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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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ClimateNewsNetwork: One of the Climate News Network’s editors, Kieran Cooke, was among a group of journalists recently investigating the impact of climate change in Nepal and the Himalayas. He reports on some of the problems facing farmers in the region. KATHMANDU, 15 February – Life has been good in the past few years for Saraswati

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Tribune: Speakers at a seminar held on Thursday called for tangible steps to fight climate change and provide potable water to as many as 1.2 billion people who, they said, lacked access to clean drinking water. The event was organised at the Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) by its Department of Applied Chemistry and the

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RTCC: Nepal nestles beneath one of the greatest wonders of the world – the Himalayas – and this gives Nepalese a unique perspective on the effects of climate change. As the world warms our vast glaciers will melt, causing torrents of flood water to cascade through our country. We are sandwiched between China and India,

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Science Daily: A new book, “Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change,” predicts a grim future for billions of people in this century. It is a factual account of a staggering human toll, based on hard data. Author Andrew Guzman, an authority on international law and economics, is a professor and associate dean at UC

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Guardian: By shunning all but organic farming techniques, the Himalayan state will cement its status as a paradigm of sustainability. Bhutan plans to become the first country in the world to turn its agriculture completely organic, banning the sales of pesticides and herbicides and relying on its own animals and farm waste for fertilisers. But

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CHI: In recent disasters in Indian Himalayan region we lost many human lives, livestock population, agriculture land, livelihood opportunities and huge infrastructure overnight.  The most affected states due to these calamities in India are Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim and part of West Bengal. The flood in Kosi and Indus basins in Nepal and Pakistan

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Mountain Partnership: Whether we live at sea level or higher, we are connected to mountains and affected by them in more ways than we can imagine. Mountains provide most of the world’s freshwater, harbour a rich variety of plants and animals, and are home to one in ten people. Yet, each day, environmental degradation, the

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UNEarth: Climate change is an issue affecting both women and men. Despite the surface similarities shared by both genders, women experience climate change more adversely than men due to fundamental inequalities and discrimination. Women make up a disproportionately large share of the poor worldwide.  The poor are being hit first by the impact of climate

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Global Press Institute: As climate change disrupts water flow patterns in every region of Nepal, the availability of drinking water has become a serious threat to farms, livestock and families. For 53 years, Sunchari Dunwar, 65, has had the same daily routine. Married at the age of 12, she has risen early every morning to

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The Tribune: Research, awareness campaigns and the integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies in planning and development are essential to help Pakistan cope with future climate change challenges. These were the recommendations of a recently conducted survey by Save the Children to assess the impacts of climate change on children and their families in

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Daily Climate: India has made giant strides in increasing rice production, both to feed its own people and for export. But the price has been massive water consumption, and rising greenhouse gas emissions. India has to find a new model of development if the twin challenges of job creation and climate change are to be

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SciDevnet: Data presented at a seminar on climate change in Pakistan highlighted trends where this South Asian country, which stretches from high, snow-capped mountains to a deltaic coast, could be in for a sharp rise in average temperatures and extremely erratic weather. The seminar, held last month (29 December), analysed data in a new report

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World Bank: The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved funding of a project that aims to enhance government capacity to mitigate climate-related hazards in Nepal by improving the accuracy and timeliness of weather and flood forecasts and warnings for climate-vulnerable communities. Funded by a Strategic Climate Fund grant of US$16 million, and a

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Daily Mail UK: The bone-chilling cold in the Capital and similar extreme weather events across the country over the past few years are more than just freak happenings. Consider the following: In July 2005, four days of continuous rain left Mumbai completely flooded. In 1999, a super cyclone ravaged Orissa, while the country came under

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Guardian: Bhutan’s green schools project is an attempt to bring its revolutionary ‘happiness’ model to all young people. The Jigme Losel primary school in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, is a riot of green. Plants cover most surfaces and are piled precariously on walls and stairwells. On the wall behind the school’s vegetable patch a hand-painted

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In July, The Economist published a piece describing the effects of climate change in India and discovered two prevailing trends: first, India is getting warmer, and second, the summer monsoons are coming later and later in the year. Time Magazine recently looked into the phenomenon and found that India’s energy supply and distribution problems may

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IISC: Climate change vulnerability profiles are developed at the district level for agriculture, water and forest sectors for the North East region of India for the current and projected future climates. An index-based approach was used where a set of indicators that represent key sectors of vulnerability (agriculture, forest, water) is selected using the statistical

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Alertnet: Aid and environment groups have criticised the outcome of the U.N. climate talks in Dohaas a betrayal of the poorest people who are suffering the worst impacts of more extreme weather and rising seas. But negotiators from developing states have singled out an agreement to advance work on loss and damage from climate change

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Govt. of Bhutan: Thimphu, November 30: A Financing Agreement (FA) to formalise the European Union’s (EU) support to Bhutan under the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) was signed between the EU and the government. The Officiating Secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission signed the FA in the presence of the EU Ambassador to Bhutan,

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MP Press Release: Mainstreaming Rio+20 outcomes in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) processes for prosperous, resilient, and sustainable mountain ecosystems and communities” was held in Doha, Qatar, on 3 December 2012, on the sidelines of the 2012 UN Climate Change Conference.   The strong negative impact of climate change on the life

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Dunya News: At Friday prayers in Qatar s most popular mosque, the imam discussed the civil war in Syria, the unrest in Egypt and the UN endorsement of an independent state of Palestine. Not a word about climate change, even though the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar is hosting a UN conference where nearly 200 countries

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Huffingtonpost: Growing up in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, I would often see crows perched on nearby trees and on the rooftops of our homes. We would chase them as they tried to pick up food that was kept to dry out in the sun. Ten years on, it has become rare to hear the

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CoP18: Illiterate Grandmothers Become Solar Engineers: Incredible Story of Solar Mamas. Rafea Anadi appears almost lost within her long, black veil. Short of stature and slightly bowed, she seems she could be blown away by the wind. But one look in her dark brown eyes – unflinching, unafraid – and you know that Ms. Anadi

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CoP18: Conference hears from women on their role in tackling climate change and poverty. Women were the focus at the UN Climate Change Conference with the first-ever Gender Day of the yearly event at COP18/CMP8 today. It was also a day when the Chairman of the Organising Sub-Committee for COP18/CMP8 held the first of what

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Outreach: Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, CEO of Food Agriculture Natural Resources Policy Advocacy Network and spokesperson for global agriculture coalition Farming First Women are the fountain of life. They are mothers, innovators, educators, farmers and custodians of the environment, particularly rural women. In Africa, 70% of the population – of which a significant portion are

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Ganga is considered the sacred river and the deep bond that the people of India share with this spiritual entity is immense. Now this bond is making many pay a high price, after being diagnosed with cancer. The river was placed on the list of five most polluted rivers back in 2007. Adding to the

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PHYS.org: No success for REDD+ without understanding possible impacts on forest biodiversity and people. The world’s rapidly dwindling forests should be valued as more than just “carbon warehouses” to mitigate climate change, according to a new report released today from the International Union of Forest Research Organizations(IUFRO), the world’s largest network of forest scientists. In

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Scidevnet: A pledge to increase support for biodiversity targets in developing countries is welcome, but care for indigenous people is vital too. This month’s meeting of the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), held in Hyderabad in India, came as a reality check on the capacity of

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The News: Pakistan is facing serious threats due to climate changes fast taking place particularly in mountainous regions of Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalaya, it is learnt.  “The carbonaceous filth has started mixing into Indus waters pouring in from Glaciers (snow melting) which could leave hazardous consequences for life of every kind in the water passageways,” officials told

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IPS News: The old adage ‘nature is the great equaliser’ no longer holds true in countries like Sri Lanka, where the poor bear the brunt of extreme weather events. Gamhevage Dayananda, a farmer from the remote village of Pansalgolla in Sri Lanka’s north-central Polonnaruwa district, can attest to this reality, as he and his fellow

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The News: In a tattered mud-and-twigs hut, some 16 kilometers away from Jati Tehsil in Thatta district, Hanifa lights up her cigarette confidently telling us she can handle a natural disaster if it comes. She sounds pretty brave as she narrates her tales of survival from a series of natural disasters in the last two

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Agencia: Socioeconomic and cultural factors increase the vulnerabilities of the female sex to disasters caused by extreme climate events, says Mexican researcher and IPCC member. Women and girls currently represent 72% of people who live in conditions of extreme poverty worldwide. As a result of this and other socioeconomic and cultural factors, women represent the

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Alertnet: Migration linked with climate change is more likely to involve a steady step-up in existing patterns of movement around the world than the sudden surges of desperate refugees many governments fear, climate and migration experts say. Many argue, in fact, that migration – if prepared for and managed – could prove one of the

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Alertnet: In 2006, when the Asian Development Bank (ADB)  decided to launch a multi-million dollar rural water project in eastern and north central regions of Sri Lanka, there was one overriding requirement – women would be placed in key positions. As a result, experts say, the $263 million program, aimed at providing drinking water to

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Mountain Voice: In a series of Mountain Voice, the Climate Himalaya team captured the voices of mountain people from the western Himalayan region of India. Our team came across the real situation while interacting with various people in this region.  The team witnessed that the people are not aware about the statistics on the level

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On 13th September 2012 night in Chwanni, Mangoli and Kimana villages of Okhimath block in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand (India), heavy rains completely inundated over 4 villages and eroded 2 more villages, while there are no clues about 20-25 families in these villages. One can see the aftermath of erratic rainfall over the night in

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CCAFS (CGIAR): In Nepal, the involvement of men and women in agriculture is starting to change. “Before, women used to tend to the household work, while the men engaged themselves in the agricultural labor,” explained Nani Raut, a researcher who last year received a gender grant from the CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

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  Plan India/ SBMA:  On August 3rd and 4th night incidences of cloudbursts occurred in Uttarkashi area. It was around midnight when suddenly people noticed increasing water level with debris in the local rivers. People immediately started shifting from their houses  and tried to move to the safer locations. Some people were able to shift

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Alertnet: What are the gender dimensions of climate change? As a starting point, we know that women and men do not experience climate change equally. In many developing countries economic constraints and cultural norms that restrict women’s access to employment mean that their livelihoods are particularly dependent on climate-sensitive sectors, such as subsistence agriculture or

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CGIAR: Many regions in India are characterized by water scarcity which affects the well-being of millions of the poorest people. In India as well as many other developing countries, 20% households still do not have provision of adequate water for domestic use. This has resulted in a significant loss of time and effort, especially on

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Science Codex: New research released today by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) shows that despite more understanding, more resources, and policy recommendations, women continue to be largely marginalized and ignored or exploited in resource management processes throughout Asia – to the detriment of global climate and poverty reduction goals. This suite of analyses, released

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CGIAR: Getting a better understanding of how climate variability affects rural men and women differently, and in different regions, is challenging. Since their ability to respond to change and take action that will make them more resilient and able to adapt to a changing climate (alongside all the other social and economic change they are

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Mountain Voice: In a series of our Mountain Voice, the Climate Himalaya team interacted with youth in western Himalayan region of India to understand that how aware and concerned they are about various environment issues and how involved the Youth’s are in various developmental processes. As per our interaction with Youth in western Himalayan region

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Tribune Pakistan: After having provided recommendations to the government for formulating a national strategy on environment, the second day of the two-day conference on green economy concluded on Saturday. Industrialists and experts discussed challenges and possible solutions for environmental issues facing the country at the conference titled “National Consultation on Green Economy”. The subjects covered

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UN-Habitat: has developed a checklist for mainstreaming gender under the second phase of Cities and Climate Change Initiatives (CCCI) initiated by UN-Habitat in 20 cities of 13 countries. The check list is being tested in different countries and Nepal (Kathmandu Valley) is one of those few countries chosen by UN-Habitat. The purpose of testing the

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Sudan Vision: The timely, thought-provoking essays of this book provide valuable evidence of the impact of different gender and faith perspectives on practical development issues while also highlighting the complexities and ambiguities of religious influences. Development workers, researchers and social activists will gain from these studies a greater awareness and more critical understanding of how

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RAYAGADA, India, Apr 27, 2012 (IPS) – Tribal farmer Harish Saraka has rediscovered the key to sustainable farming in this rain-dependent hinterland of eastern Odisha state – mixed cropping. Saraka, 38, is careful not to take credit for helping to turn around farming in this area, in the news just a decade ago for starvation

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DowntoEarth: AFTER spending 6 months in the Indian Himalayas, my pessimistic attitude towards the developing world has eased somewhat. My experience has also led me to believe that the current ideology needs to be changed in order to restore the environment to the people, alleviating some of the everyday drudgery in their lives while preserving

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