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Sacred Himalayas for Water, Livelihoods, and Bio-Cultural Heritage

A high-level consultative meeting on the climate change impact in the southern slopes of the Eastern Himalayas concluded in Kathmandu with a roadmap for the planning of activities leading up to the proposed ‘Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas – Bhutan 2011’.

Delegates from the four participating countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan – expressed their appreciation and pledged support for the sub-regional initiative started by the Royal Govt. of Bhutan, towards finalising climate adaptation plans that the Eastern Himalayan nations can use in their efforts to adapt to the changes happening in the region.

Experts presented four papers on water, energy, biodiversity and food security. They outlined the emerging issues, gaps and challenges in the region and suggested a way forward for carrying out national and regional consultations.

The high level meeting agreed to work together towards the Bhutan Climate Summit 2011 within national and regional adaptation frameworks by preparing individual country roadmaps on the water, energy, biodiversity and food security sectors. The meeting identified the names of lead agencies and/or institutions to take the process forward in each country and the region. Each country will serve as a lead country for one of the four themes: Bangladesh will lead in water, Bhutan in biodiversity, India in food security, and Nepal in energy.

The concluding session was attended by State Minister for Environment and Forest of Bangladesh, Dr. Hasan Mahmud; Minister of Agriculture and Forest of Bhutan, Dr. Pema Gyamtsho; Minister of Environment of Nepal, Mr. Thakur Prasad Sharma; and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, India, Mr. Jayant Mauskar. Senior government delegates, experts from government and civil society organizations, and representatives of international agencies including ICIMOD, UNDP, FAO and WWF also attended the meeting. Mr. Thakur Prasad Sharma, Minister of Environment, GON chaired the final session and delivered the closing remarks. In his speech, he highlighted the inter-dependencies, inter-relationship and inter-linkages between the uplands and lowlands situation in the Himalayas. He also emphasised the importance of Bhutan’s initiative to Nepal’s Mountain Alliance Initiative to highlight the impacts of climate change on mountain ecosystems. He called upon the delegates for a holistic approach. The Minister of Agriculture, Bhutan informed the gathering that the initiative taken by Bhutan aims to work for a vision of ‘Sacred Himalayas for Water, Livelihoods, and Bio-Cultural Heritage’ and that this is an action oriented effort. The state Minister of Bangladesh emphasized the need to address the social, economic and environmental challenges in an integrated manner. The leader of the Indian delegation highlighted the role of both modern and traditional knowledge.

Conflicting behaviour of glaciers, such as retreating, advancing, and even surging, within small distances poses difficult questions for scientists.

Scientists agreed to improve collaboration on scientific and technical research on the impacts of climate change on the cryosphere of the Indus basin covering the four Hindu Kush-Himalayan countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and China  at a recent workshop on ‘Climate and environmental change impacts on the cryosphere of the Indus basin and its implications for future water scenarios’. It is expected that this approach will facilitate sharing of experiences to create an environment of ownership of scientific work among regional government institutions engaged in sustainable water resource management in the Indus basin.  The workshop was organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal from 2-4 July 2010.

At the workshop, delegates identified key gaps in knowledge about the Indus basin. Conflicting behaviour of glaciers, such as retreating, advancing, and even surging, within small distances poses difficult questions for scientists.  Lack of observation at high altitude, where most of the mass accumulation takes place, creates a hurdle to our understanding of the impact of climate change on glaciers and meltwater generation. Some revealing results were presented at the workshop, such as the extent of the impact of black carbon on accelerating the melting of snow and ice, which could locally surpass the effect of greenhouse gases (GHG).

The ‘Indus River Basin Programme’ will  facilitate  research,  collection and analysis  of scientific and socioeconomic trends, as well as strengthening current research and proposing new research and development interventions and approaches. The programme will provide a platform for sharing the knowledge gained as well as state-of-the-art approaches and interventions planned for future work on climate and environmental change and water resource management in the Indus River Basin.

The Director General of ICIMOD, Dr. Andreas Schild said that the Indus Basin was important because of its extreme sensitivity to climate and environmental changes and because of the huge size of the population dependent on the water generated from the highlands.

The keynote address was given by Professor Matthias Winiger, Vice Chancellor, University of Bonn, Germany. Professor Winiger illustrated the key facets of water balance in the Indus Basin and the importance of understanding and managing its water resources. Professor Winiger also emphasised the need for clarity about changes taking place and the importance of improved and representative data based on long-term monitoring to mimic the system, glacial mass balance measurements, and climate-change scenarios.  He called for an Indus Basin Decade and proposed 10-point suggestions of future undertakings in the basin. Professor Winiger stated that ICIMOD could play a lead role in this.

Regional representatives at policy- and decision-making levels also recognise the need to improve the monitoring of snow, ice and water resources in the HKH in order to provide valid and useful information as a basis for their work.

The Indus River Basin is important economically. The basin has 6 main rivers originating from glaciers in the Western Himalayas, the Karakoram, and the Hindu Kush which are sources of irrigation for over 16 million hectares (ha) of agricultural land and provide hydropower to Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. Glacial fluctuations and changes in precipitation patterns are expected to alter the hydrology of the river basin, hence jeopardising hydropower generation and agricultural production and consequently altering people’s livelihoods.