Parsa National Park – securing the future of Bengal tigers (ZSL)

Project name: Strengthening institutional capacity and collaboration for the conservation of Bengal tigers

Location:  Parsa National Park (PNP), Central Nepal

Goal: Parsa National Park and adjacent habitat are secured to support increasing Bengal tiger populations through strengthened institutional capacity, collective collaboration, and improved surveillance, reducing threats to tigers and prey animals across the landscape.

Objective 1: Improved coordination efforts of conservation stakeholders through regular communication, awareness raising over wide forums and strengthened institutional capacity to monitor illegal activities in the project sites, contributing to reducing threats to both people and wildlife and improving coexistence.

Background:  This project is a continuation of previous projects funded by WildCats Conservation Alliance based in and around Parsa National Park (PNP). ZSL has been working to secure Parsa’s Bengal tiger population as a future source population by supporting the implementation of evidence-based conservation measures.

PNP is one of the vital landscapes supporting the increasing number of Bengal tigers in Nepal and the 2022 National Tiger Survey estimated 41 tigers in PNP, a 127% increase from 2018. Inadequate knowledge of tiger dispersal and increasing local human activities (detected via camera traps and from park networks) are likely to result in increased Human Tiger Conflict (HTC).

In 2023 the project focuses on the southeast part of PNP including its buffer zone, and adjoining national, collaborative and community forests to strengthen institutional capacity and improve collaboration among conservation stakeholders to protect increasing tiger populations and their habitat. Stakeholders include Division Forest Offices (DFO), Buffer Zone User Committees (BZUC) and Community Forest User Groups (CFUG).

Developing a collaborative strategy through a series of nine workshops and understanding tiger dispersal in these areas on the edge of the Park, will build stakeholder support for tiger conservation. The deployment of GSM cameras will gather evidence of and deter human activities and help to minimise human-tiger conflicts. Two lectures for citizen scientists and university students and four workshops for 100 local community members will develop collaborative co-existence strategies.

This project will provide crucial information to PNP authorities to reduce threats to tigers and their habitat. This will support PNP to strengthen law enforcement activities within the park and its buffer area and build coordination among other concerned stakeholders outside PNP for the protection of tigers and mitigating human activities in the fringe areas.

You can read more about past projects in Nepal in our project archive.