Project/activity information

The main objective of the Project was to enhance the professional capability of the teaching staff of the Institute of Forestry by utilizing senior scholars to improve the teaching and curriculum activities of the Institute of Forestry in Pokhara and Hetauda Campuses in Nepal through a 'Visiting Scholar Programme'. Additional objectives were the improvement of the infrastructure of the Pokhara Campus and the updating and cataloguing of the library collection.

The Visiting Scholars produced a series of teaching materials and scientific reports, and developed new curricula within the fields of Social/community forestry, Resource conservation and wildlife management, Agroforestry/silviculture, Sustainable resource management for Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP), Tropical forest resource management, and Watershed management and environmental science. Through the Project, cooperation was expanded to other Universities in Bangkok, Thailand, Los Banjos, Philippines and Lincoln, New Zealand. An international seminar on sustainable forest management was held in 1998 with participants from China, Egypt, India, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, United States and Vietnam. Study tours have been undertaken by Project staff to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and India. In connection with the completion of the new building, new equipment were acquired to enhance the research and reporting capabilities of the Institute.

Results were disseminated primarily through the teaching of the students and the students course and research work (16 titles). In addition, the Visiting Scholars and the faculty staff have worked on research projects (10 projects) and participated in 8 training courses, 8 national workshops/seminars with 16 papers presented by the Visiting Scholars. Faculty staff who were not assigned as counterparts to a Visiting Scholar developed 22 teaching materials under the Project. One international seminar was held at the Institute with broad participation. The proceedings of this seminar has been widely distributed.