Annapurna

Declared in 1986, it is the largest protected area in Nepal and one of the first anywhere to adopt the conservation area model instead of the classic national park, allowing local communities to go on living in, farming and managing their land within the protected boundaries under a pioneering community management regime developed by Nepal's National Trust for Nature Conservation. It contains the Kali Gandaki gorge, reckoned the deepest river valley on the planet if measured as the drop between the river bed and the surrounding summits of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. The Annapurna trekking circuit is one of the most walked in the world, crossing in a few days from subtropical forest to high-altitude desert of Tibetan character.