Assessing indicators of Climate Change in Gandaki River Basin and Engaging Local Communities for Long-term Monitoring Assessing indicators of Climate Change in Gandaki River Basin and Engaging Local Communities for Long-term Monitoring Supported by Hariyo Ban Program Royle’s Pika Ochotona roylei, climate indicator species in the CHAL, Photo By: Mr. Hari Basnet/SMCRF A FINAL REPORT Submitted to: WORLD WILDLIFE FUND (WWF-NEPAL) Baluwatar, Kathmandu, Nepal Submitted by: Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation Kathmandu, Nepal July 2020 II Project Detail Grant Details Project Title: Assessing indicators of Climate Change in Gandaki River Basin and Engaging Local Communities for Long-term Monitoring Project Site: Twelve sites in Gandaki River Basin in Chitwan Annapurna Landscape, Nepal Project start & end: September 2019 to May 2020 Primary Donor: United State Agency for International Development Funding Organization: World Wildlife Fund, Inc. on the behalf of the Nepal programme Office Grantee: Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation, Kathmandu Nepal Website: smcrf.org Report prepared by: Mr. Hari Basnet, Ms. Aditi Subba, Mrs. Swechhya Shrestha, Mr. Deelip Chand Thakuri, Mr. Sagar Dahal, Mr. Arjun Thapa and Mr. Bishnu Timilsina Other field members: Mr. Sanjan Thapa, Mr. Rameshwor Ghimire, Mr. Tejab Pun, Mr. Bishnu Achhami, Ms. Shyam Kumari Saru, Ms. Shruti Shakya, Mr. Jiwan Sapkota, Mr. Omkar Bhatta and Ms. Dipa Rai Cover Photo: Trans-Himalayan region (Jomsom) along with Himalayan range on the south horizon, Himalayas are one of the most climatic vulnerable site in the world (Photo by Mr. Sanjan Thapa/ SMCRF) Photo by: Mr. Hari Basnet, Mr. Deelip Chand Thakuri, Mr. Sanjan Thapa, Mr. Tejab Pun, Mr. Bishnu Achhami III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation (SMCRF) would like to extend their esteemed acknowledgements to WWF/USAID/Hariyo Ban Program for entrusting and funding us to carry out this project. Department of Forests and Soil Conservation (DoFSC), Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), NTNC Annapurna Conservation Area Project and all the division forest office in the CHAL area for helping and supported us by providing required research permissions to conduct this work. We are grateful to people who contributed to the project from the initial phase until today. We are very grateful to the strong and dedicated team who did their field survey above 4500m in the winter cold when field temperature dropped below freezing point. We are thankful to Mr. Sanjan Thapa, Mr. Rameshwor Ghimire, Mr. Mr. Tejab Pun, Mr. Bishnu Achhami, Ms. Shyam Kumari Saru, Ms. Shruti Shakya, Mr. Jiwan Sapkota, Mr. Omkar Bhatta, Ms. Dipa Rai, and who played an important part in providing extensive inputs in the field activities. We are thankful to Mr. Sanjan Thapa who provides valuable feedback to the report and Mrs. Suchita Byanju Shrestha for providing guidance on the community meeting and climate change. Moreover, we like to give a huge thanks to Mr. Ayush Adhikari who helped us to extract the temperature and precipitation data from an online platform. Our thanks also goes to all the local people and students who show their interest in nature conservation. Last but not the least a huge thanks to Shiv Raj Gyawali from NTNC, local Raju Gurung for supporting the team in the field. We owe our gratitude to all those who contributed in diverse ways to the success of this project. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................................... IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................................... VII ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ....................................................................................................................IX PROJECT SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1.1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.1.2 Aims and Objectives ........................................................................................................................................ 8 1.2 Materials and Methods ................................................................................................................................................ 9 1.2.1 Study Area .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 BIODIVERSITY SURVEY .................................................................................................................................. 12 2.1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Methods ................................................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2.1 Sampling strategy ............................................................................................................................................ 14 2.2.2 Equipment Used............................................................................................................................................. 15 2.2.3. Mammals ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 2.2.4. Birds ................................................................................................................................................................ 19 2.2.5. Herpetofauna ................................................................................................................................................ 20 2.2.6. Butterfly .......................................................................................................................................................... 21 2.2.7 Vegetation ............................................................................................................................................... 22 2.3. Result and Discussion .......................................................................................................................................... 24 2.3.1. Plot Information ............................................................................................................................................ 24 2.3.2. Overall Biodiversity list ................................................................................................................................ 51 2.3.4. Birds ................................................................................................................................................................ 59 2.3.5. Butterflies ....................................................................................................................................................... 61 2.3.6. Herpetofauna ................................................................................................................................................. 62 2.3.7 Elevation effect on the diversity of mammals, birds and butterflies ..................................................... 62 2.4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................. 66 3. CLIMATE CHANGE INDICATOR SPECIES ASSESSMENT .............................................................. 67 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 67 3.2. Methodology .......................................................................................................................................................... 69 3.2.1 Selection of species ........................................................................................................................................ 69 3.2.2. Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for Species ........................................................................... 70 3.2.3. Literature review, expert consultation and online survey ....................................................................... 72 3.2.4. Vulnerability Rating ...................................................................................................................................... 72 3.3. Results and Discussions ......................................................................................................................................