Kathmandu:

The Darwin Initiative Training programme that had started on 2003 will end in March 2006. It is a joint endeavour between the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology in collaboration with the Departm-ent of Plant Resources and the Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University. The project’s major objective is to strengthen the skill and capacity of Nepali botanists and institutions especially in the fields of plant biodiversity, inventory and conservation.

Sixteen botanists were selected as Darwin scholars on the basis of their taxonomic research background and geographical area of their work. The scholars have already participated in three training workshop and three collecting expeditions in Nepal as a part of the training project.

Two of the three training expeditions in Nepal were located in Sagarmatha National Park in the Mount Everest region and one in Chitwan National Park. During the expeditions, six sets of specimens were gathered for collection.

During the UK research visit, the Darwin scholars acquired general experiences in the management and operation of renowned international herbaria. They developed identification skills by working on the specimens collected during the expeditions.

Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh in collaboration with the Nepali institutions is planning to implement a new project, ‘Flora of Nepal’ (www.floraof-nepal.org).

This will be the first complete detailed official record of the entire Nepali flowering plants and ferns estimated to be approximately 7,600 species.