y offered access to established networks, training programs, and their own sources of funding. In the pilot project, WWF partnered with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency to train field staff and volunteers to deliver family planning services and education. Over a two-year period, John Pielemeier 5 FOCUS on population, environment, and security Khata Corridor Map CHINA NEPAL N SHUKLAPHANTA WILDLIFE RESERVE Basanta Corridor Mahendranagar TAL - NEPAL INDIA Kathmandu Kailali Kanchanpur Dhangadhi BARDIA NATIONAL PARK NEPAL Mahadevpuri Bottleneck Laljhadi Corridor Bardia Khata Corridor WWF PHE Project Sites Gulariya Lamahi Bottleneck Nepalgunj Pokhara Dovan Bottleneck Banke Dang Lamahi Palpa Butwal Narayangadh Kathmandu Nawalparasi Chitwan Makwanpur Legend Protected Area Buffer Zone TAL - Nepal District Boundary Corridors Bottlenecks Restoration Project Site Kapilvastu Rupandehi Hetauda INDIA 45 90 180 Kilometers CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK PARSA WILDLIFE RESERVE Parsa Bara Birganj Rautahat 0 181 staff and volunteers helped the project roll out PHE services to an estimated 22,000 people living in 3,095 households. Activities included: � Teaching illiterate women and girls about family planning, reproductive health, and environmental issues; � Educating youth and adults about safer sex and using condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy; � Conducting media campaigns that explain the connections between population, health, and the environment; � Promoting increased energy efficiency in the home; � Improving monitoring and reporting of acute respiratory infection cases among under-five children by female community health volunteers; and � Coordinating with workers at government health centers to assure an adequate supply of family planning products and to establish referral mechanisms for other services. Successes of the PHE Approach The PHE approach has helped transform people's attitudes toward family planning and improve their understanding of its contribution to sustainable livelihoods. Contraceptive use among couples in Khata increased from 43 percent in September 2006 6 Lessons From the First Generation of Integrated Population, Health, and Environment Projects Issue 18 March 2009 Forests for the Future to 72.6 percent in September 2008 (WWF-Nepal, 2008). Interviews suggest that community members realize that limiting family size can contribute to their continued prosperity. Whereas before they viewed family planning solely as a means to better health, now they also call it a practice for "better management of their forest assets" (D'Agnes, 2007). The project also increased the number of households adopting biogas and smokeless, fuel-efficient cookstoves in Khata from 11 percent in 2006 to 19 percent in 2008, resulting in 1,524 metric tons of firewood saved annually. Moreover, about 1,320 households installed solar lamps, which, according to users, resulted in "savings for their family" from reduced expenditure for kerosene (D'Agnes, 2007). The project's data show a reduction in the incidence of severe cases of acute respiratory infection among under-five children living in the project area, which suggests that the increased use of clean energy technology has improved health conditions in Khata. Neighboring villages are now clamoring to share these benefits. The Khata groups are helping their neighbors meet government requirements to form their own user groups to sustainably manage their own natural resources. Devi K.C., secretary of the Gauri forest user group and a community-based distributor (CBD) of family planning services and products, says that clients, especially men, are now becoming more comfortable talking to women distributors about contraceptives. "Previously, people were reluctant to speak about family planning. Now, women CBDs who are more conversant and informed on reproductive health and family planning openly talk to forest user groups about sexual and reproductive health--and people listen to them," says Devi. She also sees great benefits from the peer education programs that encourage women 