In November 2025, I spent two weeks in West Nepal on behalf of the Isle of Man-based charity Pahar Trust Nepal (PTN), which provides schools and community facilities in hard‑to‑reach rural areas. Through PTN connections, I was introduced to senior personnel at BirdLife International – Asia and subsequently to the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP). As someone working for The Wildlife Trusts, this visit offered a rare opportunity to understand how conservation is delivered in a dramatically different ecological and cultural context, and to explore how shared learning between the UK and Nepal can strengthen our collective impact.

ACAP is one of Nepal’s largest protected areas, covering around 7,600 km². It is a biodiversity hotspot due to its position in the middle Himalayas, where eastern and western biogeographic influences meet. Combined with dramatic altitudinal variation-spanning some of the wettest and driest parts of Nepal-the region supports temperate dense forest, montane grasslands, scrub and tundra. Within the same protected area, you can encounter species as distinct as Snow Leopard Panthera uncia and King Cobra Ophiophagus hannah. ACAP describes the region as a “treasure house” of biodiversity, comprising “1,226 species of flowering plants, 105 mammals, 523 birds, 40 reptiles and 23 amphibians”.

The region also includes the Kali Gandaki Valley, one of the largest in the world, with vertical drops of up to 5,000 m. Its position and form create a major migration corridor for birds crossing the Himalayas between Russian breeding grounds and Indian wintering grounds, including species such as the Siberian Crane Grus leucogeranus.

ACAP was established following a feasibility study for an Annapurna National Park and was critically involved Dr Chandra Prasad Gurung-a human geographer who became an internationally respected conservationist and a champion of the Annapurna region. As a member of the Gurung people (nomads originating from Mongolia and northwest China who settled in Nepal), he advocated for the preservation of indigenous cultural practices that support wildlife conservation. Tragically, in 2006 he died along with 23 other leading figures—including conservationists from WWF, USAID and a Nepalese government minister, in a helicopter crash. His legacy endures through the foundations he established and through student scholarships that support the next generation of ACAP custodians.

During my time in the mountain village of Sikles, the cultural centre of the Gurung people, I was hosted by ACAP conservation officer Sangram Karki and committee member and local deputy headteacher Gehendra Gurung. I stayed with Gehendra and his family, visited the regional office and eco‑museum, undertook a dusk bat transect with my Anabat Scout (bats are heavily under‑recorded in Nepal), and spent a morning orchid‑hunting and botanising in local scrublands with Sangram. Through our conversations it became clear that the challenges they face are universal: funding and resource cuts; development pressures from hydroelectric schemes and unregulated land grabs; loss of native habitat to agriculture and tourist accommodation; water resource management issues; poaching; and waste management. Nepal also faces significant problems with illegal trade in endangered species, including wild orchids and owls.

 With glaciers at the “roof of the world”, climate change is a constant concern. The region is experiencing rapid snowline and glacial retreat, rising average temperatures, erratic water availability and increased landslides. These changes have cascading human impacts: reduced crop yields, water scarcity, and shifting treelines that push grazing livestock further upslope from traditional settlements. Biodiversity is also shifting, with Snow Leopards now forced to occupy ever‑higher altitudes as montane grasslands and their prey move upward.

Despite these pressures, the Gurung community and ACAP are actively responding. Although electricity is available throughout the mountain district, many households still rely on forest timber for heating and cooking, including for tourists on the Annapurna trail. Fast‑growing species such as Nepalese Alder Alnus nipalensis are planted to reduce pressure on other trees, and more efficient stoves are distributed to reduce fuelwood demand. Women’s groups in Sikles manually sort increasing volumes of plastic waste for transport to Pokhara for processing.

For The Wildlife Trusts, experiences like this are invaluable. The pressures facing ACAP - climate change, habitat loss, development, resource extraction, and the need to balance human wellbeing with ecological integrity - mirror many of the challenges we face in the UK. Yet Nepal’s community‑led conservation, deep integration of cultural identity with environmental stewardship, and the sheer scale of landscape‑level management offer lessons that can enrich our own practice. Likewise, the UK’s experience in citizen science, nature recovery networks, and long‑term ecological monitoring can contribute meaningfully to partners abroad. Strengthening these international relationships helps ensure that conservation is not an isolated national effort but rather part of a global movement that learns from one another.

In summary, while the Annapurna region remains wild, beautiful and extraordinarily diverse, it faces the same modern pressures seen worldwide. In this rapidly changing environment, people and nature are deeply and inseparably connected. For organisations like The Wildlife Trusts, engaging with places like Nepal reinforces the importance of shared learning, mutual support and global solidarity in tackling the biodiversity and climate crises.