Nepal

Country’s Environmental Profile

Nepal, is a landlocked multiethnic, multilingual, multi-religious country. It is situated north of India in the Himalayas, in the region where, about 40 to 50 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent has crashed into Asia. Nepal is bordered by the Tibet, an Autonomous Region of China, to the north and India in the east, south and west. The country is rectangular in shape, approximately 885 km long boarded by Mechi River in east and Mahakali River in west and roughly 200 km tall north to south.

Nepal can be divided broadly into three ecological zones: the lowland, the midland and the highland. The altitude of the Himalayan Region (the highland) ranges between 4877 m – 8848 m, It includes 8 of the highest 14 summits in the world, which exceed altitude of 8000 meters including Mount Everest. The mountain region accounts for about 64 percent of total land area where as the lowland Terai, the flat river plain of the Ganges with a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas, and forests, occupies about 17 percent of the total land area of the country

The country has diverse climatic conditions. It is generally cold in the mountainous region, mild weather in the hills, and warm in the plains and has an average rainfall of 1,500 -2,500mm. A total of 118 ecosystems have been identified in Nepal, including 112 forest ecosystems, four cultivation ecosystems, one water body ecosystem and one glacier/snow/rock ecosystem. These ecosystems range from the tall grasslands, marshlands and tropical and sub-tropical broadleaf forests along the Tarai and Siwalik Hills to the sub-tropical and tropical broadleaf and conifer forests in the Middle Mountains.

Nepalese wetlands have very significant ecological significance, as they provide habitat for many threatened and endemic species of flora and fauna and serve as resting places for many migratory and globally threatened birds. They are known to support more than 20,000 waterfowls during peak migratory periods between Decembers to February

The country occupies about 0.1 percent of global area, but harbors 3.2 percent and 1.1 percent of the world’s known flora and fauna, respectively. Diversity of birds, bryophytes, mammals, and butterflies is especially high. A total of 284 species of flowering plants, 160 animal species, species of bird, and 14 species of herpetofauna are reportedly endemic to Nepal.

Nepal’s flora and fauna can be divided into four regions:-

1. Tropical Deciduous Monsoon Forest:
2. Subtropical Mixed Evergreen Forest:
3. Temperate Evergreen Forest:
4. Subalpine and Alpine Zone

Threatened species	100 (2014)
Forested area (% of land area)	25.4 (2012
Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected (%)	22.9 (2014)
Population using improved drinking water sources (%)	88.0 (2012)
Population using improved sanitation facilities (%)	37.0 (2012)
CO2 emission estimates (000 metric tons and metric tons per capita)	4334/0.2 (2011)
Energy supply per capita (Gigajoules)	9.0 (2012)

Principal Environmental Laws

• Environment Protection Act, 1996
• Acts Relevant Provisions Local Self-Governance Act, 1998 : 
• Forest Act, 1992: 
• Water Resources Act, 1992: 
• Electricity Act, 1992
• Vehicle and Transport Management Act, 1992: 
• Industrial Enterprises Act, 1992
• Pesticide Act, 1991
• Labour Act, 1991
• Solid Waste (Management and Resource Mobilisation) Act, 1986: 
• Soil and Water Conservation Act, 1982
• Tourism Act, 1978
• National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973
• Environmental Protection Rules (EPR), 2054 ( 1998) (First amendment 1999)
• Solid Waste Management Rules 2070 etc.

Guidelines, manuals, codes and standards

• National EIA Guidelines, 1993
• EIA Guidelines for the Forestry Sector, 1995
• Forest Products Collection and Sales Distribution Guidelines, 2058 (2001)
• Guidelines on Use of Forest Area for Other Purposes, 2063 (2006)

MEAS signed

• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 1992
•  Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), 1973
• Plant Protection Agreement for the South East Asia and the Pacific (as amended), 1956
• ILO Convention, 1969
• Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as waterfowl habitat (Ramsar Convention, 1975).
•  UNESCO Convention Conferring the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention, 1972).
• United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1972).
• UN. Convention on Biological Diversity (1992).

Environmental Related Reports

• Nepal Thematic Assessment Report : Biodiversity
• State of Environment: Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu Nepal
• National Capacity Self-Assessment For Global Environment Management
• National State of the Environment (SoE) Report of Nepal
• State-of-Environment-Report 1994
• NEPAL National Action Programme on Land Degradation and Desertification in the context of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
• Status Of Environmental Health In Nepal
• Environmental Legislation and Institutions in Nepal-2001
• State of Environment Report-2001–Nepal

Major Environmental Issues:

• Water and air pollution
• Deforestation
• Overpopulation
• soil erosion
• unmanaged solid-waste

Important Web sites

• Office of the Prime minister and council of Ministers
• Department of Hydrology and Meteorology
• Department of Environment
• Department of Information Technology
• Nepal Academy of Science and Technology
• Alternative Energy Promotion Center
• National Forensic Science Laboratory 
• National Information Technology Center
• Climate Change Council
• Science and Technology Council
• Information Technology Council
• Environment Protection Council