Privatising parks
on New Year's Day 2006, King Gyanendra of Nepal quietly issued an ordinance that many environmentalists fear could prove a major setback to this Himalayan kingdom's efforts over the last decade to restore people's rights over their natural resources.
Made public last month, the ordinance is ostensibly aimed at amending the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973, to allow for private management of Nepal's national parks and conservation areas. But a clause in the amendment that stipulates only organisations devoted to nature conservation and registered in Nepal can bid for contracts, narrows the number of outfits that can apply to just one