Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Services in the Hindu Kush Himalaya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13052/jgeu0975-1416.911Keywords:
Mountains, Global Biodiversity Hotspot, Landscape approach, Regional Cooperation.Abstract
With 22% global land surface area, the mountains ecosystem is home to 13%
of the total human populations. Evolved as a unique ecosystem, the mountain
adds value with diverse ecosystems; tradition and culture as well as ecosys-
tem services for socio-economic development in the mountain areas and
beyond. As it caters half of the humanity with its diverse types of ecosystem
services, the realization of its significance are still limited in national, regional
and global discourses. In the conservation front, there has been a significant
progress in the concept and practices from species focussed interventions to
habitat and ecosystem/landscape conservation approaches. The Hindu Kush
Himalaya (HKH), known as the highest mountain ecosystems in the world is
also the water tower for the region often referred as the third pole. This unique
ecosystem is an important repository of biological and cultural diversities and
source of varied ecosystems services to 240 million people living within and
about a one third of global population living downstream. The region has
been in spotlight for being part of the 36 ‘Global Biodiversity Hotspot’ as
well as climate change hotspot. However, our understanding the dynamics of
changing landscapes and climate and its linkage to people, mostly challenged
by poverty are limited. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Devel-
opment (ICIMOD), an inter-governmental regional knowledge and enabling centre, has been instrumental in developing knowledge about the dynam-
ics of these fragile ecosystems and support its regional member countries
through science based integrated approaches. Since its inception, ICIMOD
has been engaged in developing knowledge and supporting policies for moun-
tain development focusing on socio-economic, ecological and environmental
dimensions. In this paper, we present the retrospect of our understanding
and learnings in the HKH through transboundary landscape management
and regional cooperation mostly focused on conservation of biodiversity and
ecosystem services perspectives. The paper reflects on changing paradigm
and complex process for strengthening regional cooperation in the HKH.
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