Owls are one of the most heavily hunted and traded bird species in Nepal. At least 2000 owls are traded annually to either India or China and thousands are killed. Efforts were made to conserve this species in the lowlands of Nepal recently supported by Rufford Small Grants. The hills in the western region however were not included then. The proposed project will undertake an array of educational initiatives on owls, targeted at the local and national level to help conserve them. Owl conservation workshops, school awareness camps, radio programs, production and distribution of the conservation materials will be conducted.

This project will advocate, at the local level, to reduce the hunting intensity and illegal trade of owls, which will have direct beneficial impact on 22 owl species in the country. Project will help educate, aware and elevate the understanding of local people about the importance of owl. Orientation of journalists on owl conservation issues would help in advocating owl conservation issues through media impacting hugely. Conservation camps for students and civil society will assist to aware the target audience helping to build a team of owl lovers striving to conserve owl species in their locality in the long term. Radio programs will help to elevate the awareness of one million local people regarding the biological function of owls, reasons for conserving them and the role of people in the conservation of owls. Various conservation materials like posters and brochures carrying owl conservation messages will be produced and distributed across the western Nepal helping reduce both hunting and trade of owls in the country. All these efforts will not only help to conserve the owls, but to conserve broader biodiversity in the proposed area too.

Read about Raju's previous project http://www.rufford.org/projects/raju_acharya or for more information contcat:

Email: rajuhugu_13@yahoo.com

Website: www.fonnepal.org