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This open access volume is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region
. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people’s well-being. The compiled content is based on the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, experts and policymakers, brought together by the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) under the coordination of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This assessment was conducted between 2013 and 2017 as the first of a series of monitoring and assessment reports, under the guidance of the HIMAP Steering Committee: Eklabya Sharma (ICIMOD), Atiq Raman (Bangladesh), Yuba Raj Khatiwada (Nepal), Linxiu Zhang (China), Surendra Pratap Singh (India), Tandong Yao (China) and David Molden (ICIMOD and Chair of the HIMAP SC). This First HKH Assessment Report consists of 16 chapters, which comprehensively assess the current state of knowledge of the HKH region, increase the understanding of various drivers of change and their impacts, address critical data gaps and develop a set of evidence-based and actionable policy solutions and recommendations. These are linked to nine mountain priorities for the mountains and people of the HKH consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is a must-read for policy makers, academics and students interested in this important region and an essentially important resource for contributors to global assessments such as the IPCC reports
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Werners, S.; Bhadwal, S.; Pandey, A.; Prakash, A.; Wester, P.; Mamnun, N.; Hassan, T.; Ishaq, S.; Ahmad, B.; Dahri, Z. H.
Development is occurring against a backdrop of vulnerability to climate change
. In order for development decisions to be sustainable in a changing climate they need to include choices and actions that modify climate change and its impacts and sustain development efforts over time. In the context of adaptation to climate change, adaptation pathways are proposed as a promising decision-focused approach to incorporate flexibility and account for future uncertainties (e.g. Haasnoot et al., 2013, Wise et al., 2014, Bosomworth et al., 2017). Adaptation pathways sequence measures over time and allow for progressive implementation depending on how the future unfolds, on the development of knowledge, and on stakeholder inputs and priorities. Other potentials are the ability to identify ‘no or low regrets’ interventions and to avoid lock-in, threshold effects, and maladaptive consequences. Thus, adaptation pathways may hold the promise to help plan and implement activities in an overall vision of development and climate change resilience
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HI-AWARE’s overall goal is to enhance the adaptive capacities and climate resilience of the poor and vulnerable women, men, and children in the mountains and plains of the glacier and snowpack-dependent river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), focusing on the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra river basins, through the development of robust evidence to inform people-centred and gender sensitive climate change adaptation policies and practices for improving livelihoods
. This report documents the journey of HI-AWARE from February 2014 to October 2018. This end of project report provides a comprehensive overview of the project, its major outcomes and impact. It is aimed at researchers, policy makers, practitioners and students interested in the issue of climate change adaption in HKH region as well as project management, research with impact, and capacity building in large scale action research settings. The report is divided into three parts: generating knowledge, research uptake and strengthening expertise
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Countries in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) have made advances in socioeconomic development in recent years, but the challenge remains to ensure food and nutrition security, end hunger and poverty, and provide access to safe water and clean energy to a burgeoning population
. Leaders in the region have committed to inclusive growth and climate resilient development as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030. Achieving these goals requires a multifaceted approach including integrated solutions; efficient and sustainable use of land, water, energy and ecosystems; strengthening upstream-downstream linkages; and increased regional and subregional coordination and connectivity.In response to these concerns, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) with the Government of India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoAFW) and the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) conducted a “Knowledge Forum on Climate Resilient Development in the Himalayan and Downstream Regions” on 16–17 June 2016 in New Delhi, India. As a multisector platform, the event brought practitioners, senior government officials, policy makers, experts, researchers and development workers together to deliberate on issues common to the HKH. Participants from Himalayan and downstream countries, including Bangladesh, China, India and Nepal discussed ideas and solutions to ensure food, water and energy security and how to promote climate resilient development. Through six themes, the conference delved into challenges, opportunities and integrated solutions linking science and policy for inclusive growth and climate resilient development
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This study aims to deepen our understanding about local climate change trends, adaptation approaches and strategies of the government, NGOs, and other actors, and emerging adaptation practices in key impacted sectors in the Lower Teesta basin in Bangladesh
. This region, regarded as one of the important food baskets of the country, has been experiencing varied changes in climate variability (including temperature rises, heat stress, low and erratic rainfall, and prolonged droughts), falling groundwater levels, and climatic extremes such as frequent and devastating floods, riverbank erosion, and thunderstorms. These climate change and other stressors are hurting sectors such as agriculture, water, sanitation and health, fisheries, food security, regional infrastructure, housing, and the livelihoods of common people in general
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This study is an effort to contribute to the empirical literature on the diverse patterns of migration, adaptation measures by households facing environmental changes, and the role of migration in augmenting household adaptive capacities in four river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, namely the Gandaki, the Indus, the Upper Ganga and the Teesta
. Recent studies indicate that migration can be a powerful adaptation strategy for populations facing global environmental changes, by increasing the ability of the households to rely on their existing resource base. However, there still exist gaps in empirical findings, particularly quantitative studies investigating migration and adaptation, to fully support this. Migration patterns in the study sites are diverse, ranging from seasonal/circular migration to international migration. However, most migration is internal and international migration is limited mainly to South-South movement. Migration is mostly male-dominated; however, female migration is increasing with women getting more educated and seeking employment opportunities in urban destinations. The major driver of migration decisions is economic, but environmental displacement was also prevalent in the study sites. The reasons for migration were consistent across the study basins, but differed between different streams of the same basin. The adaptive capacities of households in four key sectors are analysed – agriculture, livestock, forestry, and water. The capacity of households to adapt to the negative effects of environmental changes and shocks in the study sites was low, and the adaptation measures undertaken mostly autonomous, except in the case of the water sector. The linkage between migration and household adaptive capacity was found to be positive, but statistically significant only in the agricultural sector. Thus, migration helps households’ adaptive capacity by spatially diversifying household income sources, but this potential is limited at present as remittances are small and mostly invested in meeting basic requirements. Thus, at present, migration is more a response strategy of the households to various changes, including environmental changes and their effects on local livelihoods
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Werners, S.; Bhadwal, S.; Ahmad, B.; Gioli, G.; Regmi, B.; Pandey, A.; Mamnun, N.; Hassan, T.; Varma, N.; Saeed, B. A.
This framework document aims to introduce a proactive approach to assess adaptation needs and encourage timely adaptation
. The idea behind this approach is that if an assessment shows that specific policies and practices of stakeholders are at risk of failure due to climate change, corrections are encouraged and losses or damages can be prevented. The approach focuses on identifying whether and when the performance of policies, management, and social-cultural practices drops below a decisive level due to climate change, and adaptation is required. We call the moment at which a decisive change in performance is reached an ‘adaptation turning point’. The assessment of turning points shows there is an imperative to act, and it aims to help proactively and timely plan alternative strategies. In cases with a development or implementation deficit and where the performance of the existing policies and practices is already unsatisfactory, the turning point lies in the past. If, in these cases, changes can be attributed to climate change, the assessment of turning points helps identify the adaptation gap. With respect to new practices, the assessment of turning points shows when these practices become viable in order to facilitate a smooth transition to alternative systems and practices. For development policies, an adaptation turning point assessment asks whether development goals are achievable under climate change and can be sustained. By introducing this approach in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region we want to ascertain whether the assessment is a meaningful addition to adaptation approaches by allowing, in particular, for a substantial dialogue between stakeholders and scientists about the amount of change that is acceptable, when conditions could be reached that are unacceptable or more favourable, how likely these conditions are, and what adaptation to consider. The approach is not to be understood in isolation, but connects to other work in the HI-AWARE project, in particular the development of adaptation pathways and the assessment of critical moments. With this document we aim to deliver a framework for identifying adaptation turning points. The document offers a broad scoping of the approach, next to the identification of its potential application in HI-AWARE. This also marks the start of the dialogue in the HI-AWARE project on the applicability and value of the concept in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. The assessment of adaptation turning points will be a contribution to other research in HI-AWARE, such as adaptation pathways development
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Excessive demand for ecosystem services arising from rapidly growing human population and several anthropogenic activities have led to the extensive modification of vital ecosystems of the world
. This has generated global concerns as this undermines ecosystem functioning and resilience and thus threatens the ability of ecosystems to continuously supply services. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals can only be met when ecosystem degradation is halted and further loss of ecosystem services is controlled, and only if the natural capital and assets can be utilized in a sustainable way. Therefore, regional, national and local assessments of ecosystem and their services are needed to identify and develop an effective policy in response to ecosystem degradation. Despite the multi-dimensional (ecological, socio-cultural and economic) importance of ecosystems to human society, there have been no serious efforts to assess the ecosystem services of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH). The benefits provided by ecosystems are inadequately recognized and resource users do not take into account the cost of ecosystem degradation in their resource management decisions, since there is very limited understanding of ecosystem dynamics and the values that are being lost through degradation
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In the present publication, thirty technologies and approaches from the Nepal Conservation Approaches and Technologies (NEPCAT) database, documented using the WOCAT tool, are being published as printed fact sheets to facilitate sharing with a wider audience
. The fact sheets are designed to support the efforts of rural development, especially in Nepal, and provide impetus and ideas for decision makers, development actors, and land users. They cover adaptations of methods and new options for land use and rehabilitation and growing and processing crops that increase productivity and support income generation. Users are encouraged to print out, copy, and distribute the sheets in any form that facilitates sharing. All new contributions to the database and fact sheets are welcome
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This paper develops a conceptual and generic framework design for the study of upstream-downstream linkages (UDL) in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region
. The framework application will to define changing upstreamdownstream linkages (UDL) and likely impacts on downstream regions. The results of such applications will be useful for policy makers, planners, decision makers, and researchers. It also addresses actors involved in Integrated Land and Water Resources Management (ILWRM) challenged by changing UDL processes, triggered by broader environmental changes such as climate change and human activities. This framework document defines the upstream downstream relationship. It describes the issues related to UDL mainly around land use and land cover (LULC) changes, erosion and sedimentation, climate change and infrastructure, which affect the availability of water in downstream areas
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