Rabin Kadariya

Rabin Kadariya has been a Conservation Officer in the National Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal since 2009. He has led population monitoring of endangered wildlife; human-wildlife conflict assessment; anti-poaching and anti-gun campaigns; conservation awareness; youth mobilization; and human-wildlife conflict minimization programs in Bardia National Park and surrounding areas. He has successfully executed almost 25 conservation projects for tiger, elephant, and rhino conservation in collaboration with government authorities, local communities, and international conservation partners. His team also devised community-based programs in the buffer zone to reduce human-wildlife conflict, especially in remote areas where financial resources are low and human pressures high. Rabin earned an MSc in Watershed Management in 2007 from Institute of Forestry, Nepal and recently completed Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology from Hokkaido University, Japan.

About Rabin‘s ee360 Community Action Project

For Rabin’s ee360 Community Action Project, he plans to establish an international network for conservation education and enhance his leadership skills in wildlife conservation. He is hopeful that he can utilize his experience from the ee360 fellowship and Ph.D. program to train local youth to organize a massive behavior change and conservation campaign to help the survival of the Himalayan black bear population. Himalayan black bears are widespread in the mountain landscape of Nepal, but it is not a conservation priority species. Habitat degradation and poaching were major threats to bear survival before the 1970s, whereas human-bear conflict, especially, crop raiding and retaliatory killing have become major threats in recent years. The aim of Rabin’s project is to involve local communities and school students in the conservation of Himalayan black bears by minimizing human-bear conflict and raising awareness of bear behavior. The crop damage is leading to conservation threats for bears, so a Community-Based Crop Damage Compensation Scheme (CBCDCS) will be developed with the active involvement of 150 farmers in Kunjo village of Mustang district with the active support of the Conservation Area Management Committee (CAMC), Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), and farmer groups. Ultimately, Rabin hopes these efforts will lead to a community-based bear conservation plan that benefits the livelihoods of ethnic communities and conservation of bears.