After the successful Annapurna Area Conservation Project, it is now the turn of the Kangchendzonga region to be the next ecotourism model.

In what could be Nepal's most-ambitious conservation project so far, the wet and wild Kangchendzonga area is going to be developed as a trans-boundary nature reserve containing one of the most biodiversity rich regions in the world. It was in 1997 that Nepal declared the area under the world's third highest mountain a "gift to the earth" in support of the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Living Planet Campaign.

A joint feasibility was conducted by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and WWF Nepal in 1994 and included socio-economists, wildlife experts, botanists, and conservation biologists like Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa. In July 1997, 1650 sq km of Taplejung district was declared the Kangchendzonga Conservation Area Project (KCAP).

KCAP is largely modelled after the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) north of Pokhara. ACAP is widely regarded as a ecotourism model, although there has been some criticism lately that it has relied too much on low-budget trekkers. Some tourism experts say KCAP should price itself more up-market and ensure multipliers in the local economy. Initially, the project ran into some opposition: locals here thought that the area would be turned into a national park, thereby restricting their access to forest resources. But once they understood that the conservation concept here was different, and that they had a stake in it, the project took off. So much so that the conservation area had to be extended from the initial 1,650 sq km to its present spread of 2,035 sq km at the request of villagers living on the periphery of the original boundary.

Talking about the early days, Director of Programmes (Sustainable Development) WWF Nepal, Ghana Shyam Gurung says: "In the beginning it was difficult because political parties and individuals had a vested interest in the project. People feared it would be turned into a national park, but now that the actual goals have been defined the project and many of its programs have been hugely successful."
The other unique aspect of KCAP is its transnational dimension. The proposed Tri-National Peace Park envisages a joint conservation effort by China, India and Nepal. The Indian side contiguous to the KCAP area falls within the Kangchendzonga National Park (1,784 sq km) in Sikkim, and except for some land that stands unprotected on the Chinese side in Tibet, the massive Qomolungma Nature Reserve (33,819sq km) falls on the northern side, stretching all the way from the northern slopes of Mt Everest. India has agreed to the proposal and China has shown its willingness to extend the present nature reserve boundary (it now borders Makalu Barun) to the KCAP border.

The KCAP area is a unique blend of biodiversity and indigenous culture that the government, international groups and locals did well to recognise. The north-eastern extreme of Nepal is harsh mountain terrain of stark beauty and rugged villages. It is characterised by high alpine forests of Himalayan larch, temperate rain forests filled with rhododendron and malingo bushes, and a wide variety of wildlife. The world's third highest mountain Kangchen-dzonga towers at 8586m. But Kangchendzonga is more like a mountain range than a peak, but this is more than made up for by its western-most spur: the striking monolithic granite presence of Jannu. Also called Kumbhakarna Himal in the lower hills, Jannu dominates the Tamur Valley with its looming presence. Nearly 14 percent of the project area is covered with coniferous and temperate rain forests, 1.6 percent is farmed, and 65 percent of it is a rocky and icy expanse. The Himalayan larch (Larix griffithiana), a threatened coniferous tree, grows in the upper regions, while a little lower the forests turn fiery red in spring with 24 of the 30 species of rhododendron trees blooming among dense patches of the malingo Arun dinaria maling (a type of bamboo). If there ever was a rhododendron theme park, then Milke Danda is it-two days' walk southwest of Taplejung.

The elusive snow leopard rules the upper regions, preying on the Himalayan ungulates-blue sheep, ghoral, and musk deer. The endangered red panda, endemic to the eastern Himalaya, lives off the tender malingo shoots that abound in the cloud forests. Impeyan pheasants, red-billed blue magpies, hawks, eagles and several other species are abundant, also 69 varieties of orchids and numerous species of butterflies.

The Conservation area is also tremendously rich in culture. Limbus, Rais, Gurungs and Olanchung Sherpas live together in a unique cultural amalgamation that marks Nepal's northeastern frontier. The KCAP area covers four VDCs-Tapethok, Lelep, Olanchungola, and Yamphudin and contains 35 widely scattered villages. The villages are connected by trails which the project is upgrading with the help of 'Mother Groups' who have been given a sum of Rs 25,000, and the interest earned is used for scholarships to girls or bringing drinking water supply to the villages. Locals were earlier at the mercy of moneylenders who charged an exorbitant 60 percent as interest, but the Mother Group now lends to the needy at 12 percent, reducing dependency on loan sharks.

"The project has been a boon to us. It has brought hope to our people," says Om Prakash Rai, a resident of Yamphudin. Local support too has been crucial. In all four VDCs locals contributed land to build KCAP offices, and set up nurseries for saplings to reforest the barren hills shorn clean by years of deforestation and slash-and-burn farming.

KCAP may not yet have the facilities and services of its more famous counterpart in the Annapurnas, but this remote part of east Nepal has the potential to catch up. In 1988, when the area was opened to foreigners, only 87 tourists visited, there were 600 the next year. But although there is better access now the numbers are stagnant: last year saw only 750 tourists. KCAP is tougher and more remote than ACAP, and some adventure-loving trekkers who want to rough it prefer this. "I want to experience the real Nepal and not the modern facilities that other trekking routes offer," said a Czech trekker we met along the way. Kangch-endzonga trekkers still need permits, which cost $10 per week and can be obtained in Kathmandu. The fee to enter KCAP will be Rs 2000 from 1 January.
Since income from tourism is still low, KCAP is promoting cash crops like cardamom, which fetches up to Rs 300 a kg. "Last year was very good, we made up to Rs 400 per kg," says one cardamom farmer. The medicinal herb chiraito (Swertia angustifolia) is raising interest these days. Earlier, chiraito was used as a local medicine and the shrubs were fed to cattle. But having realised the herb fetches as much as Rs 500 per kg, many are taking to it. Another income generation avenue is through the Nepali paper industry, made from the bark of the lokta shrub (Daphne bholua). Trekker fees are ploughed back and directly distributed among the villages. The government has shown its support and a bill has already been gazetted for the project area to directly receive revenue generated through fees paid by trekkers entering the area. Some activities, however, have a tendency to hurt the local economy rather then enrich it.
"When private airlines from Kathmandu are given permission to charter flights up to the Kangchendzonga base camp our porters do not get work," says Norbu Bhote Sherpa, a resident of Lelep.

The Nepal Tourism Board and WWF Nepal are drawing up a "tourism plan" for KCAP. But it may be a good idea to go there before it is implemented, and the whole world discovers Nepal's unspoilt eastern paradise.