Mainstreaming Community-Based Conservation in a Transboundary Mountain Landscape Lessons from Kangchenjunga

This paper draws recommendations for transboundary and participatory biodiversity conservation from ICIMOD’s pioneering Kangchenjunga Conservation Landscape Initiative. The Kangchenjunga landscape, shared by Bhutan, India, and Nepal, is one of the seven transboundary landscapes identified by ICIMOD for development of regional cooperation for effective conservation and management of natural resources. During the past ten years, ICIMOD has been engaged in developing baseline information and policy dialogue towards this end. One aspect of this work has been a review of evolving policy and practices in biodiversity conservation. The Kangchenjunga landscape includes 15 protected areas (PA)s. The conservation and management practices in these PAs differ, as do the conservation-related policies of the three countries. Past and present conservation policies and practices in the landscape are analysed and recommendations are drawn for enhancing participatory landscape-level biodiversity conservation and management in the landscape.