Kathmandu, Nov. 23 - Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Monday called on all concerned stakeholders to engage in necessary publicity and management of the upcoming Nepal Tourism Year-2011 to make it a grand success.

Tourism entrepreneurs as well as other sectors would have to play a crucial role to make the year a success, he said.

"Grassroots people and people living in tourism destinations across the country should be trained and prepared for offering a warm hospitality to visitors," Premier Nepal said while addressing a felicitation programme organised by Senior Citizens Mt. Everest Expedition, Nepal-2008.

At the function, Nepal honoured Min Bahadur Sherchan, the oldest person to climb Mt. Everest at the age of 76, and 340 days on May 25 at 8:00 a.m in 2008 who has also formally been able to register his name in the Guinness World Record GWR on August 17, 2009.

For making the tourism year a success, all varieties of natural resources that have been received or available in Nepal should also need equal publicity to attract more tourists, Nepal said.

PM Nepal also drew the attention of the concerned stakeholders to remain cautious and alert about the climate change issues and degradation of ecological environment and for the proper management of solid wastes that remained on the trails to Mt. Everest.

Premier Nepal also thanked Sherchan for his courageous deeds and guts which helped to popularise Nepal’s name and fame.

Sharing his feelings of Mt. Everest, Sherchan said that he had vowed to climb Sagarmatha with a slogan ‘Long Live Human World Peace.’

He also said that he will again climb Everest at the age of 84 in 2014 A.D, if his health condition supported him.

Sherchan has also wished to make an elderly home, an orphan home, and an intellectual home in his lifetime. He also sought government’s necessary support for materialising his wishes.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sujata Koirala, who chaired the programme, urged the Nepalese people and climbers to follow the footsteps of Sherchan. also shown note taking example and popular sayings that there is nothing impossible in this world.

Koirala also praised Sherchan’s courageous and risky task and said he was an example worth emulating.

At the programme, Nani Babu Bahal, executive member of SECEE, Nepal and Nanda Bahadur Singh, general secretary and spokesperson of SECEE Nepal also expressed their views.

Home Minister Bhim Rawal honouring senior poet and lyricist Kali Prasad Rijal at a function organised to mark Pahalman Singh Swar birth anniversary.

Meanwhile, experts and government officials at an interaction Monday underscored result oriented works rather than getting entangled only with the planning related activities to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.

They were speaking at a seminar on Impacts of Climate Change on the livelihoods of Nepali People: the Issues and Concerns’ organised by Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN).

The objective of the programme was to interact with concerned stakeholders including national organizations and Government Ministries to get relevant and up-to-date information that can be taken forward by Nepali representatives to the UNFCCC’s 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark to take place on 7th-18th December 2009.

Dr Arjun Karki, the International Coordinator of LDC Watch as the current Chair of the 49 LDCs, said Nepal needed to play a meaningful leadership role on the issue of climate change. "The effect of this phenomenon is experienced with most devastation experienced by the least developed countries of the world such as Nepal and Bangladesh, despite these countries being least responsible for the global carbon dioxide emissions that are causing changes in the climate."

Dr Dinesh Devkota, member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), spoke on the importance of establishing a system for managing with traditional and indigenous knowledge on climate change, so that this vital knowledge that exists in the community level can effectively feed into national-level planning processes and responses.

Dr. Krishna Oli, Regional Coordinator of ICIMOD, highlighted one of the most-ignored points in discussions on global warming – the need for human beings to shift towards environmentally-friendly consumption patterns.

Prabhin Man Singh of Oxfam Nepal stressed the need to coordinating changing weather patterns with livelihood strategies. 
 
Source: The Rising Nepal (23 November 2009)