Abstract
The conservation of biodiversity is an important issue in developing countries like Nepal. Subsistence agriculture, including livestock rearing, is the main occupation of the majority of the people in rural areas (Brydon and Chant 1993).
This puts an ever-increasing demand on the forest as the human population increases. Consequently, many forests are either badly degraded or encroached by people seeking essential resources for their survival.
Thus, conservation challenges in Nepal are of anthropogenic origin and the result of an unsustainable extraction of biological resources (Ives and Messerli 1989). The challenges get more complicated as the human population grows, thus the conservation strategies need to effectively harmonize human and conservation needs (Budhathoki 2004)