1. Introduction
The Hariyo Ban program is an ambitious program designed to benefit nature and people in Nepal. It was started with the vision of reducing adverse impacts of climate change and threats to biodiversity, by restoring and conserving forests while improving livelihoods, and building resilience to climate change in both people and ecosystems in 2011. It works on three core interwoven components – biodiversity conservation, sustainable landscapes and climate adaptation – with livelihoods, gender and social inclusion being important crosscutting themes. Hariyo Ban is a USAID-funded consortium of four core partner organizations – World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal (FECOFUN) and the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) – with WWF serving as the managing partner. The program finds its inspiration from the popular saying ‘Hariyo Ban Nepal Ko Dhan’ (Healthy green forests are the wealth of Nepal) which emphasizes the links between people and forests that underpins the project’s approach (Sundar Safalta, part 1).
CHAL covers the 32057 square km area from Terai 200 m to Himal 8091 m above to see level in central Nepal. The landscape includes all or part of 19 districts and is drained by six major perennial rivers and their tributaries of the broader Gandaki River System. In this region varity of climates (hot in terai to cold in Himalaya) can be found. More than 35 percent area is covered by different kinds of forest through broad-leaved evergreen, mixed broad-leaved, conifer to alpine scrub and meadow which play an important role in agricultural diversity
CHAL includes parts of four of the WWF Global 200 Ecoregions: (i) the Eastern Himalayan Alpine Scrub and Meadows, (ii) the Eastern Himalayan Broadleaf and Conifer Forests, (iii) the Terai-Duar Savannas and Grasslands, and (iv)the Western Himalayan Temperate Forests (WWF-2013).

For the period 1990 – 2010 showed the forest area remained largely stable .However, and agriculture area slightly increased. Infrastructure development, resettlement, urban expansion, and agriculture expansion has taken as main cause of deforestation in some area. There are different type of forest protected areas management in CHAL namely government-managed forests, protection forests, community forests, leasehold forests and buffer zone community forests. Agriculture is the major source of livelihoods for the majority of the landscape’s population. Moreover, there exist a number of forest-based, agriculture based and other micro-enterprises in the landscape and greater scope of promoting them. However, the lack of awareness about possibilities and benefits, lack of or inadequate technical and financial capacities and support, problems in transportation and marketing of agricultural products, lack of or poor accessibility to livestock health care services, and low participation of women and Dalits in the existing enterprises have weaken the possibility of developing and expanding green micro-enterprises. The road network comprises 1,260.87 km black-topped roads in 15 districts, 291.8 km gravel roads, and 918.45 km mud roads. Most of the gravel and mud roads have been constructed without proper planning and Around 79 percent of the total energy consumed in 16 districts (excluding Palpa, Syangja and Kaski) in 2008-2009 was based on wood fuel (WWF-2013).

Climate change adaptation activities are being implemented in Nepal in line with the government’s climate change policy, 2010, National Adaptation Program for Action (NAPA), 2011 and National Framework on Local Adaptation Plans for Action, 2011. Since 2012, the Hariyo Ban Program has been supporting local communities to prepare and implement community adaptation plans in more than 400 villages across 29 districts in two landscapes – Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) and Chitwan-Annapurna Landscape (CHAL). The program also supported a climate sensitive protected area management plan for Manaslu Conservation Area. The adaptation planning process included vulnerability assessment of ecosystems and human communities, identification and prioritization of adaptation measures, scenario planning, and implementation of adaptation activities. In all these plans, participatory monitoring, evaluation, reflection and learning (PMERL) was an integral part of the adaptation plans. However, monitoring of the adaptation plans was not very effective as the tools and processes were technical and not very community friendly. In light of the importance of monitoring the effectiveness of adaptation measures, Hariyo Ban Program designed and implemented an Adaptation Plan Health Check-up tool. This can be used to assess a community-level adaptation plan and establish an initial baseline; and later assess its performance over time (WWF-Brefing Sheet-063).

The Adaptation Plan Health Check-up is a process for assessing an adaptation plan in terms of its effectiveness, relevance, sustainability, and efficiency. The assessment covers the plan’s role in reducing vulnerability, and whether it has improved socio-ecological conditions and contributed to building resilience in the environment and human society (WWF-Briefing Sheet-063).
The Hariyo Ban Program recognizes that effective mainstreaming of gender equality and social inclusion is essential for sound biodiversity conservation, forest management and climate adaptation in Nepal .Many factors like poverty; landlessness; illiteracy; geographical remoteness; domination of Dalits by other caste groups; women’s workloads; gender biased attitudes; unfavorable conditions for participation and learning; lack of access among women to productive resources; and lack of recognition of the forest based knowledge and skills limits the full participation in development activities by women, Dalits and marginalized Janajatis. So the . Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) is designed to Promote a favorable institutional and policy environment for mainstreaming gender equality and social inclusion in biodiversity, conservation and climate change adaptation, integrate GESI dimensions, enhance capacity of partners and stakeholders to enable women and socially excluded groups to claim their rights and promote women’s economic rights and independence(WWF-2013).

A study of the biodiversity training currently on offer revealed that it is not explicitly linked to other current issues such as climate change. There is no relation between biodiversity registration processes and the livelihood issues of the poor, vulnerable and socially excluded. The major challenge is to create a relationship between conservation efforts and sustainable livelihood initiatives remain a challenge, particularly in the area of climate change impact reduction. Capacity building for improving livestock diversity is not prioritize for service providers, due in part to a dearth of demand. Similarly little initiation is taken on biodiversity profiling or the study of the alternative plant varieties that may be important for climate change adaptation and mitigation. There is also lack of skills and knowledge needed to establish and manage seed and gene banks, and to manage biodiversity resource centers for the agriculture, forestry, and livestock sectors (WWF-2013)

2. Objective
The overall objective of this assignment is to develop an integrated climate-smart landscape strategic plan for the benefit of people and nature in the Gandaki basin. 3. Methodology
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References:
A Rapid Assessment-CHAL, 2013, WWF Nepal
Adaptation Plan Health checkup tool, Hariyo Ban Publication No.: Briefing Sheet 063, WWF Nepal
Chitwan-Annapurna Landscape Biodiversity Important Areas and Linkages -2013, WWF, Nepali
Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Mainstreaming Strategy-2013, WWF, Nepal
Sundar Safalta, part 1-2014, WWF, Nepal
Training Needs Assessment and Training Strategy-2013, WWF, Nepal.