IYGP 2025 side event on Decades of cryosphere actions in HKH: Moving towards a flagship initiative

Organisers: ICIMOD

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About the event

ICIMOD’s Action Area on ‘Managing cryosphere and water risks’ is organising a side event entitled ‘Decades of cryosphere actions in HKH: Moving towards a flagship initiative’, as part of the launch of the 2025 International Year for Glacier Preservation (IYGP). The webinar will present the current status of the cryosphere in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), a strategic, long-term roadmap for addressing cryosphere-related challenges and opportunities in the region, and highlights of ICIMOD’s cryosphere research over the years.

Cryosphere research in the HKH has a complex history. Over the past few decades, ICIMOD has built understanding and achieved significant milestones in monitoring the HKH cryosphere. What began as a challenging subject in the region has evolved into a robust research and monitoring programme in collaboration with the countries of the HKH. The cryosphere programme has become a flagship initiative within ICIMOD’s regional and global portfolio.

Background to ICIMOD

The HKH region stretches 3,500km across Asia, spanning eight countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. Encompassing high-altitude mountain ranges, mid-hills, and plains, the zone is vital for the food, water, and energy security of up to two billion people and is a habitat for countless irreplaceable species. It is also acutely fragile, and vulnerable to the impacts of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), based in Kathmandu, Nepal, is an international organisation established in 1983, that is working to make this critical region greener, more inclusive and climate resilient. For more information, read our Strategy 2030 and explore our website.

Session host: Sonam Wangchuk, Cryosphere Specialist, ICIMOD

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