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The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is a bastion of biodiversity, teeming with extraordinary life and interconnectedness across boundaries. More than 85% of rural communities in the HKH directly depend on biodiversity for their subsistence. However, exploitation and degradation are rampant in the HKH region, and climate change is aggravating matters. Vital links between species and ecosystems are being altered or severed.
To check the rapid decline of biodiversity in the fragile Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, we need a collective voice to conserve our HKH mountains and biodiversity. ICIMOD is putting forward three key messages at CBD COP15:
As critical HKH ecosystems are transboundary in nature and facing increasing degradation, it is essential to translate conservation and development challenges into sustainable development opportunities. This is possible through systematic research and monitoring, climate-proofing in conservation planning, and regional cooperation to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Interventions for the restoration of fragile mountain ecosystems such as rangelands, wetlands, agroecosystems, and forested ecosystems are urgently required. We need to identify critical ecosystems and restore them using traditional knowledge and community participation, preferably using an incentive-based mechanism to ensure sustainability.
Adopting nature-based solutions to restore ecosystems can help local communities and economies build resilience to future shocks and deal with a range of environmental issues. We need strong policy support and investments in innovation and technology to halt biodiversity loss and enhance ecosystem and livelihood resilience in mountain regions.
The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011–2020), formally adopted by COP in 2010 in Aichi, Japan provided an overarching global framework on biodiversity whose vision is to value, restore, and conserve biodiversity for the benefit of all people by 2050.
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The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has grouped all its member states into 12 sub-regional implementation support networks to facilitate the coordination, communication, and implementation of the agreed national priority actions and other commitments for achieving Aichi Target 11.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat has assigned ICIMOD the task of helping speed up the implementation of all priority actions and achievements of the CBD targets in South Asia.
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