Back to news
14 Feb 2016 | News

The ‘Third Pole’: A Monitoring And Assessment Programme To Sustain The Hindu Kush Himalayan Region as a Global Asset

1 min Read

70% Complete

From 26-28 January 2016, the first writers’ workshop for the coordinating lead authors of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) took place in Kathmandu, Nepal. HIMAP is a comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region that aims to assist in addressing threats, act on opportunities, and scale up cutting edge approaches.

HIMAP frames the challenge as follows: “Outside of the North and South Poles, the HKH region contains the largest area of permanent ice cover in the world, which is why it is sometimes referred to as the ‘Third Pole’ of the earth. Its terrain encompasses the source of 10 major river systems, 4 global biodiversity spots, 330 important bird areas, and hundreds of mountain peaks over 6,000masl. The region provides water, ecosystem services, food, energy, and livelihood to 210 million people directly. An additional 1.3 billion people living downstream benefit from its resources indirectly and more than 3 billion people rely on energy produced in the basin catchment area of the Himalayan river systems. The region is also home to some of the most diverse cultures, languages, religions, and traditional knowledge systems in the world. For these reasons, the HKH region is clearly a major global asset, critical to the planet as a whole.”

READ MORE

Tourism beyond borders: Stakeholders discuss opportunities for cross-border tourism at the Fifth Asian Rural Tourism Festival

As the Government of Nepal launches its Visit Nepal 2020 campaign, communities in eastern Nepal will have an additional appeal ...

15 May 2015 News
Impact of Nepal Earthquake 2015 on Langthang Valley

  The 7.8 magnitude Nepal earthquake on April 25, 2015 and subsequent aftershocks caused more than 8,500 fatalities, nearly 22,500 injured, ...

22 Jan 2016 News
Partnering for Better Livelihoods in Upper Indus

‘Agricultural Water, Energy and Hazard Management in the Upper Indus Basin for Improved Livelihood’, a special project in Upper Hunza, ...

1 Oct 2016 News
Paper Publication on the Discourse of Cilmate Change and Human Mobility

Should we be concerned over the impacts that climate change could have on human mobility? For many, the answer is ...

12 Dec 2016 News
Winners of ‘ICT for Mountain Development Award 2016’

Virtual reality for tourism, a crop database, a landslide warning system, and documentaries on Himalayan environments… these four topics took ...

27 Feb 2016 News
Enhancing the Large Cardamom Production

Large cardamom (Amomum sabulatum Roxb) is the high value cash crop and main source of cash income for farmers in ...

8 Oct 2018 CryoHub
CryoBrain interaction with Norwegian cryosphere expert

Kjetil Melvold, researcher at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), presented his ongoing research on sub-grid snow distribution ...

8 Mar 2019 Gender in Koshi
Balance for better: Community enterprise for strengthening women entrepreneurship in Nepal

Business has largely been dominated by men across the world, and Nepal is no exception. Women usually need to be ...