The First-Ever Community Red Panda Conservation Area

In a huge milestone for red panda conservation, Nepal declares the country’s first-ever community red panda conservation area in a crucial ecological corridor!

In the heart of one of the most biodiverse landscapes in the world, red pandas roam the cloud forests of the Himalayas. Despite this region's ecological importance, these forests have faced the repercussions of deforestation and overgrazing, leading to a fractured landscape that puts red pandas in danger of extinction.

Without protected, healthy forests to thrive, we may lose this unique and important species to maintaining global biodiversity. Today, there are only between 2,500 and 10,000 red pandas remaining in the wild.

Fortunately, Red Panda Network (RPN) protects wild red pandas and their habitat with a proven community-based approach, successfully improving red panda populations in our project areas! RPN isn’t doing this work alone; red panda conservation requires a collaborative, holistic effort that includes many stakeholders across the community, including local governments.

This August, RPN teamed up with the Ilam Municipality, Deep Jyoti Youth Club, Division Forest Office (DFO) Ilam, and Rainforest Trust to declare the Puwamajhuwa Community Red Panda Conservation Area – the country's first official red panda protected area! This collaboration is significant progress towards a thriving and sustainable red panda population in Nepal.

Ilam Mayor Mr. Kedar Thapa handing over the certificate of Conservation Area to the chairman, Til Bikram Sunuwar.

“Today, we are declaring an area within Ilam Municipality as a red panda conservation area. The red panda is one of the endangered and most beautiful wildlife species in the world. In the context of Nepal, the declaration of this area can be a significant milestone for promoting tourism in the future.” said Mr. Kedar Thapa, mayor of Ilam Municipality on the declaration day on 8th August 2024.

A special place for red pandas to roam

The Puwamajhuwa Community Red Panda Conservation Area is nestled within the Puwamai and Kalpokhari Thamdanda Community Forests and spans 116.21 hectares of lush, temperate, broadleaved forest. This is a vital landscape for red pandas, as it is one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth and home to many of the plants red pandas need to survive, like bamboo.

The conservation area has grasslands, forests, and human settlements where coexistence has been in practice for decades.

This conservation area is situated in the Panchthar-Ilam-Taplejung Corridor (“PIT Corridor”), home to the densest population of red pandas in Nepal. Establishing a conservation area in this corridor is one of RPN’s long-term goals: to create an uninterrupted stretch of protected land that will connect Nepal’s Kangchenjunga Conservation Area with India’s Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve, Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary, Singalila National Park, and Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary.

By doing so, we can ensure red pandas and other important species have continuous habitat to thrive that is safe from human disruption and encroachment. This conservation area is not only a home and corridor for red pandas but for many other endangered wildlife including the clouded leopard, Royal Bengal tiger, Himalayan black bear, Asiatic golden cat, and marbled cat. The first record of the Bengal tiger in eastern Nepal was also near this Puwamajhuwa Community Red Panda Conservation Area. Plus, the conservation area will contribute to maintaining this important ecosystem for generations to come.

A community-led approach to conservation

This conservation area will be managed by the local community. This community-based conservation approach is not new to Nepal, where community-based conservation has restored and protected critical ecosystems for decades. One of the first examples of a conservation area managed by local communities in Nepal is the Kangchenjunga Conservation Area, managed by a Conservation Area Management Council, an elected committee by the local communities of the conservation area since September 22, 2006. However, community forestry has been a part of Nepal's reforestation efforts since the 1970s.

“Community forestry was pivotal in preventing an ecological crisis in Nepal during the 1970s,” explains journalist Tanka Dhakal, “Since then, Nepal has made significant strides in afforestation, nearly doubling its forest cover from 26% in 1992 to 45% by 2016.”

This model of conservation emphasizes the pivotal role local communities play in their ecosystem and opposes the idea that people are separate from their environment. Guided by the Ilam Municipality, Forest Act 2022, and Puwamajhuwa Community Red Panda Conservation and Management Guideline 2023, RPN has partnered with the Ilam Municipality and DFO Ilam to create a ten-member Puwamajhuwa Community Red Panda Conservation Area Management Committee that will sustainably and effectively manage the conservation area.

Six community consultations, one absolute threat ranking meeting, and one district-level stakeholder workshop have been accomplished so far.

Currently, RPN is training the management committee, while community consultations and workshops are underway to formulate a five-year management plan for the conservation area. The goal is for the Ilam municipality to endorse the management plan by the end of 2024 and begin to implement it in 2025.

We believe that red panda conservation requires a community-led approach – this red panda conservation area does just that. By engaging the local people throughout each step of the process, we are creating a sustainable management model that reflects the needs of both people and pandas.

“It’s not just the end results that matter. How we do conservation is as important as what we achieve for nature and biodiversity” explains conservationist and member of the Ethical Conservation Alliance, Dr. Charuddutt Mishra. The Ethical Conservation Alliance is an alliance of conservation leaders working around the world to protect nature ethically.

The conservation agendas collected from communities were presented and discussed with the district-level stakeholders, including the mayor of Ilam municipality.

What this means for red pandas

This is the first conservation area declared by the local government for the conservation of wild red pandas, which highlights an important turning point in the government’s commitment to red panda conservation.

The largest threat to red pandas is habitat loss. Much of this deforestation has occurred because the local human population is increasing without sufficient alternative livelihood opportunities, meaning they rely on unsustainable practices to survive. With this community-led conservation area, we are promoting sustainable development opportunities that boost the local economy and uplift local livelihoods.

The conservation area is in a human-dominated landscape, with some areas requiring active restoration initiatives.

With red panda populations improving in our project areas — the result of a proven community-based conservation approach — and the support and guidance of the local government, this red panda conservation area is a major achievement for the protection of this endangered species.

Dan Bahadur Shrestha, Divisional Forest Officer of Ilam said, “I believe that the initiative taken by Ilam Municipality to conserve red pandas — an endangered species listed in Appendix I of CITES — is truly commendable. The DFO Ilam will fully cooperate and facilitate this work. We will support Ilam Municipality to the best of our abilities with the resources we have.”

What’s next for this conservation area?

The Puwamajuwa Community Red Panda Conservation Area logo

While the declaration of the Puwamajhuwa Community Red Panda Conservation Area is a significant milestone, it isn’t the end of the work to ensure this conservation area is managed efficiently. Many more such conservation areas are underway in this critical habitat zone within the PIT region in eastern Nepal. We need your support to continue our work in this crucial habitat area!

A donation now through the end of the year goes towards our red panda protection programs. You can support a local council and the conservation area management committee to survey the conservation area, then design and implement a sustainable habitat management plan.

If you donate before the end of 2024, your donation will be doubled, thanks to our First Panda Challengers! Become a red panda protector and double your impact on red panda conservation today.

Watch the video of the conservation area declaration day here.

Graphic by Laura Siu