Landscape Conservation Approach for Bio-Socio Resilience in the Kangchenjunga Complex (original) (raw)
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and the global mountain community. Founded in 1983, ICIMOD is based in Kathmandu, Nepal, and brings together a partnership of regional member countries, partner institutions, and donors with a commitment for development action to secure a better future for the people and environment of the extended Himalayan region. ICIMOD's activities are supported by its core programme donors: the governments and its regional member countries, along with over thirty project co-fi nancing donors. The primary objective of the Centre is to promote the development of an economically and environmentally sound mountain ecosystem and to improve the living standards of mountain populations.
he Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region, with elements of four of the world's '34 Biodiversity Hotspots' is a significant reservoir of rich biodiversity that hosts many globally significant transboundary landscapes, each T with extraordinarily varied ecosystems, unique species assemblages and rich genetic diversity. It is also home to millions of poor and marginalized communities who strongly depend on the rich biodiversity for their subsistence livelihoods. Untill 2007, the regional member countries of the HKH have established 488 protected areas covering 39% of their richer land for conservation objectives . Many of these protected areas are small, scattered and isolated without the connectivity necessary for larger mammals using these protected areas as their habitat range. Considerable number of these protected areas are transboundary in nature expanding contiguously to two or more countries. However, the conservation measures including the issues and policy perspectives differ with countries. To address such differences the global communities are advocating ecosystem/landscape approaches in conservation seeking cooperation among the countries sharing such complexes. Realising the pressing conservation challenge of balancing the environmental preservation and the needs of the people, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) initiated the 'transboundary biodiversity management' in the southern half of Khangchendzonga Landscape (KL) that spreads across parts of Bhutan, India and Nepal. The KL conservation initiative was inspired from the directives of the seventh Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that recommended the 'Ecosystem Approach' to biodiversity conservation, advocating the use of participatory community-based resource management, environment protection across larger landscapes and promotion of regional and international cooperation. Building on to the existing but 'inadequate' conservation measures of protected areas system in the KL, ICIMOD advocated 'conservation corridor' model that linked 'isolated' protected areas with the surrounding habitats, promoting the establishment of contiguous landscapes while allowing human activities on sustainable basis. Realising regional cooperation as a key to achieving environmental and economic sustainability among the countries sharing this complex, ICIMOD and its partners developed a 'Regional Cooperation Framework' to customize global CBD agenda to a regional level harmonising national policies and legislation towards effective management of this transboundary complex. The framework while serving as a foundation towards building the regional cooperation also paved way to facilitating the landscape level conservation in the KL. This article shares the strategic process involved in developing the conservation corridors in the landscape and points towards the need for further regional cooperation in bringing effective biodiversity management in the HKH region as a whole.
Mountain Biodiversity Conservation and Management
Mountains occupy 24% of the global land surface area and are home to 12% of the world's population. They have ecological, aesthetic, and socioeconomic significance, not only for people living in mountain areas, but for those living beyond. Mountains need specific attention for their contribution to global goods and services, especially by developing and implementing mountain specific policies. Conservation policies have evolved from the protection of charismatic species, to habitat and ecosystem/landscape conservation, and, finally, to people-oriented conservation approaches. This paper, with particular reference to paradigm shifts in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region, discusses the evolution of conservation policies, developments in conservation practices, the status of protected area management, wetland conservation initiatives and the landscape approach, community-based conservation initiatives, and the convergence of policies and practices. In the HKH region, conservation efforts now adopt participatory approaches, implement policies of decentralised governance for biodiversity management, and empower local communities in biodiversity management. The paradigm shift in the policies and practices related to conservation has been gradual and has included the acceptance of communities as an integral part of national level conservation initiatives, together with the integration of many global conventions. There are many successful pilots in the HKH region that deserve upscaling by the countries from the region. Realising the importance of mountains as hotspots of biodiversity, and due to their role as providers of global goods and services, the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Programme of Work on Mountain Biodiversity. Such a decision specific to mountains provides enormous opportunities for both conservation and development. Recent challenges posed by climate change need to be integrated into overall biodiversity conservation and management agendas, especially in mountain areas. The HKH region has been identified as a blank spot for data by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, indicating the need to develop regional database and sharing mechanisms. This is a tall task, but one that holds enormous opportunity for the HKH countries and institutions with regional mandates to address the emerging challenges of climate change on biodiversity conservation by reducing scientific uncertainty.
BIODIVERSITY, CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Principles and Practices with Asian Examples, 1999
The State Council has adopted Agenda 21 for China, and biodiversity conservation is one plank of this agenda for China's sustainable development. This chapter provides a brief discussion of China's White Paper on Agenda 21 and examines, as a case study, the problem of sustaining biological diversity in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan. This area is rated as one of 'megadiversity' and deserving of high priority for conservation purposes. After discussing the general socio-economic obstacles to biodiversity conservation in Xishuangbanna, the paper examines types of strategies for reducing pressures on biodiversity and nature conservation, adopted by local communities. The preferred strategy in China for easing such pressures is to try to improve economic opportunities outside the reserves and thereby raise the income levels of people living in the neighbourhood. This approach has been adopted in Xishuangbanna and there are plans to extend it. Community development projects such as agroforestry, joint ventures in tourism and so on, are being encouraged. Mechanisms for selecting suitable community development projects, for example, using Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), are also considered. Without economic development at the local level, plans for biodiversity conservation are unlikely to succeed in China, or for that matter elsewhere in the developing world.
Mountains occupy 24% of the global land surface area and are home to 12% of the world's population. They have ecological, aesthetic, and socioeconomic significance, not only for people living in mountain areas, but for those living beyond. Mountains need specific attention for their contribution to global goods and services, especially by developing and implementing mountain specific policies. Conservation policies have evolved from the protection of charismatic species, to habitat and ecosystem/landscape conservation, and, finally, to people-oriented conservation approaches. This paper, with particular reference to paradigm shifts in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region, discusses the evolution of conservation policies, developments in conservation practices, the status of protected area management, wetland conservation initiatives and the landscape approach, community-based conservation initiatives, and the convergence of policies and practices. In the HKH region, conservation efforts now adopt participatory approaches, implement policies of decentralised governance for biodiversity management, and empower local communities in biodiversity management. The paradigm shift in the policies and practices related to conservation has been gradual and has included the acceptance of communities as an integral part of national level conservation initiatives, together with the integration of many global conventions. There are many successful pilots in the HKH region that deserve upscaling by the countries from the region. Realising the importance of mountains as hotspots of biodiversity, and due to their role as providers of global goods and services, the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Programme of Work on Mountain Biodiversity. Such a decision specific to mountains provides enormous opportunities for both conservation and development. Recent challenges posed by climate change need to be integrated into overall biodiversity conservation and management agendas, especially in mountain areas. The HKH region has been identified as a blank spot for data by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, indicating the need to develop regional database and sharing mechanisms. This is a tall task, but one that holds enormous opportunity for the HKH countries and institutions with regional mandates to address the emerging challenges of climate change on biodiversity conservation by reducing scientific uncertainty.
Indigenous ecological knowledge biodiversity and sustainable development in the central Himalayas
2003
The paper has looked at traditional systems of forestry and agricultural system management in the central himalayan region. Based on a detailed analysis of traditional ecological knowledge that is linked with biodiversity, natural and human-managed, various possibilities for sustainable management of natural resources, with concerns for sustainable livelihood of local communities have been explored for the Garhwal region in the central himalayas. It is concluded that if the development interests of local people are marginalized for a long period of time, they might adopt actions detrimental to the goal of conservation. Capitalizing on the positive dimensions of traditional knowledge and overcoming its negative dimensions through conventional science-based inputs could ease the difficult process of securing people's participation in environmental conservation together with the socio-economic development of local communities.