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Raiders of the Park
Yonzon is a member of Environment Protection Council, Nepal and a resource biologist.
The ecological integrity of Langtang National Park, only 32 km north of Kathmandu, is under enormous stress. Some 19,000 inhabitants, and another 58,000 people living around the park, rely on the food, fodder and fuelwood it provides, and those populations are steadily growing. As if that were not enough, commercial exploitation of the park's plant resources now threatens to tip the balance. Ironically, Langtang's protected status hinders rather than helps its continued survival.