There are two reasons why I chose the International Union for Conservation Nature (IUCN) for my book project. First, I have a long history with IUCN dating back to my early days as an NGO leader in Nepal where I worked hard on obtaining membership in that organization. Second, I want to help fill a gap in our knowledge by critically exploring one of the largest and most active nature conservation organizations in the world. There exist few, if any, scholarly investigations of this unique international membership-based organization.
I was born into a socially and politically active family in a rural hill village of Nepal. My paternal grandmother and my father wanted me to devote my career to social development. My maternal grandparents, who raised me until the age of 13, wanted me to be a priest, a social worker, and a poet.
I did not like the idea of becoming a priest because to be a priest of first rank, it is necessary to have a Master’s degree in Sanskrit (ACHARYA) or a Ph.D. (BIDHYA BARDHI) in Vedic mythology in Sanskrit. Though I liked Sanskrit, I did not want a career in the priesthood. In those days (and until the 1990s), a Brahmin Priest was not allowed to engage in any business; he could remain a farmer but he could not plough the field himself. A priest’s major income was whatever was given by the people in the performance of rituals.
One’s survival depends upon on the mercy and alms of others.
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2 Introduction
Nonetheless, I tried to remain within the domain of social service through my work in environmental conservation. I grew up in a chaotic environment, where an unseen cultural shift to Sanskritization (a process of adaptation of an upper caste social system) and Westernization was taking place in Nepal.
I was the grandson of a Brahmin priest and the son of a social activist, and at the age of nine, I started to see social inequalities as a participant in a rural road building committee. From these early experiences, I became involved in attempting to address poverty, social justice, and inequality, mostly around environmental protection programs and campaigns in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.
In 1980, I began working with conservation movements in eastern Nepal right after high-school graduation, and helped to spread those movements all over the country and into India, particularly in Bihar and the Upper Pradesh states (Figure 1.1), where I worked specifically on wildlife conservation [Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus), Wild Water Buffaloes (Bubalus arnee), Black Buck (Antilope Cervicapra), Blue Bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus), Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris), Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), etc.]. In 1981, I went to Varanasi, India, for higher education where I completed my intermediate degree and B.A. In those days, Varanasi was considered the knowledge hub of South Asia. I traveled back and forth between Nepal and India, and I took my environmental conservation interests with me.
While I was in India, I participated in several environmental conservation movements that involved indigenous peoples’ land rights. I traveled exten- sively throughout most of India and was able to meet and share my interest in conservation with several important individuals such as Sunderlal Bahuguna, a noted Garhwali environmentalist, Chipko (“to cling”), movement leader, and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence and Satya- graha, a famous environmental lawyer M. C. Mehta, Baba Amte, also known as Muralidhar Devidas Amte, the philosopher of social equity, Dr. S´alim Moizuddin Abdul Ali, the “birdman of India,” a famous Indian ornithologist and naturalist, Dr. Mongal Raj Johnson, a crocodile conservationist, and several other leaders including Nepali politicians in exile. These leaders encouraged me to continue my pursuit of environmental conservation while emotionally supporting me in numerous ways.
With this strong backing from advocates of social change, I formally co- founded a non-profit organization in 1985, the Association for Protection of Environment and Culture (APEC-Nepal), with the help of a high-school stu- dent, Miss Prajita Devkota. As a co-founder of APEC-Nepal, I made contact with various international and national non-profit organizations. When we
1.1 Why I Chose IUCN for My Research 3
Figure 1.1 The moves of motions.
started APEC-Nepal, there were only two of us, but when we left it in 2002, there were 3,500 members with 75 offices in Nepal and seven offices in other countries. Officials of IUCN Nepal, government officials of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Nepal, and university professors of Tribhuvan University, Nepal, were all very supportive in establishing APEC-Nepal. In the 1980s, there was a very famous slogan “NEPAL KO DHAN HARIO BAN,” or “Green forest is the wealth of Nepal.” However, due to a governmental policy that separated local people from the green wealth, massive deforestation occurred internally by the locals and externally by commercial loggers. IUCN and the Food and Agriculture Organization
4 Introduction
(FAO) of the United Nations played instrumental roles in creating forest- friendly policies in Nepal. The news media, particularly Radio Nepal, used to explain the activities of these international organizations (IOs) and their contributions. The role of IUCN and the FAO was described in a high-school text book that I had read. From that moment on, I dreamed of becoming connected with IUCN. That dream became reality in 1992 when I joined IUCN as a member of its Species Survival Commission (SSC), and the Com- mission on Education and Communication (CEC) in 1993. I still maintain those memberships today.