THE SMALL EARTH NEPAL

The Small Earth Nepal (SEN) has been awarded with Green Asia Grant 2011 established by Korea Green Foundation for the project” COMMUNICATING CLIMATE CHANGE WE CAN ADDRESS IT, SOLUTIONS WITHIN US EXTENDED MISSION CARBON NEUTRAL NEPAL A PILOT PROJECT ON NAMO BUDDHA MONASTERY ” at Namo Buddha Monastery of Kabhrepalanchok district of Nepal. The award is for the outstanding research and awareness program conducted in the monastery during 2009/10. The project is being coordinated by Mr. Sundar Layalu, Researcher of the SEN and an International Climate Champion-2009/10 of the British Council Nepal.

Mission Carbon Neutral Nepal, A Pilot Project on Namo Buddha Monastery is the project under International Climate Champions and focused on awareness building, finding adaptation measures and searching for mitigation options on Climate Change and its aftermaths at local scale. The primary benefiting groups were the Monks of the Namo Buddha Monastery and the secondary benefiting groups were young researchers, climate change activists and policy planners. The desired goal of this research project was to develop the carbon neutral monastery through the process of motivational awareness.

Measurement of carbon status of Monastery helps the general people to recognize their climate change urgency. Despite the fact that monks are believed to be more eco-friendly than people living in cities and villages, it is evident that even monasteries cannot remain untouched by modernization and advancing technology. As for Namo Buddha Monastery, the major source of carbon emission is import of materials such as fossil fuel that have their emitted Green House Gases(GHGs) sunk into the nearby forests. For the GHGs emitted due to the waste can be used for biogas and briquette which may reduce impact on climate change and can be used for adaptation. And permanently resident or occasional visitor’s activities do emit carbon dioxide, a global warming gas, due to the result of their activities.