The document discusses climate change impacts in the Nepal Himalaya region. It notes that climate change is affecting temperature and rainfall patterns, causing glaciers to melt at faster rates. This is negatively impacting local communities who rely on natural resources for livelihoods. Case studies from the Annapurna Conservation Area show how community-based adaptation efforts, such as alternative energy programs and agriculture diversification, are helping to build resilience. The document calls for raising awareness of climate impacts in the Himalayas on a global scale.
1. Climate Change and Local Communities in
the Nepal Himalaya
Siddhartha Bajra Bajracharya, PhD.
National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC)
4 August 2011
2. Global warming and climate change
• Climate change is now widely recognized as the major
environmental problem facing the globe.
• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls “the defining
challenge of our age”.
• Evidence is building that impacts are being felt in the form of
melting Himalayas and increased variability of temperature,
rainfall and storms in virtually all regions.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth
Assessment Report (AR4) clearly states that it is no longer
relevant to discuss whether the climate is changing but rather
how much change we are committed to and how fast this will
occur.
3. Global warming and climate change
• Climatic changes — such as
• shrinking glaciers,
• variations in rainfall frequency and intensity, and
• shifts in growing seasons and disease distributions —
are expected to have substantial, and largely negative,
effects on food production, water supply and disease
proliferation in many parts of the world.
5. Global Warming
• Increase in the earth's temperature refers to
global warming, which in turn causes changes
in climate.
• Earth's average temperature has risen about 1
degree C in the past 100 years and is projected
to rise another 3 to 10 degrees C in the next
100 years.
6. Global Warming
• The most important of these being the
emission of green house gases and the
cleaning of natural vegetation.
• The climate is largely controlled by the flows
of heat entering and leaving the planet and
the storage of heat in the various
compartments of the earth systems- ocean,
land, atmosphere, snow/ice
7. Climate change : A natural process
Climate change is a natural process but excessive release of GHGs
mainly CO2 has accelerated the change leading to ecological
uncertainties. Average per capita emissions in India are in the order of 1.0
t CO2 per capita per year (2005), while they are in the order of 10 t CO2
per capita per year in Germany and 20 t CO2/year in the USA.
11. Causes of Global Warming
• The global warming is caused primarily by
carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and gas.
• The second is methane (released from rice
paddies, both ends of livestock, rotting
garbage in landfills, mining operations, and
gas pipelines).
12. Causes of Global Warming
• Third are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) released
from refrigerator, air conditioner etc.
• Fourth is nitrous oxide (from fertilizers and
other chemicals).
14. Two important reports
• The Stern Review 2006
• The 4th Assessment Report by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) 2007
• Both reports presented more and stronger
evidence for the impacts of climate change on
natural systems as well as on human activities
in many parts of the world.
15. Consequences of Climate Change
• Receding snowlines
• Hazy winter
• Flash floods
• Hotter summer months
• Frequent landslides
• Lake bursts (Glacier lake outburst flood)
• Impacts are predicted to be especially large
for poor countries.
17. Mountain countries such as Nepal are the most
vulnerable to climate change.
Nepal is getting warmer at the rate of 0.06 degree
Celsius per year i.e. 60 C in 100 years (GON-MOEST, 2003)
– High mountains warming faster (0.080 per year) than
lower hills and plains (0.040per year)
18. Nepal is warming faster!
• Nepal is getting warmer at the rate of 0.06 degree
Celsius per year i.e. 60 C in 100 years (GON-MOEST, 2003)
• Variability in mean temperatures is non-uniform
both temporally and spatially.
• Examples
– High mountains warming faster (0.080 per year) than
lower hills and plains (0.040per year)
- 1990s and 2000s are globally warmer than previous
decades
19. Himalayan Mountain System
• Mountain areas are:
• Inaccessible
• Fragile
• Diverse
• Marginalised and
• Comparative advantage
34. Climate Change
• Uncertainties in weather pattern
• Erratic monsoon rains (departure
from normal pattern), examples
– Higher maximum temperatures and
more hot days
– More intense precipitation events
– Changes in the timing of monsoon
onset and withdrawal
– Higher minimum temperatures and
fewer cold days and frost
– Reduced diurnal temperature range
– Number of rainy days decreasing and
intense precipitation events are
increasing
35. Impacts - Rural Communities
• People living in mountain ecosystem are
particularly vulnerable to climate change as a
result of:
– Their high dependence on natural resources for
their livelihood
– Comparatively higher exposure to extreme events
– Widespread poverty and
– Marginalisation
39. Impacts - Rural Communities
• Less winter snowfall events
and snow deposits
• Post-winter colder than usual
due to snow or hailstorm with
strong wind
• Glaciers are receding faster in
recent years
• Potential to increase water
related stress on rural
communities
Braga: cirque glacier with debris
40. Impacts - Rural Communities
• Exposure to extreme
events eg. from Manang
• Frequent snow avalanches
leading to loss of lives and
livestock
• Damage to infrastructures
and livelihoods downstream,
• Landslide dam bursts
41. Impacts - Rural Communities
• Locals of high
mountains complain of
unusual rains causing
collapse of their
traditional houses made
out of mud.
• Corrugated iron sheets
are used to replace or
repair traditional flat
roofs.
51. Low snow fall Disturbance in alpine system Less
availability of alpine grasses High Incidence of livestock
diseases and Chances of higher depredation by snow
leopard
Reducing the herd size or shifting the pasture.
55. A case study
• Climate change is a global phenomenon.
• Have clear implications on planning and management of PAs.
• ‘No action’ ‘Ke garne’ is no more an option.
• Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal
• Working with the local communities
Think Globally Act Locally
56. Annapurna Conservation Area
• Largest protected area
• High biological and cultural
diversities
• Community-based
management
• A major tourist destination
• ICDP approach
– Successful integration of
conservation and development
issues
59. Energy source
• Fuelwood was the principal
source of energy for
domestic and tourism
sectors.
• Consequences:
– Deterioration in the quality
and quantity of forests.
– Deforestations
– Soil degradation
– Erosion
– Flooding
– Increased CO2 emission
– Decreased CO2 sink
75. 1. People have faced climate
change and adapted to it since
our species evolved.
2. Nevertheless, people have
never adapted to climate
change on the scale that we
now face.
3. Existing coping strategies are
not always adequate to
respond to climate change.
76. 1. Coping strategies need to be
designed in the context of
sustainable development.
2. Need to disseminate
knowledge what we already
know.
3. Develop capacity to cope with
increased climate variability.
4. Communicating and raising
community awareness
78. Why this event?
• The Himalayas are shadowed in terms
of the global climate debate.
• There is no unified voice of ‘Mountain
States’.
• Hazard of ‘Melting of Himalayas’ will
be far & wide.
• If we do not raise voice , who will?
