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, …
A joint FAO/CDE publication examines one of the least-known environments in the world. Dryland mountains are of great strategic value to regional and global development – they provide 90% of the freshwater supply to surrounding dry lowlands – and yet they are often overlooked by decision- and policymakers. Dryland mountains …
Nurpur Bedi (Ropar): The lower Shivaliks are all set to disappear. With the illegal mining mafia leaving no stone unturned (literally!) to raze the hillocks here for sand and gravel and the Ropar administration turning a blind eye to this plundering of nature, it may be just months before this …
About 1,500 pilgrims are stranded on the Rishikesh-Gangotri route since Thursday. Over 20 villages still cut off. The toll on life and property is rising as monsoon wreaks havoc in the hills. The scale of destruction goes up with each passing year Dehradun: On Thursday morning, about 160 vehicles carrying …
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) to be held in June 2012 will have green economy as one of its two main themes. This paper has been prepared to strengthen arguments for discussing mountain issues at Rio+20 and in other global discourses. The aim is to …
The report considers diversity of biological components, including wild and domesticated, social and ecological systems prevailing in the NE States of India and provides insight on hitherto underexplored biological resources with potential role in food security and the improvement of rural livelihoods towards adaptation to changing climate. The broad challenges, …
This paper looks at the progress made in the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the eight countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region using the national reports to the CBD as the primary source. The paper concludes that all the Hindu Kush-Himalayan countries are making efforts to …
Glaciers are in rapid decline and loss of these glaciers will have profoundly negative impacts on climate and human life, according to this published report by scientific working group commissioned by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Science. The report gives the group’s consensus statement is a warning to humanity and …
Poor access to appropriate technologies due to difficult topographies and tough mountain conditions is one of the major causes of poverty, drudgery and natural resources degradation not only in the Indian Central Himalaya, but also in other parts of the Hindu-Kush Himalaya. Of late, deve- lopment planners have realized the …
Around half of the world’s population depends directly or indirectly on mountain resources for different products and services. Having a means for economic valuation of these services will help increase recognition of their value and provide a way of ensuring fair distribution of the costs and benefits of conservation and …
This Framework for Community-Based Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments in Mountain Areas provides an analytical framework and methodology for assessing environmental and socioeconomic changes affecting the livelihoods of rural, natural resource dependent communities living in mountainous environments. It also gives guidance on how to gain a better understanding of the …
“Today we made the world’s highest video call from Mount Everest base camp.” The statement by Pasi Koistinen, head of the telecom firm Ncell, could well become one of the landmark quotes in Internet history. On October 30, Koistinen’s firm, a joint venture between Nepali investors and Swedish telecom giant …
This report outlines status and trends of high mountain glaciers in relation to climate change, identifies challenges and knowledge gaps, and finally makes recommendations for adaptation, research and policy. It calls for accelerating research, monitoring and modelling of glaciers, snow and their role in water supplies; and highlights the vulnerability …
Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal hardened his stand on the Rs 3,300 crore Renuka dam on Monday, asserting that Himachal Pradesh would not sacrifice its forests and damage its mountains to implement the project on its soil, which is meant to supply drinking water to Delhi.
Livelihood security has been interpreted in different ways by various scholars. While livelihood has been defined as an adequate flow of resources (both cash and kind) to meet the basic needs of the people, access to social institutions relating to kinship, family and neigbourhood, village and gender bias free property …
Under the aegis of China-India agreement for cooperation in Climate Change, a China-India workshop was held in Beijing on September 29, 2010. The theme chosen for the workshop was on Mountain Ecosystem and Climate Change. The workshop was aimed at exchange of information on the implications of Climate Change on …
Forecasting the effects of global changes on high altitude ecosystems requires an understanding of the long-term relationships between biota and forcing factors to identify resilience thresholds. Fire is a crucial forcing factor: both fuel build-up from land-abandonment in European mountains, and more droughts linked to global warming are likely to …
India has joined hands with Nepal and China for conservation of the sacred Kailash landscape. Representatives from the three nations, met in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan, in China, recently to discuss on the landscape conservation initiative. The workshop was organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). According to a …
This booklet showcases selected images of mountain biodiversity and related issues from the 2010 ICIMOD Photo Contest on Mountain Biodiversity. The images were selected to highlight the importance of biodiversity in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region, and the need for conservation and sustainable management at all levels. It was produced as …
