For billions of people, mountain meltwater is essential for drinking water and sanitation, food and energy security, and the integrity of the environment. But today, as the world warms, glaciers are melting faster than ever, making the water cycle more unpredictable and extreme. And because of glacial retreat, floods, droughts, …
Around 90 per cent of almost a billion mountain people in the world today live in developing and transitioning countries, such as those in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. Many live in poverty, and a third of mountain dwellers are vulnerable to food insecurity and acute hunger, often due …
Mountain regions and the important ecosystem services they provide are considered to be very vulnerable to the current warming, and recent studies suggest that high-mountain environments experience more rapid changes in temperature than environments at lower elevations. Here we analysed weather records for the period 1975–2010 from the Eastern Italian …
However, a few decades ago witnessed gradual changes, with ice caps at the Mount Kilimanjaro starting to decrease due to environmental degradation and the recent climate change effects. Kilimanjaro that used to be one of the greenest and coldest regions (specifically Moshi Rural District) started to experience unusual heat. Recently, …
This report provides a record of recent climatic changes experienced by 21 indigenous mountain communities in 10 countries, and of the solutions they have developed based on traditional knowledge and experimentation. It also shows the potential of mobilising traditional knowledge for enriching the evidence on climate change impacts on local …
While global hunger figures are decreasing, the number of food insecure people in mountain areas rose 30 percent between 2000 and 2012, according to a new study, released by FAO and the Mountain Partnership on International Mountain Day. Mapping the vulnerability of mountain peoples to food insecurity found that the …
Urgent international action must be taken in the face of climate change to save the snow leopard and conserve its fragile mountain habitats that provide water to hundreds of millions of people across Asia, according to a new WWF report. The report titled Fragile Connections: Snow leopards, people, water and …
The per capita disaster impact of the April 25 earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks was highest in the mountains and lowest in inner Tarai among the 14 most affected districts in the country. The poor socio-economic conditions of the mountain people who already live under conditions of poverty, inequality and …
Tropical mountain regions contain the main headwaters of important rivers in Central America. We selected 2 contrasting catchments located in a mountainous region to evaluate the precision of daily flow estimates based on the Hydrological Land Use Change (HYLUC) and Nedbør-Afstrømnings Model (NAM) hydrological models. A second objective was to …
A regional analysis of flood risk was carried out in the mountainous area surrounding the city of Bogotá (Colombia). Vulnerability at regional level was assessed and combined with an existing flood susceptibility indicator, thus providing an index that allows the watersheds to be prioritised. Results show that vulnerability can be …
Mountain soils are the fragile foundations of ecosystems that ultimately provide water for more than half the world's population. A new FAO book offers technical insights on the sustainable management of mountain soils, which are home to a vast array of human activities ranging from quinoa cultivation in the Andes …
In this study, we apply a glacier mass balance and ice redistribution model to examine the sensitivity of glaciers in the Everest region of Nepal to climate change. High resolution temperature and precipitation fields derived from gridded station data, and bias-corrected with independent station observations, are used to drive the …
Increasing evidence indicates that species throughout the world are responding to climate change by shifting their geographic distributions. Although shifts can be directionally heterogeneous, they often follow warming temperatures polewards and upslope. Montane species are of particular concern in this regard, as they are expected to face reduced available area …
Union culture and tourism minister Mahesh Sharma asserted in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that the Taj was not yellowing, denying such reports in the press. He said the Taj was in good state of preservation, and no international experts have been engaged for any restoration so far, as earlier …
The fight to save the Taj Mahal from pollution is the country's longest and perhaps most difficult battle. It began in 1983, when 10,400 sq km of area was declared the Taj Trapezium Zone and polluting units were prohibited. Since then the Supreme Court has directed a series of actions …
Even as measures -- some of them knee-jerk -- are being taken to stop the majestic Taj Mahal from turning yellow, the exact causes for the monument's discoloration are yet to be ascertained, a recent analysis shows. The analysis was undertaken by science and environment fortnightly 'Down To Earth'. "We …
Scientists race against the clock to retrieve data that will also help them understand the devastating quake. The massive earthquake that struck Nepal Saturday likely caused permanent changes in the Earth’s surface and may have made Everest a little taller—or shorter, scientists say. A team of geologists from the U.S. …
High elevation environments such as mountains may be warming much faster than previously thought, according to new research. "Elevation-dependent warming is a poorly observed phenomenon that requires urgent attention to ensure that potentially important changes in high mountain environments are adequately monitored by the global observational network," researchers from the …
This publication reflects the findings and learning from a programme of participatory action research (PAR) carried out between 2010 and 2012 in two geographically and climatically different mountain watersheds in the districts of Mustang and Jumla in Nepal. The study was conducted under the High Mountain Agribusiness and Livelihood Improvement …
Reducing poverty, hunger, and food insecurity are overarching goals of the Government of Pakistan. The government is committed to inclusive and equitable socioeconomic development and eradicating hunger, and as a part of this is currently preparing an Agriculture and Food Security Policy. To eradicate hunger, it will be important to …
Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti has said that the Eco Sensitive Zone, which was announced by the previous Central Government, needs to be reviewed because they seemed to have made it without doing proper homework. She further said that the Prime Minister Narendra …
