Is Nepal at risk of 'environmental crimes' over new policy to allow big projects in protected areas?

A new procedural document on the construction of infrastructure inside Nepal's protected areas has worried local conservationists, with many of them warning that it would threaten hard-won conservation gains achieved over the past decades.

Nepal's government approved the legally binding document under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act in early January, which many perceive as a move to facilitate mega projects that would likely exploit land and natural resources in the country's protected areas.

While the law already has provisions for the building of infrastructure in protected areas, such as highways and transmission lines cutting through national parks, conservationists said the new policy gives a "free pass" for larger projects.

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Kumar Paudel, director of environmental non-profit organisation Greenhood Nepal, said the new document raises the risks of commercial exploitation of ecologically sensitive areas, which would render demarcations and protections under current rules meaningless.

"This policy eases the [expansion of] commercial interests within protected areas," Paudel said. "If the government facilitates the commercial exploitation of these sensitive areas, it shows that they are ready to reverse the sacrifices of the generations of conservationists who have worked in Nepal's conservation and habitat protection sector."

Nepal is home to a diverse natural ecosystem that ranges from the plains of the Terai region to the Himalayas. The country's protected areas, accounting for about 23 per cent of its total landmass, include 12 national parks, one wildlife and hunting reserve each, six conservation areas and 13 buffer zones, according to the government-run Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation.

In past decades, Nepal has emerged as a conservation success story. Between 1992 and 2016, the country nearly doubled its forest area coverage from 26 per cent to 45 per cent, while it almost tripled its endangered tiger population to 355 between 2009 and 2022. Meanwhile, the number of vulnerable one-horned rhinoceros jumped to 752 in 2021 from just about 100 in 1965.

While poaching still poses a danger to the country's wildlife, conservationists said that climate change and the newly approved procedural document are also threats, with the latter likely to lead to an infrastructure-building spree, including tourist resorts inside national parks, resulting in a loss of habitat for animals and an ecological imbalance.

One of the major concerns is that the provisions in the new policy could facilitate the building of mega hydropower projects that could result in a flood of investments.

Nepal plans to generate 30,000 megawatts of electricity by 2035, about a 10-fold increase from its current capacity of 2,800 megawatts with its giant neighbours India and China vying for a slice of the country's hydropower market.

Last month, Nepal signed a deal to export 10,000 megawatts of electricity to India in the next 10 years.

Conservationists said the new policy would open up rivers inside the protected areas for hydropower development, which was previously prohibited, to meet growing power demand in the country and for export.

The new document has provisions for the construction of hydropower plants and other infrastructure, which would increase exploitation in protected areas, conservationists warned. They pointed out that the monthly level of natural water flow in the rivers after passing through future hydro plants is expected to be significantly reduced inside national parks, which would affect the river ecosystem of the parks.

Greenhood Nepal said the reasons for changes in the rules are not specified in the document and demanded the government clarify them.

The organisation submitted an objection letter to the Ministry of Forest and Environment two weeks after the policy was approved. Greenhood Nepal listed several major flaws in the policy, claiming it promotes corporate interests over environmental concerns. Among them are the absence of procedures to assess project feasibility and environmental impact, and the lack of consideration for the floras and faunas in protected areas.

"Environmental impact assessment is only limited to paper in Nepal - it's an open secret," Paudel said. "Whenever locals commit small offences inside protected areas, they're often punished but it seems like we're now giving a free pass to commit environmental crimes to commercial businesses."

Some conservationists are committed to putting up a fight and considering challenging the government's new procedural document in court.

Advocate Padam Bahadur Shrestha, an environmental law expert and president of the Environmental Law Society Nepal, said that he and his team have been studying the policy to determine its shortcomings. He added that some of the provisions violate the country's existing laws, including the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act and the clause in the country's constitution that guarantees "conservation, management and use of natural resources".

The document's language is used in a way that makes it easier to guarantee land for construction projects, said Shrestha, adding that private companies could easily secure approvals for construction.

"This policy facilitates business owners than protecting the national parks and the environment," he said. "It speaks in favour of the investors and goes against the principle of long-term sustainable development."

This is not the first time that Nepal's infrastructure projects have courted controversies, raising environmental and ecological concerns.

Earlier this month, local media reported that the government plans to build a dam at Shivapuri National Park in Kathmandu, which experts said would affect local biodiversity and wildlife.

The government also intends to build an international airport in the country's southeast against an order of the Supreme Court to find an "appropriate alternative". The project in Nijgadh could also come at a massive environmental cost - an estimated 2.4 million trees could be axed in the Parsa National Park near the airport.

Shiv Raj Bhatta, a senior adviser for conservation programmes at the WWF Nepal, said the new procedure document should be subordinate to the country's environmental-related laws.

"As a legal hierarchy, the [country's] acts and regulations are higher than this procedure [document]," he said. "So how the provisions of this procedure will be aligned with the acts and regulations are yet to be seen."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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