxmi Kaphle, Pasang Rita Sherpa and Nima Kirke Sherpa

Red Panda Network calls for research proposals

WHAT: RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS

WHERE: NEPAL

Applicable to: Nepalese Students

WHEN: SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

Kathmandu, Nepal, September 20, 2012: Red Panda Network (RPN) has been committed to the conservation of wild red pandas and their habitat through the research, education and empowerment of local communities in Nepal for the past 7 years. RPN is happy to announce the introduction of the RED PANDA NETWORK SCHOLARSHIP program to provide research grants in the field of red panda conservation. This call invites highly interested and motivated Master’s level students of Environmental Science/Management, Zoology, Forestry and other relevant disciplines.

The priority research area will be on conservation status and baseline study on wild red pandas in Jumla, Kalikot and Jajarkot districts of Western Nepal. RPN will select two best proposals voted by a panel of renowned wildlife researchers of Nepal. The maximum amount of the grant will be NPR 35,000 for each student and the deadline for submitting the proposal has been set for [ UPDATE - DEADLINE EXTENDED til End of November ]November 30, 2012.

For more information, early pre-registration, and to view the detailed application guidelines, please go to http://redpandanetwork.org/get-involved/scholarship

Dear RPN Supporters,

Thank you for all of your kind support this year.   Bhagawan, Tulsi and Brian are learning how to use the blog….This is our first blog…It is very exciting to use the blog….We are happy to use the blog.

This is red panda scat from Surumkhim village in eastern Nepal.