Mountain communities of the Himalayan region are highly vulnerable to climate change for two main reasons. First, there are likely to be more extreme climatic events resulting in an increased loss of lives, property, and sources of livelihood. Second, already facing a resource crisis, the communities are not in a position to afford huge costs in implementing adaptation measures, and as a result are likely to remain trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty. Indeed, the communities are already suffering from climate change-induced stresses such as a depletion of snow cover, glacier retreat, and glacial lake outburst floods. At the community level, problems like erratic rainfall patterns, water hazards, water shortage, and vector borne diseases are reported to be growing.
