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Environment & Energy




Service Lines
SL 3.1 Frameworks and strategies for sustainable development

SL 3.3 Access to sustainable energy services

SL 4.1 Conflict prevention and peace building

SL 4.5 Natural Disaster Reduction

Ninety percent of the Nepali population resides in rural areas engaging mainly in subsistence farming. More than half of them live in absolute poverty and depend largely on the natural environment to exist. As a result, in one hand, Nepal's rural areas are confronted with serious forms of land degradation, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity leading to scarcity of firewood and drinking water; while on the other hand, are seriously struck with annual cycle of natural disaster in the form of floods and landslides.

In Nepal, continued degradation of the environment constitutes a real threat to the main assets of the poor. The poor are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation, lack of clean energy services and sequencing of natural hazards. UNDP assistance to the Government of Nepal has been greatly for formulating pro-poor development policies and frameworks for sustainable development by ensuring environmental protection measures are strictly applied; and local people largely participate in development programmes. These policies further guarantee the judicious use of natural resources and equality in distribution of benefits generated from those resources in the lines of ethnicity, gender and indigence and deprivation.

At the community level, UNDP support has largely enhanced the capacity of the local communities to self-organize to be able to take decisions about their own development priorities and manage natural resources, including biodiversity, water, forests and land, in a holistic and integrated manner based on the principles of environmental governance. Sustainable community development through environmental stewardship is an important step to empowering local people to achieve a better quality of life and improve the condition of the environment. UNDP support has enforced a coherent approach for access to energy services required for steering the process of rural development and reducing disaster risks through enhancing community coping capacity.

UNDP support has been instrumental in formulation of a long term Nepal Biodiversity Strategy (NBS), which is a landmark policy that underpins the government’s continued commitment for conserving all forms of biodiversity at landscape scale and ensures the role of local communities for sustainable use of its components. UNDP has supported the HMGN to mobilize global resources and extend programmatic partnership at the national level for implementing a multi-year landscape programme in the western part of the Terai Arc Landscape.

Rural Energy Development Programme (REDP) (started in 1996) has promoted an overall approach for promoting rural energy systems in the form of micro-hydro; solar power; bio-gas; and improved cooking stoves, in the remote villages, which do not have access to the national gridline. The support has been significant in developing national and local capacity for decentralized energy planning and policy reform in the favour of rural energy development in Nepal.

UNDP-Global Environment Facility/Small Grants Programme (UNDP-GEF/SGP) supports the local NGOs and the CBOs to implement community owned environmental projects; by which the local communities make efficient use of natural resources and energy services to support their livelihood. These projects, while supporting biodiversity conservation livelihood enhancement at the local level, also contribute to mitigate impacts of global climate change.

UNDP engagement with disaster management has been significant in developing national and local capacity for managing disaster risks rather than focusing on preparedness for responding to post disaster situations. UNDP support has been crucial in disaster trend analysis, preparing GIS based hazard map and district disaster management plans in the pilot districts.

The above initiatives have proven helpful in reducing environmental degradation in Nepal and enhancing the capacity of the local communities to develop into self-reliant community institutions. And with sustained dedication, UNDP sees the poors' greatest assets continuing to enrich the lives of Nepalese people in the future.

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Last Updated: March 2010
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