The Support to Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalaya (Himalica) initiative aims to support poor and vulnerable mountain communities in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts through collaborative action research and pilot activities. Research and pilot activities are expected to help build the capacities of institutions working on building and strengthening resilience to climateinduced vulnerability which will subsequently improve the livelihoods of mountain communities in the HKH. Adaptive capacity can be attained when the significance and value system of the services mountain ecosystems provide local communities and those living downstream are understood, maintained, and recognized. Visualizing such impacts, the Himalica initiative is implemented through five main activity areas: i) building capacity to formulate adapted policy, ii) expanding knowledge management, iii) strengthening collaborative action research, iv) piloting activities for climate change adaptation, and v) building overall capacity. After the completion of Ecosystem Services Assessments (ESAs) in Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal in 2014 and 2015 as a part of strengthening collaborative action research, the ecosystem theme at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) further initiated assessments of ecosystem services in Bangladesh and Pakistan.