Nepal is endowed with rich natural and cultural diversity. The country spans tropical plains in the South to the Himalayas in the North, within less than 200 km. This tremendous variation in altitude within a relatively short distance is what gives the country its varied ecological zones and the range of biological and cultural habitats it enjoys. The inhabitants comprise a mosaic of ethnic groups speaking more than 60 languages. Nepal is landlocked and lies between 80° 4'- 88° 12' East longitude and 26° 22'- 30° 27' North latitude with a total area of 147,181 sq. km. The land resource mapping of the country has revealed that cultivated land covers about 20 percent of the total land, forest 29 percent grassland covers 12 percent, shrub lands 11 percent, and other categories like rocks, snow lands and settlements made up the rest. The country is broadly divided into the terai, hills and mountains covering 23 percent, 42 percent and 35 percent of the total area respectively. Of the total population of 23.15 million, 48.4 percent live in the terai, 44.3 percent in the middle hills and 7.3 percent in the high mountains. Such a geographical setting of the country brings both complexity and opportunity for natural resource management and sustainable development Nepal covers 0.1percent of the world's land area but has high representation of biotic diversity. It claims 9.3 percent of bird, 4.5 percent of mammal, 2.6 percent of butterfly, 1.0 percent of fish and over 2.0 percent of the flowering plant species of the world. This richness of species can be attributed to the immense physical and climatic variation of the land. With a population growth rate of 2.24 percent per annum, and a corresponding doubling rate of 31 years, Nepal's environmental resources are facing tremendous pressure. Economic growth has long been emphasized as the core element of Nepal's development strategy. Despite substantial efforts to build development infrastructure to stimulate economic growth, the country is still engulfed in a vicious cycle of poverty, underdevelopment and environmental degradation. Nepal is one of the least developed countries where 38 percent of the population is below the poverty line. The Nepalese economy is dualistic with a relatively modern non-agricultural sector and a largely subsistence-based agricultural sector. The pre-dominant traditional sector is characterized by a subsistence agrarian regime, high under employment (47 percent of the total population) and low agricultural productivity. About 86 percent of the population lives in rural areas with many people deprived of the minimum urban amenities necessary to fulfil their basic needs. On the other hand, urban management is becoming more complex and some urban poor are also deprived of basic amenities. The government faces a major challenge to provide an appropriate level of infrastructure to these remote and scattered settlements to support development and reduce poverty. Over 80 percent of the economically active population depends on agriculture for subsistence, which contributes to some 39 percent of its GDP (2000). Although the country has made significant strides in education, health and other social services, particularly within the last decade, the level of human development in Nepal remains among the lowest in the world.