After spending twenty years in Africa, first as a forester, then as a game warden and finally acting as adviser to the Ethiopian government on national parks and conservation, John Blower seized the opportunity, in 1970, of an exciting new United Nations project in Asia. "Himalayan Assignment" is mainly a record of his work in Nepal which involved extensive travel in both the high mountains and sub-tropical forests of the southern foothills. In his demanding and at times frustrating assignment of planning and developing national parks, he had to achieve a balance between the needs of the local inhabitants eking out a living in an often harsh environment and the preservation of the habitats of the increasingly threatened wild life. Very different from Africa, Nepal's and Bhutan's extremes of scenery, climate, fauna and flora are brilliantly brought to life in John Blower's evocative prose. A skilled photographer, he accompanies his account with dramatic pictures of the scenery, wildlife and the fascinating people and their way of life. In his four years in Nepal, John Blower and his colleagues succeeded in establishing the first five of Nepal's national parks.