Conservationists condemn Nepal proposal to allow hydropower in protected areas

livus, 7 months ago

From the article:

Nepali conservationists have expressed outrage over the Ministry of Forest and Environment’s recent proposal to scrap existing guidelines through the backdoor to make it easier for developers to build large-scale hydropower plants inside the country’s protected areas.

A draft of the proposal, titled “Construction of Physical Infrastructure Inside Protected Areas (Procedures),” was recently posted on the ministry’s website; if it is implemented, hydropower developers will be allowed to build projects entirely inside protected areas, release only a fraction of the water in the river during the peak dry season compared with prevailing provisions and acquire land for developing power projects inside protected areas more easily.

All of these changes are not only legally erroneous, but also stand to risk conservation gains made in Nepal in the past few decades in the face of climate change, experts say.

“First of all, there are many legal flaws in the new document,” said lawyer Dilraj Khanal, who specializes in natural resources. “It goes against the spirit of the Constitution as well as the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act,” he added. These laws are promulgated by Parliament and the government can’t make backdoor procedures that go against their spirit, he said...

Nepal is home to 12 national parks, a wildlife reserve, a hunting reserve, six conservation areas and 13 buffer zones extending from lowland Terai to high mountains, covering 23.39% of the country’s total land area, according to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. While local communities were displaced to establish national parks in the southern lowlands, people continue to live inside some national parks and conservation areas, such as Sagarmatha (Mount Everest), Langtang and Annapurna, famous worldwide for their scenic trekking routes.

The new document is intended to replace its predecessor framed and implemented 15 years ago. The old document bans the development of any power project that entirely occupies an area inside a national park or a protected area.

However, the old document allows a concession to local communities to build plants of up to 1 MW (provided they are not connected to the national grid) for local use. It states that at least 50% of the monthly natural flow should be maintained in the river during the peak dry season after the water passes through the hydropower plant....

Baral said that opening up protected areas for hydropower development is not a good idea, especially under the looming threat of climate change. “The recent incidents in Sikkim and our own Melamchi flood in 2021 serve as stark reminders of the unpredictable impacts of climate change, which pose a considerable threat to our investments and infrastructure security,” he added.

Conservationist Raju Acharya from the NGO Friends of Nature said the provisions in the proposed procedures could spell disaster for conservation in Nepal. “Infrastructure developers have been ignoring conservation guidelines in the country for a long time,” he said. “If the procedure is approved, they will be emboldened further,” he added. (Article continues)