To learn best practices in Kangchenjunga Landscape, India on Ecotourism (home stay programme), waste management, off-seasonal vegetable production and cooperative marketing system practiced at community level, a five day cross-learning visit for Nepal partners was held in the Indian villages of Rampuriya in west Bengal and Yuksam in Sikkim 18-22 July 2016. The Nepal executing partner, Re-search Centre for Applied Science and Technology (RECAST) in coordination with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) coordinated the event as part of the Kangchenjunga Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KLCDI).

Seventeen participants from the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Department of Forest, Dis-trict Forest Offices of Kangchenjunga Landscape districts, pilot site community representatives, RE-CAST, ICIMOD, and a warden from Kangchenjunga Conservation Area.

During the visit, the team held stakeholder meetings and observed various activities – a home stay programme managed by the local communities; a livelihood enhancement programme focused on mushroom farming, off-season vegetable farming, and beekeeping in forest villages inside the Senchel Wildlife Sanctuary. The team also visited Indian focal institutes and team members other organisations working in the Kangchenjunga Landscape – G B Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment & Sustainable Development (GBPNIHESD), The Mountain Institute (TMI), and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE).

The five day event gave participants an opportunity to learn more about community based ecotourism interventions, local level waste management in the national park area, and a better under-standing of transbounday issues and challenges. The visit was also a networking opportunity for many of the organisations working in the Kangchenjunga Landscape Nepal and pilot area communities. ICIMOD will continue to coordinate transboundary meetings to further strengthen networking and cooperation.