Bio-diversity

Land degradation via landslide and erosion is a common phenomenon in mid hills of Nepal. The foot hill of Mahabharat range in Chitwan, central Nepal is also prone to landslide. Owing to the slash and burn agriculture by the indigenous Chepangs and deforestation to open land for agriculture in the hilly slopes, the area is even more vulnerable posing threats of flood to downstream. The Chepangs lived a semi-nomadic existence, marked by hunting and gathering, and slash and burn cultivation. They used a variety of Indigenous tools to glean their subsistence livelihood including bows and arrows, snares, traps, baskets, hooks and nails, and poisons. Previously their staple food consisted of honey, wild grains, wild bananas and forest roots and tubers. Among the various forest products, the most common products are Chiuri (Bassia butaraceae), varieties of wild yams and honey. The Chepang have customary land tenure systems guided by clans based economy known as Khoria in which land is allocated for shifting cultivation by the Mukhiya (a social leader). Land, in these societies, is considered to have mystical connotations, it represents their identity or the symbol of their existence, therefore, for them land is an inalienable property or a non-commodity. They regard land a function of social relationships and interwoven with issues such as kinship, the family system and entire field of human relationships. The project aim to rehabilitate the slash and burn land, protect the soil loss and improve the livelihoods of local Chepangs.

Nepal