The Newsletter of the Chandra Gurung Conservation Trust

Mentoring the next generation of Himalayan

leaders in conservation and sustainable development

2017

We’ve borrowed the name “Bhaihaalchha” from Manjushree Thapa’s biography of Chandra Gurung “A Boy from Siklis.” Roughly translated, it means “of course it will happen,” reflecting Chandra’s can-do spirit that continues to inspire us and his Nepali colleagues to keep his memory alive.

More Help for HELP In response to the 2015 Nepal earthquakes, CGCT granted $4,000 to Helambu Education and Livelihood Project (HELP) for a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) program at the newly rebuilt Shree Deurali Elementary School in Tartong Village, Helambu region of Sindhupalchowk District. The earthquakes destroyed more than 75% of the district’s 575 schools and caused more deaths than in any other district.

CGCT founders Wendy King and Wendy Lama know Helambu well. Wendy King was a Peace Corps Volunteer there from 1977-79. Wendy Lama led an ecotourism project there in the 1990s and now brings student groups on service treks.

With support from U.K. based Mondo Challenge Foundation, and with Nepal’s Department of Education agreement, HELP is rebuilding 15 schools in Helambu. Locals were trained in building earthquake resistant structures and constructed five in Tartong in 2016. School and toilet construc-tion was delayed by the fuel crisis and monsoon. CGCT funds covered a septic tank, a four-room toilet with separate facilities for girls

and boys, water taps/ hand washing station, and the hygiene curriculum, also initiated this year. Providing separate girls’ facilities directly affects their school attendance as it allows privacy to attend to their menstrual needs.

After 26 months in a temporary building, Tartong’s 37 girl and 28 boy students, ages 3-14, are now in the new school, which is a model in the region. The District Education Office commended the community for its engagement, efficiency, and resiliency, all of which helped reduce costs. We are delighted to be part of this success story! With help from donors, we hope to con-tinue to help HELP bring latrines, water taps and other WASH compo-nents to schools in this region.

The Chandra Gurung Conservation Trust (CGCT) is a US-

based charitable organization established in December 2006 following the tragic helicopter

crash in Nepal that took the life of our friend and colleague Dr. Chandra Gurung. With your generous

support, our Board works with partners in Nepal to carry on Chandra’s lifelong mission of “people-oriented biodiversity

conservation,” cultural empowerment and sustainable development.

Namaste from the BoardChandra Gurung Conservation Trust (CGCT)

has deep roots in Nepal. Board members have spent years if not decades working there in conservation. We knew Chandra as a friend, colleague and inspiration. We watched the world take notice as he led Nepal in people-based biodiversity conservation (POBC). We are commited to nurturing Ne-pal’s future conservation leaders alongside our sister organization Chandra Gurung Conservation Foundation in Nepal, as strongly as ever.

With your generous support, we’ve now graduated fifteen mentees from the CGCT/CGCF Mentorship Program. In this issue, we invite you to share the learning of three recent mentees: Barsha Rani Gurung (2017), who tested the power of activity-based environmental education; Madhuri Khadka (2017), who measured how vulture conservation contributes to ecotourism benefits; and Richa Pradhan (2016), who looked at women’s role in climate change. Two new mentees were recently annointed under the newly improved Mentorship Program, now expanded with international as well as national mentors.

As well as deep roots, CGCT has broad reach. This year, CGCT helped build girls’ and boys’ school latrines in Tartong Village, Helambu. Such projects – as the Yangrima School water tank we funded last year – are only possible because of you, our supporters.

Our connections to Nepal and Chandra are personal. Wendy Lama recently went to Chandra’s home village, Sikles, where she met his elder brother, Chitra Singh Gurung (shown here, holding pictures of Chandra) and his wife Sun Maya Gurung, and visited the museum (that CGCT helped fund) hon-oring Chandra, Mingma Norbu Sherpa and others killed in the 2006 tragic helicopter

crash that took their lives. Everyone encountered knew Chandra and what he had done for the area. He’d not only brought electricity to Sikles, but opened people’s eyes to the value of working together toward sustainable conservation and development. Wendy came away amazed at how it takes all of us to follow in one person, Chandra’s, footsteps.

Thank you sincerely from the family, friends, and neighbors of Chandra, and from the Board for your continued support. With your help, we look forward to continuing to extend our roots and broadening our reach. Namaste, and thank you! With best regards, CGCT Board members: Wendy Lama, Maureen DeCoursey, Steve Powers and Wendy King

Mentorship Program: Better Than Ever

Mentorship is a learning and development partnership between someone with vast experience and someone who wants to learn (CGCF).

The joint CGCT/CGCF Mentorship Pro- gram keeps getting better. Thanks to the team at CGCF, the program continues to evolve while staying true to its initial goal of inspiring Nepali college students and graduates to become conservation leaders.

The Mentorship Program supports two “mentees” in a year-long people-oriented biodiversity conservation project of their own creation. Senior conservationists vol-unteer their time to provide one-on-one academic and/or professional guidance.

Mentee applicants submit a project proposal and CV to CGCF and go through a rigorous selection process that includes an interview, essay questions, refer-ence checking and a critical review of their proposal. Successful candidates are matched with an appropriate mentor and are announced at the annual commemo-ration event honoring Chandra’s birthday in early December. Working with their mentor, mentees conduct a field project, attend relevant trainings and workshops, prepare a final report and publishable article, and present their findings at the following year’s commemoration event.

CGCT contributes the financial resources for the mentees’ field work. Starting this year, we will also fund advanced training in a partnership with Resources Himalaya Foundation.

CGCF carried out an evaluation of the program last year and made a number of significant changes. Application proce-dures are more strategic and systematic. Applied, community-based projects are given priority over academic research. The program is now open to community leaders and activists. In addition to the national mentor, an international mentor lends a broader perspective and profes-sional networking opportunities beyond Nepal’s borders.

Fifteen mentees have now completed the program and are involved in people-oriented conservation throughout Nepal. Former mentees have stepped up their participation beyond their original com-mitment to provide peer advising and guidance to new mentees and other volunteer assistance to CGCF. Please read about some of our fabulous mentees below.

Chandra would be proud - and so are we!

Reflections on the Value of the Mentorship ProgramBy Ms. Richa Pradhan (2016 Mentee)

My experiences in the Mentorship Program were amazing. My mentor was Ms. Dibya Gurung, Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) Specialist, with whom I was matched be-cause I was interested in researching climate change and how it impacts rural women.

Many of you know that Chandra waspassionate about providing opportuni-ties for young Nepalis to learn from and help rural communities build a sustainable future. As a college stu-dent in the early 1970s, he got hisstart working in a small village in the Midwestern foothills as a volunteer for the National Development Service. My yearlong journey enabled me to grow

personally as well as professionally. I gained experience in the field with my mentor where I learned how to conduct qualitative research and use a GESI lens in analyzing issues and findings.

I co-facilitated a workshop related to gender integration with my mentor where I had the opportunity to hone my facilitating and communication skills. Using what I learned, I conducted a study in Lele Municipality of Lalitpur, Nepal where my mentor scrutinized my work.

As required by the Mentorship Program, I published an article in June 2017 in the Kath-mandu Post. With the support of the men-torship fund, I presented my study results at the Second Conference on Mountains in a Changing World on October 28, 2017 where I shared the study with the scientific community.

The experience has and will add greatly to my career advancement. The insight and values I have acquired from my mentor will guide me. I have a sense of responsibility of representing and uplifting CGCF in any way I can.

Lastly, I would like to express my gratitudeto CGCF and my mentor for a remarkableexperience. I hope that each year CGCF and CGCT will support students like me to be new conservation actors to follow the path set by the late Dr. Chandra Gurung.

Chandra (carrying board in front) help-ing to construct a local building with international and local volunteers in Gumi VDC ca 1970

Over the years, youth empowerment and volunteerism became core com-ponents of his legacy at ACAP, World Wide Fund for Nature, the King Ma-hendra Trust for Nature Conservation, United Nations Development Program and in other organizations in which he held leadership positions.

Chandra’s early mentees (Anil Manandhar, Tara Gurung, and Dibya Gurung), all now in key leadership positions and CGCF Board members

2018 Mentees Announced

The mentees and mentors for 2018 Mentorship Program are:Ms Sabita Thapa, to be mentored by Mr. Broughton (Brot) Coburn, author and CGCT Advisor, and Mr. Madhu Chetri, Former Director of the Manaslu Conser-vation Area Project (MCAP). Ms. Thapa will be looking into community-based tourism in Sikles, Annapurna Region, Chandra’s home village.

Mr. Kushal Shrestha, to be mentored by Dr. Hum Gurung, ex-Chairperson of CGCF and ex-Director of Bird Conservation Ne-pal (BCN) and Jyotendra Thakuri, Senior Program Officer at BCN. Mr. Shrestha will be focusing on empowering school students in Gorkha to survey birds and involve them in bird conservation.

traditional method of teaching, which tends to be one-sided lecturing that promotes memorization over understanding through creative and innovative actions.

While doing a baseline study in schools in the Kathmandu Valley, I surmised that students’ disconnect with the environment could be due to the conventional approach of memorizing material to score well in class, rather than learning through experiences.

Next, I surveyed students and learned that, for example, in one school, 71% of students claimed that “learning by doing” is the best means of understanding. The problem, however, is that the school has limited ability to do practical activities. Teachers welcomed the idea of interactive lessons, but barely have time to cover the curriculum in a year.To test the students’ understanding of envi-ronmental issues and how it affectstheir ownership of the environment within the context of climate change, I:

• Prepared pre-tests, post-tests and activ-ity plans for a two day program with seventh grade students in Pokhara.

• Developed games and pictorial exercises, contextualized to Nepal, challenging students to demonstrate their compre-hension of climate change, then tested for gaps between their understanding of the issues and potential actions.

• Compared pre-interactive instruction re-sponses with post-instruction responses. Responses indicated that the students were more likely to take action to ad-dress environmental issues.

I hope to strengthen activity-based learning to affect changes in attitudes and behavior regarding environmental issues. I am opti-mistic about generating a spark to ignite a sense of environmental stewardship among the students with whom I work.

Vulture Ecotourism in Ghachowk Village,Annapurna Conservation AreaBy Ms. Madhuri Khadka (2017 Mentee)Mentors: Mr. Ang Phuri Sherpa, Country Director Red Panda Network and Ms WendyBrewer Lama, Ecotourism Planner

Ecotourism can be an important compo-nent in conserving biodiversity. Vultures are scavengers that feed on animal carcasses and help keep the environment clean and healthy. Vulture “restaurants” - sites where

carrion is deposited for vultures to feed upon – are primarily established for conser-vation purposes (as supplemental sources of vulture food) but are also increasingly becoming prime birdwatching and ecotour-ism destinations.

In Nepal, several organizations are linking ecotourism with vulture conservation. Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN) initiated the establishment of vulture restaurants as a strategy to subsidize their diet. Seven safe feeding sites have been established in six districts between 2007 and 2013. No studies have been done however to better under-stand the relationship, impacts and benefits of this approach.

Of nine vulture species found in Nepal, seven are resident, four of which are Criti-cally Endangered (White-rumped Vulture, In-dian Vulture, Slender Billed Vulture and Red Headed Vulture); others include the Bearded Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, and Himalayan Griffon (IUCN).

My study explores a vulture conservation project in Ghachowk Village in the Anna-purna Conservation Area. The objectives of this study were to:• determine the present status• explore problems and prospects• recommend effective strategies.

I used focus group discussions, key informant interviews, household surveys and a SWOT Analysis to carry out my study. Ecotour-ism was already somewhat established in Ghachowk with assistance from BCN, which had conducted homestay trainings. Despite being in the Annapurna Conservation Area, which receives the highest number of tour-ists in Nepal, however, ecotourism is poorly developed. Only ten locally owned home-stays are active. Most earn only Rs 1,000 per year from ecotourism; some earn up to Rs 5,000 or more. Despite this 61% of respon-dents indicated that the vulture restaurant is beneficial to ecotourism.

Some aspects of the ecotourism program are working well. The number of vultures gathering at the vulture restaurant has increased, though the causes are uncertain. Homestays do earn a bit of income and benefit from cultural exchanges with visitors. Social cohesion among the local people is strong and is a key reason for the continua-tion of the vulture restaurant despite man-agement and funding challenges.

Greening the CurriculumBy Ms. Barsha Rani Gurung (2017 Mentee)Mentors: Mr. Prashant Singh, Founder andCEO, Himalayan Climate Initiative, and Ms.Sharareh Bajracharya, former mentee

One day while I was walking down the street in Kathmandu, a school bus passed and a student threw an empty plastic “wai-wai” packet out the window. In that moment, I wondered how much environmental aware-ness we have and, as students, if we have enough ownership over the natural environ-ment in which we live in. This would become the trigger to launch my 2017 CGCT/CGCF mentorship project “Greening the Curricu-lum.”

My project objective was to understandthe degree to which environmental aware-ness is linked to personal action, and tosee whether activity-based, interactiveenvironmental education generates betterunderstanding and personal ownership ofenvironmental challenges. I aimed to test practical instructional methods against the

Chandra Gurung Conservation Trust 509 Lincoln Blvd., Long Beach,

New York 11561, Tel: 516 670 9232www.ChandraGurungTrust.org

Sky Memorial Foundation, is involved in the provision of food for special needs children (and some adults) who reside at a government facility in Kathmandu and in rural areas. Dur-ing a recent trip to Nepal, CGCT Founder and Treasurer Steve Powers (photo below left) was privileged to meet and offer meals to some of the kids in Kathmandu. We all feel that if Chan-dra were alive today he would have supported a worthy project like this as well. If you are interested in learning more or supporting this program, please contact CGCT for details.

Conservation Education in the Name of Chandra GurungBy Amanda Gurung, CGCF Executive Director

My father believed that biodiversity could not be conserved if people were hungry. Given that we are intricately connected to our environment, this philosophy led to the notion of People-Oriented Biodiversity Conservation (POBC). After his demise, individuals whom he had mentored wanted to continue his legacy and thus instituted Chandra Gurung Conserva-tion Foundation (CGCF), and its sister organi-zation CGCT. CGCF founders wanted to work through young people to create conservation champions and start filling the void left by the accident.

To that end, CGCF’s hallmark programs have been the CGCF-CGCT Mentorship Program and the Thaman Gurung and Matthew Handley Scholarship Program, both revamped after Chairperson Tara Gurung and I joined CGCF. In addition, we are working on a Build Back Bet-ter: School Reconstruction Project in Gorkha, and a CGCF curriculum in Conservation Educa-tion.

During the devastating earthquakes of 2015, many lives and much property were lost, and over 5,000 schools were damaged; only

a fraction have been rebuilt to date. Funded primarily by the Gurung Society of New York, CGCF has been working to rebuild the Janas-ewa Primary School in the village of Yamgaon, Gorkha District, near the first 2015 earth-quake’s epicenter.

Residents of Yamgaon are very active and participatory. They have agreed to donate their labor to clear the debris from the dam-aged school so that school construction can begin the moment permits are granted. They have agreed to change the name of the rebuilt school to Chandradaya Janasewa Primary School, after Dr. Chandra P. Gurung, pending government approval. CGCF is working tire-lessly to push the permits through.

CGCF’s interest in the school project is also in initiating conservation education, particularly through the arts. CGCF will engage a Nepal-based non-profit, Srijanalaya, to develop the program and train teachers. Once imple-mented in the Chandradaya Janasewa Primary School, the program can be implemented across the country, if funding is available. CGCF aspires to work with the Yamgaon community and nearby areas on other POBC projects as well.

CGCT too has supported repair and reconstruc-tion of earthquake-damaged and destroyed schools and associated facilities in Gorkha and Sindhupalchok Districts. Please read about our assistance to HELP above. CGCT also donated $2,000 to Yangrima School in Sermathang, Sindhupalchok to build a water tank that pro-vides year-round water to the school.

CGCT hopes to works with CGCF in support of conservation education in the Chandradaya Janasewa Primary School. Your continued sup-port of CGCT will help assure this lasting legacy to Chandra.

One of the biggest constraints is the lack of support from trekking companies that take tourists to nearby hotels (owned by outsiders). The costs of running the vulture restaurant (staff salary, feed for dying cattle) is another. Other tourist attractions that could lengthen visitors’ stay are undeveloped. Social issues also threaten the program. Some local residents (primarily Hindus) feel it is a sin to treat the dead cattle this way. Secondly, people who had given land for the vulture res-taurant have not benefitted from ecotourism.

Recommendations in the final report address the points raised in the study. In conclusion, this program has been such a fruitful experi-ence and has motivated me very much to develop myself as a people oriented biodiver-sity conservation leader in the future.

Paying It Forward… Unbeknownst to many of his friends were the

many charitable orga-nizations that Chandrasupported. Some of these were highlighted in Manjushree Thapa’s biography of Chandra, “A Boy From Sikles.”

Dorji Tsering Sherpa, a friend of Chandra’s who is founder of the

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