Mr. Jon Gangdal, a former NTNC board member from Norway, made a courtesy visit at the NTNC central office today where an interaction meeting was held with the NTNC Chairman Dr. Krishna Prasad Oli, Member Secretary Sharad Chandra Adhikari and the NTNC team.
The welcome address was made by the NTNC member secretary who highlighted Mr. Gangdal's time at NTNC as board member from 2012 to 2015, his long association with Nepal as a professional mountaineer, environmental advocate, and community development practitioner, and his passion in continuing to promote Nepal-Norway friendship and cooperation interests. Member Secretary Adhikari also acknowledged the important contributions of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the people of Norway in supporting Nepal's biodiversity conservation mission, promoting academic research and exchange, and building its sustainable human development capacities.
A presentation about NTNC's work and ongoing initiatives, and its future roadmap was made by Dr. Chiranjibi Prasad Pokharel, programme manager at NTNC, whereas insights and perspectives about the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, a region where Mr. Gangdal has good knowledge about, was made by Dr. Madhu Chetri, project chief at the Gaurishankar Conservation Area Project (NTNC-GCAP).
Mr. Gangdal said he was "impressed" to learn about NTNC's holistic vision and commitment to conservation for the future and expressed interest and optimism for expanding mutual cooperation and collaboration in the days ahead. He shared about his experience working in the Gaurishankar region, as well as its underlying potentials and vulnerabilities, saying there remained many areas of opportunities to collaborate the goals of the Gaurishankar Conservation Area with the goals of the Norwegian development mission.
At the closing, NTNC Chairman Dr. Krishna Prasad Oli thanked Mr. Gangdal for his long-standing commitment to Nepal. He reiterated about NTNC's strengths as a pioneer of community-based protected area management and in demonstrating self-sustaining protected area management models in Nepal. Dr. Oli also made known about NTNC's ambitions and priorities for the future coupled with the need for generating wider support and investments in leveraging NTNC's human resources and institutional capacities.
