Annapurna Conservation Area(ACA) prospects for Tourism

Annapurna Conservation Area(ACA) prospects for Tourism

Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA), the largest protected area (7,629 square kilometre) of Nepal constitutes 5.18% of total country's area and 27% of total protected areas of the country. ACA covers parts of Kaski, Lamjung, Myagdi and Manang and full of Mustang districts. The ACA is globally known as the most popular trekking destination of Nepal, visited by over 60% of the total trekking tourists. This is also the transitional zone between the east and west Himalayas and rich in faunal diversity where 102 mammal species, 488 bird species, 40 reptile species, and 23 amphibian species have been recorded. Two distinct climatic regions exist in northern and southern part of ACA that supports 1,235 plant species with 22 different types of forest. Rich cultural diversity is the other major feature of ACA where some 100,000 people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds live in rural setting and depend on natural resources and subsistence farming. Their traditional systems of managing forest resources carry the very essence of conservation and sustainable development. But, with the influx of large number of trekking tourists and their support staff, the region started to experience the problems of rapid degradation and loss of values.