Stephen Bailey: You need a bit of height to appreciate the size of a brick factory. You need to get close to appreciate the human cost. From a hill over Duwakot you can see people labouring in the grey mud beneath the towering chimney.  Down in the factory you can see the weather beaten faces,

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Buenos AH: The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is the last surviving paradise on Earth. This legendary Shangri-La, now a member of the United Nations, is home to over 700,000 people. Until 1958, it was practically closed to visitors. When Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister, visited Bhutan during that year he rode in on a

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With climate science evolving but remaining uncertain, how can journalists accurately communicate about climate change in the media? And, how can they break through the national perspective of their media outlet to give the regional story of climate change? The 24 journalists selected from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as the CDKN/Panos

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Searchlight SA: Climate change causes severe damage to the most socio-economically exposed communities. South Asia is home to almost 40% of the worlds poorest, and therefore faces a double conundrum. Countries in the region must not only support their populations from negotiating the swift socio-economic changes that have come to characterize their economies, but must

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Hill post: The Himalayas are being pounded again. Timber was stolen first; medicinal and aromatic herbs next. Now power projects are stealing water, life line for 30 million mountain folks and 3 billion in the Himalayan-water-dependent nations, as far as Vietnam. [1] The reassessed country-wise potential is: Pakistan: 41,722 MW, India 108,143 MW; Nepal 83,000

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D+C: The impacts of climate change make the poorest people on earth suffer more than others. This is evident in Mustang, a northern district of Nepal. Entire villages are thinking of relocating because water scarcity is getting worse. Swiss researchers assessed the options. Mustang is a tough place to live because of desert-like drought, freezing

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The Hindu: Chinese authorities have granted approval for an environmental assessment of a controversial 2 GW dam project — slated to be the country’s tallest dam — despite concerns voiced by a number of environmental groups. The Ministry of Environmental Protection this week said it had approved a year-long assessment of the Shuangjiangkou project on

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BBC: Nandi Lal Paswan, 59, is a farmer in Sripur, East Terai in Nepal. He is married and takes responsibility for the six other family members living in his house. Nandi Lal is content with his life, but he has worked hard to get where he is today. Thirty years ago he began farming a

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BBC: More than half of common plant species and a third of animals could see a serious decline in their habitat range because of climate change. New research suggests that biodiversity around the globe will be significantly impacted if temperatures rise more than 2C. But the scientists say that the losses can be reduced if

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Shalini Dhyani: Writes about hill agriculture, agro-forest and such ecosystem practices from Indian Himalayan region. She emphasizes on improving the socio-economic condition of mountain people by adopting a range of animal husbandry, agro-forestry and traditional agriculture practices through better scientific and technical inputs. Entire Himalayan ecosystem is undergoing rapid land-use and climatic changes in last

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Reuters: A newly established global panel on biodiversity faces being sidetracked by niche interests and northern agendas if it does not tread carefully, a meeting has heard. The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was formed in April 2012, with a mandate to assess the state of the planet’s biodiversity and ecosystems, and provide accessible scientific

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Huffingtonpost: The habitats of many common plants and animals will shrink dramatically this century unless governments act quickly to cut rising greenhouse gas emissions, scientists said on Sunday after studying 50,000 species around the world. The scientists from Britain, Australia and Colombia said plants, amphibians and reptiles were most vulnerable as global temperatures rise and

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Himalayan Times: Climate change has always remained as one of the hot topics of discussion amongst the environmentalists, governments, policymakers as well as other bodies concerned. As per Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increase in global average air and ocean

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My parents lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s and were profoundly affected by it. They taught us to work hard to earn a living, live within our means, save for tomorrow, share and not be greedy and help our neighbours because one day we might need their help. Those homilies and teachings seem

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Thomson Reuters Foundation: Plans to protect ecosystems and help people adapt to climate change ― also known as ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) ― must involve vulnerable groups, including women and communities greatly hit by global warming if they are to succeed, according to scientists who met in Tanzania last month (21-23 March). Scientists and policymakers at the UN-ledinternational

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CDKN: Pakistan is one of the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world: it accounts for just 0.8% of total global emissions, and ranks 135th in terms of per capita emissions.  Unfortunately, Pakistan is also one of the most climate vulnerable countries in the world.  Over the past 20 years, 141 extreme events

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From local knowledge to national policy: how can China’s mountain communities better adapt to climate change? Faced with increasing rainfall variability – especially continuous, four-year droughts – mountain farmers in Southwest China’s Yunnan province have developed innovative strategies to minimize water-related threats to their livelihoods. Yufang Su, Jianchu Xu and a team of World Agroforestry

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ACT Alliance members from eight Asian countries met last week in Nepal to share their experiences and develop strategies on how to better influence governments to address climate change. Some of the countries that suffer the most visible and tangible immediate effects of climate change are located in Asia. Foezullah from ACT Bangladesh explains that

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The Atlantic: Government officials say it’s been caused by statistical inaccuracies and climate change. But is that the whole story? As recently as 20 years ago, there were an estimated 50,000 rivers in China, each covering a flow area of at least 60 square miles. But now, according to China’s First National Census of Water,

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Aljazeera: Government attempts a new insurance scheme to protect farmers from floods and other worsening weather problems. After five consecutive dry winters, Abdul Qadeer was jubilant at the prospect of a plentiful harvest of wheat after December rains soaked his farmland. But the 39-year-old farmer’s hopes were destroyed last month by torrential spring rains and

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Himalayan Times: Minister for Agriculture Development Tek Bahadur Thapa Gharti has directed ministry officials to evaluate the performance of projects based on the benefits that the projects have provided to people. Impact on livelihoods should be the base for evaluating the projects, he said during a performance review meeting of the Agriculture Ministry. “The traditional

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Despite the Himachal Pradesh (India) government recently proposing to withdraw a Special Leave Petition (SLP), filed by the previous BJP regime, against the Rs 1,600 crore Himalayan Ski Village project proposed by the earlier Congress government, the state is not planning any moves to revive the project. Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy, who only three days

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Himalayan Times: Bhutan, a tiny Himalayan kingdom sandwiched between two super powers India and China, has gained popularity after introducing a new development measure, Gross National Happiness (GNH), in recent years. The fourth monarch of Bhutan, Jigme Singey Wangchuck, introduced it in the early 1990s along with his vision of establishing good governance, promoting sustainable

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CDKN: Dr. Govinda Nepal, IDS-Nepal, reflects at the half way point of a project in Nepal which is calculating the economic cost of climate change in key sectors on what the team has learnt so far Which climate risk screening tool is the most appropriate for Nepal? What questions does an Investment and Financial Flow

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ABC Net: The small, landlocked country of Bhutan is aiming to increase its national happiness by becoming the first country in the world to completely shift to organic farming. About 80 per cent of Bhutan’s 800,000 residents depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The country plans to use the organic status, which it hopes to

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The Better India: Puja Devi, 30, watches with satisfaction as her young son gulps down his glass of milk and then reaches for his satchel, ready to go to school. For some months now, the happy mother has been able to provide milk for her son every day, a far cry from earlier times when

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EBA: The ecosystem-based adaptation in mountain ecosystems (EbA) project in Peru, among its activities, contributes to the enhancement of local and national capacities by providing training in analytical and decision-making tools that help better understand and address vulnerability of ecosystem services, through the use of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) and enhancing local livelihoods. In order to

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MP: A project to improve food security among vulnerable rural groups coordinated by Mountain Partnership member the International Potato Centre (CIP) is underway in four Latin American countries. In the Andes, the potato is one of the most important crops in the agricultural sector. However, in areas where the tuber is produced, chronic malnutrition in

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Life had been good for Sunyali Majhi, a farmer in Dolalghat, a small village about 50 kilometres from landlocked Nepal’s Kathmandu. She harvested enough rice to sell and feed her brood at home. But the portions have been getting smaller, the financial squeeze tighter. In the shade of a Peopaal tree, Sunyali and her children

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BioOne: Recent studies of future food production in South Asia generally agree that the conditions for production will radically change in the years to come, in particular due to climate change and market variations. However, because we do not know how conditions will be modified and what adaptations will be required by farmers, the article

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IHCAP: A Capacity Building Programme on Himalayan Glaciology was inaugurated on 02 April 2013 at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (India) in the presence of Swiss Ambassador to India Dr. Linus von Castelmur and Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. The press release states that the Capacity Building Programme

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Climate Central: The Indus river, originating on the Tibetan Plateau and flowing for nearly 2,000 miles through the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir and finally down to the province of Sindh and out into the Arabian Sea, is key to life in Pakistan. The majority of Pakistan’s 190 million people are involved in agriculture:

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CS Monitor: Almost half of the world gets its water from the Himalayas and other high mountains, but little is known about how global warming will affect these sources. A team of scientists ventured to the roof of the world to investigate. The distribution of water in Asia’s highest mountains and driest deserts tells an

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Nature: The vulnerable north eastern states of India — which bear a significant brunt of the global climate change phenomena — have finally got some serious attention from climate scientists. The eight states, least studied so far, have been thoroughly analysed over a 34-year period in a new study.1 Based on the trends observed from

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Scidev.Net: With extra funding and empowering legislation Pakistan’s autonomous Global Climate Change Impact Centre (GCCIC) is set to take on a regional and international role in climate research. Legislation passed this month (6 March) is expected to transform the GCCIC into a centre capable of providing data for decision making and formulating policy in areas

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WWF: Coordination Group of the Summit for a Living Himalayas (SLH) comprising of delegates from four countries (India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh) met again on 23 February 2013. For the WWF LHGI, decisions taken by this Group in this meeting are a big step towards large scale regional action in the Eastern Himalayas. For the

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UNDP: Connecting poverty eradication and environmental sustainability is the ‘make or break’ for our future. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, Mr. Carlos Roverssi, Special Envoy of the French President for the Protection of the Planet Nicolas Hulot, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Helen Clark, and the Executive Director

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Tribune: Pakistan’s only dedicated climate change research centre is going to partner with Italian experts to identify climate change adaptation measures. The Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC), which recently became an autonomous body by act of parliament, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ev-K2-CNR, an Italian research organisation that has worked in Pakistan’s

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Earthweek: Climate change has caused some villages in northeastern India to become flooded, and in some cases, washed away entirely due to more extreme rainfall over the last few decades. The trend has caused some rivers across the region to migrate from their established channels that humans have used for thousands of years. These roving

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Dr. Madhav Karki discusses about sustainable mountain development- SMD agenda that was adopted during 1992 Rio Earth summit, and how the socio-economic and environmental issues were taken by countries in the Hindu Kush Himalayan- HKH region during last 20 years in terms of achieving the goals as envisioned in SMD document. He argues that mountain

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Alertnet: Wooden water wheels have long captured energy from mountain streams. New versions work even better, helping provide a local, sustainable source of energy to Indian villages high in the Himalayas. Living in an isolated Himalayan hamlet, 2,500 meters (5,600 feet) above sea level, Govind Singh Rana seems an unlikely candidate for wealth. But by

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PR Web: University of Massachusetts Boston professor and leading conservation biologist Kamal Bawa and conservation photographer Sandesh Kadur announce the release of their book Himalaya: Mountains of Life. Five years in the making, the book focuses on the Eastern Himalaya—the first time the region’s threatened biodiversity and cultures have been documented together by a preeminent

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Times of India: Non-life insurers are working on a catastrophic fund to provide relief to victims of natural calamities such as cyclone, floods, earthquake and tsunami. Insurers are in talks with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and state governments to set up a fund that will take care of providing immediate relief to victims.

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IUCN and the International Water Association (IWA)  launch the Nexus Dialogue on Water Infrastructure Solutions.The goal is to building partnerships for innovation in water, food, and energy security. The Dialogue recognises how the close interaction between water, energy and food – the nexus – has led to new demands for water infrastructure and technology solutions. Water, energy and food security

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Triple Pundit: The tiny nation of Bhutan attracted worldwide attention recently when it announced that it intends to convert its agriculture to 100 percent organic farming in the coming years.  For many, its claim is no surprise; the Kingdom of Bhutan has been incorporating sustainable growing methods into many of its agricultural practices for years.

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IRIN: No one working in the aid community in recent years could have avoided the buzzword “resilience” – but what does the term mean practically, and how has it helped shape action on the ground? In fact, there is no standard definition of the term, points out a draft paper by the UN Development Programme

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SciDev.Net: India needs micro-level scientific assessment at the state, district and village levels for effective planning and implementation of measures to combat climate change, a national workshop has highlighted. The workshop on  climate-resilient development, organised last month (13 February), discussed integrating climate change into development programmes in semi-arid regions like Bundelkhand in central India. Participants

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IRN: Bhutan fires the imagination of an ideal mountain country with many snow-clad peaks, where people go about their daily chores in serenity, dressed in their national dress, wearing a smile and with a song on their lips. The image of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) that it portrays is ever present. The four pillars

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AKF: At independence, Tajikistan faced a variety of rural development challenges precipitated by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing civil war from 1992 to 1997. The mountainous regions of the country were especially affected, as both events left these areas cut-off from previous supply routes and desperately short of food. The dependency

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Dr. Madhav Karki writes about the commitments made by the member countries during Rio+20 summit on various sustainable development goals (SDGs) on low carbon green economy principles and good governance practices, in socio-economic and environmental perspectives. He argues that post Rio+20 actions should be more cohesive, participatory, multi-disciplinary and simple in approach, so that they

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IRISH Times: They look like rice terraces, neat steps of land carved all the way up the steep hillsides, the mighty snow-capped Himalayan mountain range in the distance. But go closer and it’s not rice but potatoes that are growing in this lush valley about an hour’s journey north of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital. “We used

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Times of India: GitaDevi of Kullu used to routinely visit apple orchards and jungles every morning, collect some guchhi ( morel mushroom, also known as common morel, morel or yellow morel) and leave it to dry near the tandoor and sell it for high prices to traders at her doorstep. She used to earn good

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The Tribune: The state of compilation of environmental data in Pakistan remained extremely poor, but with the introduction of the $2.1 million National Environment Information Management System (NEIMS), things might improve. The NEIM, a collaborative project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the climate change ministry, with the support from the Netherlands government,

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Alertnet: No-till farming is a response to climate change that fits well with the needs of the Caribbean: it increases the ability to capture water, while withstanding both drought and excessive rains, says expert Theodor Friedrich, representative of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Cuba. The Caribbean islands are in dire need

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Preeti Soni, Advisor (Climate Change), UNDP India, talks to OneWorld South Asia, on the sidelines of an international conference held in New Delhi earlier this month. OneWorld South Asia: How do the challenges brought by climate change present an opportunity for better management of natural resources in India? Preeti Soni: Climate change is of course

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Tribune: A report commissioned by the government in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund found last year that Pakistan was among the 10 countries likely to be most badly hit by global climate change. Pakistan is in a region where temperature increases are higher, which will affect precipitation and vegetation. Already we have seen the

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WED celebrations began in 1972 and have grown to become the one of the main vehicles through which the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action. Mongolia, which is prioritizing a Green Economy shift across its big economic sectors such as mining and promoting environmental awareness among  youth, is

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International Mountain Day 2013, Proposed theme: Mountains – Key to a Global Green Economy The United Nations General Assembly has designated 11 December, from 2003 onwards, as “International Mountain Day”. FAO is the U.N. Organization mandated to lead the observance of International Mountain Day each year. In the follow-up to Rio +20 we would like

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Thenews: Global climate change is posing serious threats to agrarian countries despite the facts that majority of them are not the major contributor in global warming. However, they are facing decline in agricultural productivity and water resources.  Speakers, during presentations in a seminar to the Agricultural Journalists Association (AJA), said the climate change cannot be

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Justmean: Over the next 50 years, we will need to face global food and farming realities. We will need to meet the challenges of providing better nutrition for more people in spite of rapid environmental change while cutting back our overuse of natural resources, ecosystems and the climate. All this calls for social innovation in

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