It was our great pleasure that Institute of Forestry, Hetauda Campus organized the Rufford Nepal Conference from 29 to 30 January 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The main objectives of the conference were to create the forum for young researchers to explore their research results, share the knowledge through two-way interactions, and translate the outcomes of the projects into policy formulation in the sector of biodiversity conservation and natural resource management.
We hope, the conference helped in collective learning and mutual sharing of experiences and craft better policies for conservation and sustainable utilization of forest resources. The oral and poster presentations are in three important thematic areas of biodiversity conservation and environmental sustainability, community relationship, and conservation education and Extension. Till the end of 2017, the Rufford foundation has already supported about 400 different projects and invested about 1.45 million pound sterling-dollar (£) which equivalent to about 20 Crore Nepalese rupees in the sector of Nepalese biodiversity conservation and natural resource management.
Although the Rufford Foundation has significantly contributed the different grass-roots project in various parts of Nepal, proper monitoring and evaluation should be implemented for bringing the better results. The Rufford conference is one the monitoring tools for sharing and exchanging the project`s results in the common forum. We hope, the foundation will also provide us the opportunity to see the progress of the projects in the field directly. You know that Institute of Forestry (IOF) has many student human resources, we would utilize our human resources in order to conduct the monitoring and evaluation of Rufford`s projects in the fields.
The program would not be possible with the financial support from the Rufford Foundation. I would like to thank Josh Cole (Grants Director) and Jane Raymond (Rufford Administrator) for supporting us from the beginning of the program. I am very grateful with our session chairpersons (Dr. Carol Inskipp, Dr. Ram Prasad Chaudhary, Dr. Binod Dawadi, Dr. Jhamak Bahadur Karki and Dr. Santosh Rayamajhi) who accepted our requests for chairing the individual session. We also grateful to Dr. Prabhu Budathoki, honorable member of National Planning Commissions and former Country representative of IUCN for delivering the conservation message to the participants. Likewise, the contribution of Mr. Damodar Gaire, Mr. Rajesh Sigdel, Mr. Amir Sedain and Dr. Lalit Kumar Lal Das was valuable in order to bring out this publication.
