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GIS based Management Information System for Annapurna conservation area, Nepal
Nawa Raj Chapagain
GIS Officer,
King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation,
Annapurna Conservation Area Project
Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) is the largest protected area in Nepal with an area of 7,629 sqkm (5.18% of total area of Nepal). The ACA region stretches from the low land sub-tropics of the middle hills to the permanent snow-cover of the Himalayas and beyond to the alpine grasslands in the Trans-Himalayan region and parts of the Tibetan plateau. Spreaded over 55 Village Development Committees (VDCs), ACA is inhabited in around 420 settlements by nearly 120,000 people belonging to more than 10 ethnic groups. King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), an NGO, has been managing ACA through its Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP). The objectives of ACAP are:
- To conserve the natural resources of the ACA for the benefit of the present and future generations;
- To bring sustainable social, institutional and economic development to the local people; and
- To develop tourism in such a way that it will have a minimum negative environmental impact.
ACA was started in 1986 as a pilot project to implement Integrated Conservation and Development Programme (ICDP) and now it has become a successful ICDP model for the whole world. Recognizing the potentiality of utilizing GIS and database management systems in programme formulation, monitoring and evaluation, Geographic Information System (GIS) section of ACAP has just finalized Annapurna Conservation Area Management Information System (ACAMIS) plan and is working on database creation for it.
Need for GIS based MIS
ACA represents considerable share of physiographic, climatic, biotic, socio-economic and cultural extremities in Nepal. Being the largest protected area in Nepal, ACAP has a broad range of programme components and activities (see box 1). Since ACAP's intervention 14 years ago, the local people, their economy and natural resource base of the area have undergone changes. Similarly, ACAP's grass-root approach in implementing the diverse range of programmes has established numerous local level institutions. Co-ordinating projects, monitoring and evaluating progresses and maintaining a central database system all based on GIS have become urgent need for the ACAP. In future it is expected that the development of a GIS based MIS will assist in efficient allocation of resources in project formulation and design.
ACA implements the concept of multiple landuse management to achieve site-specific goals of conservation and development. ACA has been classified into 5 landuse management zones, viz. (i) wilderness zone (ii) protected forest/seasonal grazing zone (iii) intensive use zone (iv) special management zone, and (v) biotic/anthropological zone. To better implement the concept of multiple landuse management GIS based comprehensive database system will allow to identify site-specific thematic management options paying due attention to local community's need and bio-physical setting of the area.
ACA is one of the most popular trekking destinations in Nepal. There is increasing trend in the number of trekking tourists visiting ACA, which crossed 75,000 during 2000. Though we have not perceived any significant negative impact yet, we need to monitor their impact on physical as well as social environment so that we can maintain ACA as a major trekking destination for years to come. ACAMIS is expected to help assess the socio-cultural and environmental impacts of tourism.
ACAP mobilizes local people in all of its conservation and development interventions. There are 539 local level institutions formed in ACA area for this purpose. The ultimate goal of ACAP is to make these local institutions self-reliant so that they can operate sustainably on their own without assistance from ACAP. So, ACAP has greater focus on empowerment of local institutions. As ultimately we will be handing over all responsibilities of managing ACA to the local institutions, it is highly desirable that we monitor and evaluate the empowerment level of local communities to ensure all of them will be empowered enough to manage the programmes on their own. ACAMIS will be an efficient way to monitor and evaluate the empowerment level of local institutions.
Moreover, as ACAMIS is based on GIS, it will allow easy integration of both spatial and attribute data and will produce both graphical and tabular output. The two outputs will assist critical decision making processes based on statistical and visual results.
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