Barun Biomeridian Research Project

Partners:

Nepal Department of National Park & Wildlife Conservation The East Foundation

Project Goal:

Aims to engage the community conservation model by providing research to local communities to inform an integrated model of nature conservation to benefit people and nature.

Insight:

The Regional Academic Director & Assistant Professor, Nawang Gurung reflects: Community-based project success leads by [research, learning, and action]. It is incomplete without engagement, participation, being applied, and plays a role as an agent of development. A proactive community participation can get reliable data, the right information, measurable evidence, and sustainable adaptation by the community.

Barun Biomeridian Research Project (BBRP) uses the geography of the mountain slope to capture data on changing climate and how biodiversity is adjusting to it. The slope has ecosystems that range from tropical to arctic climates and captures multitudes of diversity and its reaction changes within them. It gives representation to all aspects within the ecosystems, from insects, avians, plants, and wildlife.

Using three senses: camera traps see wildlife presence and plant changes, temperature logs feel the atmospheric changes of relative humidity and temperature, and bioacoustic recorders hear the presence of avians, insects, and small and large mammals. These three senses provide local data to inform training for communities to inform themselves to help protect biodiversity. Beyond local use, global insights are only beginning to emerge as the presence of species is being recorded for the first time in the project area.