The rapid retreat of the Himalayan glaciers leads to water-related hazards, such as glacier lake ... more The rapid retreat of the Himalayan glaciers leads to water-related hazards, such as glacier lake outburst fl oods (GLOFs), and water stress, as a result of the decline in freshwater supplies during the lean season. Thus, there is a need to think and act seriously about cooperation among the countries in the Himalayan region for managing water resources and water-related hazards. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations’ Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007), the inci- dence and intensity of fl oods in the Himalayan region are expected to increase as a result of an increase in extreme precipitation events during the monsoon season and glacial retreat, both, in turn, resulting from global warming. This poses a challenge for reducing the vulnerability of the more than 1.3 billion people living in the major river basins downstream from the Hindu Kush–Himalayan region. The overriding importance of climate change as a driver of environmental change makes it important to address disaster- reduction and water-management concerns in a holistic manner at the river basin level. Such an approach is being considered by the IPCC to be an adaptive measure for tackling the impact of climate change. The economics of water resource management also suggests the need for taking advantage of externalities while planning O 271Sustainable Management and Regional Cooperation for Himalayan Waters water management, i.e., production externalities refl ected in the upstream–downstream linkages between communities, districts and provinces within or across national borders. While holistic basin-wide water resource management is an approach currently being promoted by water scientists and economists alike, in the Himalayan region the problem lies in the implementation of such a strategy because most of the Himalayan rivers are international rivers and involve transboundary water management. It has been suggested recently that regional cooperation on water management and water-related hazards can be facilitated by developing a broader perspective on regional economic coopera- tion that goes beyond the focus on water alone. This perspective would be based on water as a natural resource of central focus, around which cross-border economic exchanges (primarily trade) and development of infrastructure to facilitate them, can take place. This essay looks at these issues under three sections covering: (a) confl ict and cooperation, (b) climate change impact and regional cooperation on water-related hazards, and (c) basin-wide regional
Poster presented at "Workshop on Climate Change A meeting of young Scientists in Central... more Poster presented at "Workshop on Climate Change A meeting of young Scientists in Central & South Asian Region". Nepal being more vulnerable to the effect of climate change, a result of the absence of coping mechanisms, the Government of Nepal has proactively developed policies like NAPA and then LAPA, an applauding matter. These required rules, regulations and mechanism are either, not made nor effective, or reached the most vulnerable people, who are unaware of these processes. However, they do see the effects of climate change in their everyday life: summer and winter are getting hotter and colder, the local water sources are drying and disappearing causing acute shortage of water. Mountainous people have started being affected by the diseases of lowlands whereas in high-mountains and mountains, lowland vegetation have started to grow. Because of erratic rainfall, rising temperature and melting of glaciers, the mountainous and lowland people now live with the new dangerous reality of flash flood and landslides. Based on NAPA and LAPA, several government, non-government and international institutions are now implementing activities related to climate adaptation for enhancing the adaptation capacity of the most vulnerables. Water, health, sanitation, agriculture, biodiversity, food security and nutrition have been identified as the most vulnerable sectors to climate impacts and are taken as priorities for providing support to local vulnerable people. Keywords: NAPA, LAPA, Adaptation, Vulnerability, Climate change, Nepal
Under the new constitution adopted in 2015, Nepal embraced the federal structure of government co... more Under the new constitution adopted in 2015, Nepal embraced the federal structure of government comprising seven provincial and 753 local governments, each with their own legislative, judicial, and executive powers. Nepal’s agriculture sector provides livelihoods to about 60% of the population. However, its bottlenecks are rooted in poor implementation of agricultural policies and plans, low levels of investment, uncertain political commitment and weak governance, especially a lack of an effective service delivery mechanism to farmers. This study analyzed the impacts of federalism on the institutional arrangements and governance of the agriculture sector through both review of literature and field-level information gathering, particularly focusing on extension service delivery to farmers in Province 2. The findings highlight the impacts of federalism on agricultural governance mainly in functional overlapping, resource allocation, priority setting, coordination, human resource manage...
The chapter describes the important role the non-timber forestry and agro-forestry sub-sectors pl... more The chapter describes the important role the non-timber forestry and agro-forestry sub-sectors play in Nepalese economy. Domestic consumption and export values of raw as well as processed non-timber forest products (NTFP) such as herbal medicine, aromatic oils, natural dye, fiber and nutrition supplements generated by these sub-sectors are on the rise. Agro-forestry is the mainstay of Nepal’s mountain farming systems. Sub-sector-related policy, institutions and regulatory frameworks are carefully reviewed since they play a critical role in the healthy development of these sub-sectors. Gaps in policy and legal framework, implementation hurdles are preventing good potential for growth and their contribution in agriculture development.
11.1 In t roduct ion Mountain communities in South Asia, especially those who live in the Hindu K... more 11.1 In t roduct ion Mountain communities in South Asia, especially those who live in the Hindu KushHimalayan region, are characterised as marginalised communities in terms of their access to capital, technology, and decision-making authority; fragile in terms of the health of the ecosystems they live in; and vulnerable in terms of their overwhelming dependence on natural resources. The region is facing greater and more difficult challenges than ever before in achieving balanced economic growth, alleviating poverty, and sustainably managing their renewable natural resources. People’s dependence on forest and related natural resources is historic, cultural, and inevitable as other viable alternatives for earning a living have been few and far between. As the economies of the predominantly mountainous countries in the region are gradually liberalised and a wave of consumerism is setting in, the income needs of the people have been steadily growing. The consequence of this trend has be...
Water, energy, and biodiversity are essential components for building a sustainable food system i... more Water, energy, and biodiversity are essential components for building a sustainable food system in a developing country like Nepal. Green Revolution technologies and the package of practices largely ignored the role of ecosystem services, leaving a large population of small farmers’ food- and nutrition-insecure. Biodiversity, especially, agrobiodiversity is in decline and this vital cross-cutting element is less discussed and interlinked in nexus literature. The interlinking food system with water–energy–biodiversity nexus, therefore, is essential to achieve a resilient food system. It ensures the vital structures and functions of the ecosystem on which it is dependent are well protected in the face of increasing socio-economic and climatic stress. This paper reviews the food system of Nepal through the lens of the food–water–energy–biodiversity (FWEB) nexus to develop a more robust food system framework. From this approach, food system foresight can benefit from different nature-ba...
... Klein Tank, AMG, TC Peterson, DA Quadir, S. Dorji, X. Zou, H. Tang, K. Santhosh, UR Joshi, AK... more ... Klein Tank, AMG, TC Peterson, DA Quadir, S. Dorji, X. Zou, H. Tang, K. Santhosh, UR Joshi, AK Jaswal, RK Kolli, AB Sikder, NR Deshpande, JV Revadekar, K ... http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0959-3780(91)90004-D. CrossRef, CSA. Wescoat Jr, JL, S. Halvorson, and D. Mustafa. 2000. ...
Mountains of Southeast Asia and the Pacific (SEAP) region spread across two geographic regions – ... more Mountains of Southeast Asia and the Pacific (SEAP) region spread across two geographic regions – mainland Asia and island/archipelagic states in the Pacific Ocean – and constitute one of the world’s highest and also most severely threatened biodiversity pools. A number of indigenous peoples who are marginalised, poor, and underserved by their respective states live in the structurally weak and fragile mountains. They are made even more vulnerable by increased frequency and intensity of rainfall, extreme temperatures and severe tropical storms. Increasing population and economic pressures are driving migrant lowland settlers towards the SEAP Mountains while extractive companies harness timber, minerals and water resources without giving local communities their due share. In general, the mountains have not been mainstreamed in governance in most Southeast Asian countries. This highlights the immediate need for policy reforms to protect social and ecological systems in the mountains fo...
Description/Abstract Nepal's Middle Hill regions have been excessively deforested. The gover... more Description/Abstract Nepal's Middle Hill regions have been excessively deforested. The government has launched a community-based reforestation project with help of international donors. However, results have been far from satisfactory. Plantation targets have not been met and survival rates of the planted trees are poor averaging around 60%. Social factors are given more blame than technical ones for these failures. However, an analysis of the available information indicates, rather, that about two-thirds of the failures were due to ...
ICIMOD, based on its past experience and knowledge base, realizes that national and sectoral poli... more ICIMOD, based on its past experience and knowledge base, realizes that national and sectoral policies have failed to make a significant impact on poverty reduction, natural resource conservation, and environmental quality maintenance in the mountains. Growing evidences suggest that purely technical solutions are neither effective nor sustainable unless they are supported by favourable policies and institutions. While policy decisions are prerogative of the RMC governments; relevant information and knowledge, and proper ground-level understanding are necessary for the policy makers to make right choice in terms of formulating appropriate policy. Being a non-political regional organization, ICIMOD, therefore has an important roles to support and facilitate informed decision-making by concerned agencies at national and sub-national levels, Founded in 24 years before by the RMCs with support of international partners, ICIMOD’role is to build up a regional knowledge base through generati...
... and Sagun Bista Action research on non-timber forest products in central 101 mid-hills region... more ... and Sagun Bista Action research on non-timber forest products in central 101 mid-hills region, Nepal Damodar P. Parajuli Resource base ... by small farmers through 185 training and capacity building: Experience of the HPPCL, Nepal Dhruv R. Bhattarai and Pradip Maharjan 5 ...
In an effort to develop effective institutions for the management of forest resources, a number o... more In an effort to develop effective institutions for the management of forest resources, a number of community based forest management (CBFM) policies and practices have evolved in South Asia. Most important of them are community forestry (CF) in Nepal and joint forest management (JFM) in India. Although both the approaches aim at promoting community-based forest management, their nature and characteristics vary considerably which, in turn, has difference implications in resource governance and livelihoods. Based on primary and secondary information, this paper makes an attempt to understand the nature of the two systems and their strengths and weaknesses. The analysis reveals that there are considerable between two systems in respect of level of institutionalisation, tenurial arrangement, degree of participation, decision-making authority, rights and obligations, and benefit sharing. While CF management model is supported by state legislation, JFM is based on the Govt. of India circu...
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Forestry, 1992. Includes bibliographical ref... more Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Forestry, 1992. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-244).
The rapid retreat of the Himalayan glaciers leads to water-related hazards, such as glacier lake ... more The rapid retreat of the Himalayan glaciers leads to water-related hazards, such as glacier lake outburst fl oods (GLOFs), and water stress, as a result of the decline in freshwater supplies during the lean season. Thus, there is a need to think and act seriously about cooperation among the countries in the Himalayan region for managing water resources and water-related hazards. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations’ Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007), the inci- dence and intensity of fl oods in the Himalayan region are expected to increase as a result of an increase in extreme precipitation events during the monsoon season and glacial retreat, both, in turn, resulting from global warming. This poses a challenge for reducing the vulnerability of the more than 1.3 billion people living in the major river basins downstream from the Hindu Kush–Himalayan region. The overriding importance of climate change as a driver of environmental change makes it important to address disaster- reduction and water-management concerns in a holistic manner at the river basin level. Such an approach is being considered by the IPCC to be an adaptive measure for tackling the impact of climate change. The economics of water resource management also suggests the need for taking advantage of externalities while planning O 271Sustainable Management and Regional Cooperation for Himalayan Waters water management, i.e., production externalities refl ected in the upstream–downstream linkages between communities, districts and provinces within or across national borders. While holistic basin-wide water resource management is an approach currently being promoted by water scientists and economists alike, in the Himalayan region the problem lies in the implementation of such a strategy because most of the Himalayan rivers are international rivers and involve transboundary water management. It has been suggested recently that regional cooperation on water management and water-related hazards can be facilitated by developing a broader perspective on regional economic coopera- tion that goes beyond the focus on water alone. This perspective would be based on water as a natural resource of central focus, around which cross-border economic exchanges (primarily trade) and development of infrastructure to facilitate them, can take place. This essay looks at these issues under three sections covering: (a) confl ict and cooperation, (b) climate change impact and regional cooperation on water-related hazards, and (c) basin-wide regional
Poster presented at "Workshop on Climate Change A meeting of young Scientists in Central... more Poster presented at "Workshop on Climate Change A meeting of young Scientists in Central & South Asian Region". Nepal being more vulnerable to the effect of climate change, a result of the absence of coping mechanisms, the Government of Nepal has proactively developed policies like NAPA and then LAPA, an applauding matter. These required rules, regulations and mechanism are either, not made nor effective, or reached the most vulnerable people, who are unaware of these processes. However, they do see the effects of climate change in their everyday life: summer and winter are getting hotter and colder, the local water sources are drying and disappearing causing acute shortage of water. Mountainous people have started being affected by the diseases of lowlands whereas in high-mountains and mountains, lowland vegetation have started to grow. Because of erratic rainfall, rising temperature and melting of glaciers, the mountainous and lowland people now live with the new dangerous reality of flash flood and landslides. Based on NAPA and LAPA, several government, non-government and international institutions are now implementing activities related to climate adaptation for enhancing the adaptation capacity of the most vulnerables. Water, health, sanitation, agriculture, biodiversity, food security and nutrition have been identified as the most vulnerable sectors to climate impacts and are taken as priorities for providing support to local vulnerable people. Keywords: NAPA, LAPA, Adaptation, Vulnerability, Climate change, Nepal
Under the new constitution adopted in 2015, Nepal embraced the federal structure of government co... more Under the new constitution adopted in 2015, Nepal embraced the federal structure of government comprising seven provincial and 753 local governments, each with their own legislative, judicial, and executive powers. Nepal’s agriculture sector provides livelihoods to about 60% of the population. However, its bottlenecks are rooted in poor implementation of agricultural policies and plans, low levels of investment, uncertain political commitment and weak governance, especially a lack of an effective service delivery mechanism to farmers. This study analyzed the impacts of federalism on the institutional arrangements and governance of the agriculture sector through both review of literature and field-level information gathering, particularly focusing on extension service delivery to farmers in Province 2. The findings highlight the impacts of federalism on agricultural governance mainly in functional overlapping, resource allocation, priority setting, coordination, human resource manage...
The chapter describes the important role the non-timber forestry and agro-forestry sub-sectors pl... more The chapter describes the important role the non-timber forestry and agro-forestry sub-sectors play in Nepalese economy. Domestic consumption and export values of raw as well as processed non-timber forest products (NTFP) such as herbal medicine, aromatic oils, natural dye, fiber and nutrition supplements generated by these sub-sectors are on the rise. Agro-forestry is the mainstay of Nepal’s mountain farming systems. Sub-sector-related policy, institutions and regulatory frameworks are carefully reviewed since they play a critical role in the healthy development of these sub-sectors. Gaps in policy and legal framework, implementation hurdles are preventing good potential for growth and their contribution in agriculture development.
11.1 In t roduct ion Mountain communities in South Asia, especially those who live in the Hindu K... more 11.1 In t roduct ion Mountain communities in South Asia, especially those who live in the Hindu KushHimalayan region, are characterised as marginalised communities in terms of their access to capital, technology, and decision-making authority; fragile in terms of the health of the ecosystems they live in; and vulnerable in terms of their overwhelming dependence on natural resources. The region is facing greater and more difficult challenges than ever before in achieving balanced economic growth, alleviating poverty, and sustainably managing their renewable natural resources. People’s dependence on forest and related natural resources is historic, cultural, and inevitable as other viable alternatives for earning a living have been few and far between. As the economies of the predominantly mountainous countries in the region are gradually liberalised and a wave of consumerism is setting in, the income needs of the people have been steadily growing. The consequence of this trend has be...
Water, energy, and biodiversity are essential components for building a sustainable food system i... more Water, energy, and biodiversity are essential components for building a sustainable food system in a developing country like Nepal. Green Revolution technologies and the package of practices largely ignored the role of ecosystem services, leaving a large population of small farmers’ food- and nutrition-insecure. Biodiversity, especially, agrobiodiversity is in decline and this vital cross-cutting element is less discussed and interlinked in nexus literature. The interlinking food system with water–energy–biodiversity nexus, therefore, is essential to achieve a resilient food system. It ensures the vital structures and functions of the ecosystem on which it is dependent are well protected in the face of increasing socio-economic and climatic stress. This paper reviews the food system of Nepal through the lens of the food–water–energy–biodiversity (FWEB) nexus to develop a more robust food system framework. From this approach, food system foresight can benefit from different nature-ba...
... Klein Tank, AMG, TC Peterson, DA Quadir, S. Dorji, X. Zou, H. Tang, K. Santhosh, UR Joshi, AK... more ... Klein Tank, AMG, TC Peterson, DA Quadir, S. Dorji, X. Zou, H. Tang, K. Santhosh, UR Joshi, AK Jaswal, RK Kolli, AB Sikder, NR Deshpande, JV Revadekar, K ... http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0959-3780(91)90004-D. CrossRef, CSA. Wescoat Jr, JL, S. Halvorson, and D. Mustafa. 2000. ...
Mountains of Southeast Asia and the Pacific (SEAP) region spread across two geographic regions – ... more Mountains of Southeast Asia and the Pacific (SEAP) region spread across two geographic regions – mainland Asia and island/archipelagic states in the Pacific Ocean – and constitute one of the world’s highest and also most severely threatened biodiversity pools. A number of indigenous peoples who are marginalised, poor, and underserved by their respective states live in the structurally weak and fragile mountains. They are made even more vulnerable by increased frequency and intensity of rainfall, extreme temperatures and severe tropical storms. Increasing population and economic pressures are driving migrant lowland settlers towards the SEAP Mountains while extractive companies harness timber, minerals and water resources without giving local communities their due share. In general, the mountains have not been mainstreamed in governance in most Southeast Asian countries. This highlights the immediate need for policy reforms to protect social and ecological systems in the mountains fo...
Description/Abstract Nepal's Middle Hill regions have been excessively deforested. The gover... more Description/Abstract Nepal's Middle Hill regions have been excessively deforested. The government has launched a community-based reforestation project with help of international donors. However, results have been far from satisfactory. Plantation targets have not been met and survival rates of the planted trees are poor averaging around 60%. Social factors are given more blame than technical ones for these failures. However, an analysis of the available information indicates, rather, that about two-thirds of the failures were due to ...
ICIMOD, based on its past experience and knowledge base, realizes that national and sectoral poli... more ICIMOD, based on its past experience and knowledge base, realizes that national and sectoral policies have failed to make a significant impact on poverty reduction, natural resource conservation, and environmental quality maintenance in the mountains. Growing evidences suggest that purely technical solutions are neither effective nor sustainable unless they are supported by favourable policies and institutions. While policy decisions are prerogative of the RMC governments; relevant information and knowledge, and proper ground-level understanding are necessary for the policy makers to make right choice in terms of formulating appropriate policy. Being a non-political regional organization, ICIMOD, therefore has an important roles to support and facilitate informed decision-making by concerned agencies at national and sub-national levels, Founded in 24 years before by the RMCs with support of international partners, ICIMOD’role is to build up a regional knowledge base through generati...
... and Sagun Bista Action research on non-timber forest products in central 101 mid-hills region... more ... and Sagun Bista Action research on non-timber forest products in central 101 mid-hills region, Nepal Damodar P. Parajuli Resource base ... by small farmers through 185 training and capacity building: Experience of the HPPCL, Nepal Dhruv R. Bhattarai and Pradip Maharjan 5 ...
In an effort to develop effective institutions for the management of forest resources, a number o... more In an effort to develop effective institutions for the management of forest resources, a number of community based forest management (CBFM) policies and practices have evolved in South Asia. Most important of them are community forestry (CF) in Nepal and joint forest management (JFM) in India. Although both the approaches aim at promoting community-based forest management, their nature and characteristics vary considerably which, in turn, has difference implications in resource governance and livelihoods. Based on primary and secondary information, this paper makes an attempt to understand the nature of the two systems and their strengths and weaknesses. The analysis reveals that there are considerable between two systems in respect of level of institutionalisation, tenurial arrangement, degree of participation, decision-making authority, rights and obligations, and benefit sharing. While CF management model is supported by state legislation, JFM is based on the Govt. of India circu...
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Forestry, 1992. Includes bibliographical ref... more Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Forestry, 1992. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-244).
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Papers by Madhav B Karki