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Regional efforts to preserve mountain landscapes that account for half of the world?s biodiversity hotspots raise pertinent questions for existing statist discourses and practices of territoriality
. The paper focuses on the Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI), a transboundary Himalayan collaboration involving China, India and Nepal that seeks to conserve an area of shared cultural heritage and rich biodiversity. The UNEP-supported initiative, aimed at integrating regional, national and local actors redefines the role of the state from policy control to policy coordination. This prompts three key questions that the paper seeks to investigate. Firstly, how will states and sub-state actors negotiate divergent interests and approaches to natural resource management? Secondly, to what extent can spatiality be read with citizenship within the framework of transboundary conservation? Thirdly, what are the prospects for cross-border initiatives to reconcile conservation strategies devised at the national and regional levels with indigenous value systems, which have traditionally regulated local resource use? The paper is an enquiry into the Initiative?s potential to redefine the spatial and operational remits of state capacity and its implications for mountain governance
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Human communities that inhabit rural, remote, rugged and biodiverse environments adopt diverse livelihood strategies such as utilizing different ethno-ecological environments
. The present study explores how people use plant resources in the context of availability and accessibility of plants and habitats, and diversity of culture. We hypothesize that people are most likely to forage the most visible and accessible plants and habitats frequently. This relationship was tested in the Darchula and Baitadi districts of the Kailash Sacred Landscape Nepal, using data from phytosociological studies and community interviews. Total use values, medicinal use values and other use values of plants were used for analyses. Plant availability was assessed by using phytosociological indicators. The accessibility was tested by using the use values of plants with reference to the site-specific explanatory variables: forest/non-forest habitat, nearby/transition/distant area, hill/mountainous district, and Himalayan endemic/Pan-Himalayan/cosmopolitan distribution. A weak association between plant use values and plant availability and site accessibility was recorded. However, the plant use value was influenced by ecological (Shannon diversity, species richness) and cultural indicators (preference for specific products and recognition) and varied at the level of use category (medicinal and non-medicinal). Higher medicinal use values at Darchula district indicate that the knowledge of plant collection and use was more dependent on quality of products and directed harvesting and less influenced by availability of resources and accessibility of sites. Since plant apparency was not found to always be the most important indicator, social and cultural factors appear to be as the most influential indicators
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A total of 141 quadrats were sampled using stratified random sampling to study forest, environment and human interactions along an elevation gradient 1800 to 3665 m at the remote Kailash Sacred Landscape, Nepal
. Eight forest types were identified, including Laurel-Oak to Rhododendron to Blue pine, comprising 191 species including 60 useful from 166 genera and 87 families. The environmental variables elevation, slope, and temperature were significant (p < 0.001) in determining the composition and distribution of forest types. Records of large numbers of useful plants along with diverse forest and vegetation types suggest a strong association between the culture of local villages and nature conservation. Due to changes in climate, socio-culture and land-use, forest degradation is expected to accelerate, thus forcing government and indigenous community forest management measures to acknowledge human, cultural and environmental variables for sustainable forest management
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Inhabitants of the upper Himalayan regions entertain a belief that the Chir Pine trees are ingressing the Broadleaf forest areas and that these areas are gradually turning into water stressed regions as Chir Pines adversely influence water recharge and water availability
. This paper examines whether and to what extent the Chir Pine forest areas are water stressed compared to Broadleaf forest areas by studying the household coping cost in relation to water stress. We use the coping cost differences thereafter to value the relative water provisioning services of forest types. We conduct multiple focus group discussions, a questionnaire survey and statistical analyses to derive the results. Results show all households, except the ones living near Deodar forest, to face water stress in summer but the Chir Pine areas are the most water-stressed. Both comparison of mean and multivariate regressions of water collection time and other coping costs show that the villagers surrounded by Deodar, Deodar mix pine, Broadleaf mix bush or Broadleaf mix pine forests spend much less time for water collection and spend less on water treatment and storage compared to the villagers surrounded by Chir Pine forest irrespective of elevation, aspect or model used. These differences in water collection time amount to a wage income loss between USD 31 and USD 318 in India, and between USD 23 and USD 238 in Nepal per year per household, in Chir Pine areas compared to other forest areas
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Water-induced hazards are quite common in the Koshi River basin and often have transboundary impacts – upstream hazards lead to disasters in downstream areas, affecting millions of people
. Moreover, extreme weather events have cascading impacts and are expected to magnify in frequency and intensity because of climate change and environmental degradation. Although there have been efforts to improve disaster risk reduction (DRR) mechanisms in the Koshi basin, related policies and practices need to be strengthened using a multi-hazard approach. The Koshi Basin Initiative (KBI) at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) works with its partners to increase the understanding about the impacts of disasters on the basin and to enhance preparedness towards DRR
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To gain a nuanced understanding of the political economy of brick making, this study examines the brick sector at three levels: kiln, local and national level
. At the lowest level is the brick factory, which includes brick kiln workers, labour suppliers, brokers, and owners. The local level comprises brick kiln owners, transporters, the local government and other stakeholders, and the relations and power dynamics between them. At the national level, the study analyses relationships between government bodies (ministries and line agencies, revenue office), the national brick kiln association, financial institutions, non-governments actors, activists, and policy makers. The study has identified the following major actors at the three different levels
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The Brick Initiative under the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development’s (ICIMOD) Regional Programme on Atmosphere aims to transform South Asia’s brick sector into a cleaner and healthier industry by improving air quality through reduced emissions from brick production, increasing social and economic benefits for businesses and communities, and reducing adverse impacts on health
. The Initiative also works to integrate socioeconomic, gender, and equity perspectives into cleaner brick production through pilot efforts in Nepal
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ICIMOD’s Brick Initiative achieved a vital breakthrough in 2018 when it managed to create awareness among brick entrepreneurs that the social and gender aspects of production are as important as the adoption of efficient technologies
. This has enabled collaborative gender and social action research interventions at factories to improve working and living conditions
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