2019 proved to be a year where evidence, awareness, and action around environment and climate reached new heights. One overarching message – We must act now to keep global temperatures below 1.5°C – emerges clearly from landmark reports like SR15 and SROCC and inspirational global movements like Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion taking over the world.
Habitat suitability data for Takin(Budorcas taxicolor)
The Hindu Kush Himalayan region (HKH) is an important biodiversity hotspot with more than 488 protected areas covering 39% of the region's geographical coverage. A majority of the protected areas are small and isolated and are not large enough to address conservation challenges.
Request for Proposal: Design, supply, delivery, installation, and commissioning of air-conditioning system in the new annex building at the ICIMOD headquarters
Workshop on environmental and natural resource economics
The YUE, SANDEE – ICIMOD, DU, and IPA are jointly organizing a workshop on “Environmental and natural resource economics” from 10 to 14 March 2020 in Myanmar.
Joshi, S., Yi, S., Jinniu, W., Pasakhala, B., Ismail, M., Bisht, N., Qamar, F.M., Long, R., Wu, N., Foggin, M., Weikang, Y. Bari, F., Shokirov, Q., Ahmed, A., Essa, M. & Xu, W.
Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI):
Phase 1 Report 2012-2017
The first phase of the Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative (KSLCDI), a Regional Programme on Transboundary Landscapes at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), has been completed.
Nepal, S; Neupane, N; Belbase, D; Pandey, VP; Mukherji, A (2019). 'Achieving Water Security in Nepal through Unravelling the Water-Energy-Agriculture Nexus.' In International Journal of Water Resources Development: 1-27 DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2019.1694867.
This article investigates water security in Nepal from the perspective of the water-energy-food nexus, focusing on pathways to water security that originate in actions and policies related to other sectors. Promoting Nepal's hydropower potential to provide energy for pumping could improve water security in agriculture. Renewable groundwater reserves of 1.4 billion cubic meters could be pumped to irrigate 613,000 ha of rainfed agricultural land in the Terai plains, with a potential direct economic gain of USD 1.1 billion annually and associated benefits including promotion of energy-based industry, food security, and local employment. We conclude that a nexus-based approach is required for effective water management and governance.
Shakya, B; Schneider, F; Yang, Y; Sharma, E (2020). 'A Multiscale Transdisciplinary Framework for Advancing the Sustainability Agenda of Mountain Agricultural Systems.' In Mountain Research and Development 39. https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-18-00079.1
Mountain agricultural systems (MASs) are multifunctional and multidimensional sociocultural systems. Mountain perspectives need to be integrated into governance decisions on sustaining resources in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, emphasizing the importance of sustainable MASs. We identify barriers to advancing the agenda for sustainable MASs and also propose a framework with an interscale science–policy interface to address overcome barriers. The framework emphasizes the connection between normative orientations for sustainability, science evidence, and solutions for sustainability through the use of iterative transdisciplinary knowledge-generation and knowledge-integration multiscale feedback processes. Thus, the key to advancing the agenda for sustainability of MASs lies in aligning scientific evidence with existing normative orientations for sustainability at local, subnational, national, regional, and global levels.
Book Chapters
Maharjan, A; Knerr, B (2019) 'Impact of Migration and Remittances on Agriculture: A Micro–Macro-Analysis.' In G. Thapa, A. Kumar and P. K. Joshi (eds), Agricultural Transformation in Nepal: Trends, Prospects, and Policy Options, 421-440. Singapore, Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9648-0_14
The chapter reviews the impact of migration and remittances on crop yields, labour use in agriculture, land use, as well as macro-level impacts (impact on tradeables and non-tradeables, grain imports, etc.). It also makes policy recommendations for the use of remittances for productive investment in agriculture, particularly food production.
