Annapurna: conservation at 8000 meters in Nepal
by: William Saab

William Saab visited Nepal recently as a volunteer teacher, within a project organized annually by students from Cambridge and Oxford Universities under the name of Oxbridge Volunteers Nepal (OVN). He wrote this feature article for Al-Bia Wal- Tanmia.

The Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA), in Northern Nepal, is visited annually by an estimated 70,000 trekkers, mostly foreign. Lying close to the border with Tibet, Annapurna contains within its terrain 1 mountain peak of over 8000 meters high, the world's deepest valley, high-altitude lakes, glaciers, and several highly distinct vegetation zones, ranging from sub-tropic to high-alpine pastures, within a setting of nearly unmatched natural beauty. The area is host to some 1226 plant, 38 orchid, 101 mammal, 474 bird, 39 reptile, and 22 amphibian species.

Perhaps the reason the area has remained so beautiful and largely untouched by the detrimental effects of development, is its sheer remoteness; the entire area can be reached only on foot or mule, travelling through often perilous and always narrow winding mountain paths. The hundreds of bridges over the often-turbulent rivers, the narrowness of the gorges, the steepness of the track, and perils such as landslides, mudslides, and avalanches make the area virtually completely impossible to open to vehicular, and, in turn, environmentally destructive, modes of transportation. Thus the vast majority of the area lies at several days' walk from 'civilization' (in itself a highly subjective term), a trip that also depends much on circumstances such as weather and trail conditions, and cannot even be reached by telephone. Nonetheless, while the above features have thus far saved it from the encroachment of 'concretization', the high numbers of trekkers, as well as the increasing availability of Western products, have created a problem of human pollution in this area.

One would be inclined to think that in Nepal, a country suffering poverty, hunger, government corruption, the constant Maoist rebel threat, and ever-increasing numbers of strikes called by the various interest groups (political, student, workers' unions, etc), the problem of environmental conservation would not be allotted much importance. To an extent, this is perhaps true, certainly so at the highest levels, as it is quite unreasonable to expect of the Nepalese government, governing one of the poorest countries in the world, occupying rank 140 on the UNDP's Human development scale, to allot some of its sparse resources to environmental conservation. But Annapurna fear not! The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), an NGO, has been created in 1986 to attempt to safeguard the natural beauty of the Annapurna region.

ACAP's mission statement is "to conserve, manage, and promote nature in all its diversity, balancing human needs with the environment on a sustainable basis for prosperity." The ACA is home to 10 highly distinct and diverse ethnic groups, totalling some 120,000 people, whose prosperity ACAP tries to balance with the area's environmental needs.

Entrusted by the government as caretaker of the Annapurna Conservation Area, a system has been set in place where all non-Nepali visitors to the region have to pay a permit fee (in autumn 2004 this was 2000 rupees, or some $30 US) which is valid for 3 weeks. Numerous checkpoints along the way ensure that all trekkers have this permit, and, in truth, it is a minor donation considering the spectacular beautiful natural and cultural scenery that one has the fortune to encounter. This trekking permit, effectively an entry fee for the area, is ACAP's main source of income.

Perhaps the most effective and most consequential program has been the system of installing so-called 'safe water drinking stations' all along the trails. As one can expect, safe drinking water in Nepal poses a bit of a problem for foreigners, who are not used to the water that Nepalis themselves drink, and who therefore must either buy bottled water or purify it themselves. Naturally, the former is more appealing to the majority of tourists, and therefore the problem of discarded plastic water bottles quickly becomes apparent: 70,000 trekkers annually consume some 4 or 5 liters of water a day, and treks typically last between 1 and 3 weeks, and sometimes even longer. While underpaid but incredibly strong Nepali porters carry plenty of supplies up the trails, they have little incentive to walk the trail in reverse to carry all the resulting garbage back down (they already get minimal pay to haul their huge loads up the mountain, and nobody is offering them money to carry garbage down). Therefore, ACAP's system now encourages trekkers to bring with them only a few bottles (2 to 5 will usually suffice), and to refill them at the stations along the way, where water is very effectively purified in special ACAP centres using ozone-filtration techniques.

On top of the environmental benefits, it benefits the wallet also: the water is between 2 and 3 times cheaper than buying bottled water that has been carried up the mountain, as prices of items increase exponentially as one gets further away from roads. As an example, at the top of the Annapurna Circuit, at over 5000 meters, a liter of bottled water costs around 200 rupees, while a liter of filtered water at one of the stations costs 60 rupees. Also, the stations are community managed (often by local women's associations), thus serving as a source of community income. The stations, set up in association with the New Zealand government, are spaced such that on average, the trekkers will come across a station at least once a day, and more stations are being set up annually.

Another more drastic project in the region is in the Annapurna Base Camp area - the bottom of the climb to the Annapurna I, an 8091 meter mountain. This area has been designated a strictly-enforced 'no glass and mineral water zone' in addition to being a 'no fuel-wood zone.' ACAP also provides education for local people on sustainable development and organic farming by discouraging the use of chemicals. ACAP's member Tshering Sherpa told us that the association also "sends people every year to clean the valley." Sadly, the main problem nowadays seems to be convincing the locals of the benefits of environmentally-friendly ways of life. While the tourists by and large abide by the requests of ACAP, many locals are tempted by wasteful food, such as instant noodles, whose plastic wrappers can often be seen lying around in the villages and in the river. According to Sherpa "locals sometimes say that India is the rubbish bin of Nepal, and people throw rubbish into the river that leads down to India."

ACAP provides the technical and financial support to build hydro-electric power stations, 13 of which currently effectively and reliably provide power to villages in the area. Furthermore, solar power projects are supported in this fashion, especially in the higher-altitude regions which are less affected by the rain, and have more sunshine. Local guides and porters are instructed to lead tourists to lodges and guest houses that have solar water heating and use kerosene, as opposed to wood, fuel for their stoves. In fact, this writer's first hot shower after 6 weeks in Nepal was at over 3000 meters in an isolated village without telephone lines, using a solar-heated shower!

All in all, the Annapurna Conservation Area Project has proven highly successful and should serve as an example to other NGO environmental initiatives around the globe. It has a circular effect: the more tourists visit the Annapurna region, the more income ACAP will receive and the cleaner the area will be and remain, thereby attracting even more tourists.