SciDevNet: Pakistan’s outdated crop yield forecasting system needs a revamp, says Ibrar ul Hassan Akhtar. Like most developing countries, Pakistan is staring at the spectre of food insecurity, with its food production out of sync with population growth. The food availability scenario is further complicated by changing weather patterns with recurring severe droughts and floods [...]

IIED: The Vice-President of Nepal — His Excellency Parmanand Jha — hosted the launch of a new report that details how the country can benefit from bringing its environment and development policies into harmony. The report, by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Kathmandu-based Asian Centre for Environment Management and Sustainable [...]

“In no way can the recent air crash and the one few months ago in Nepal could be linked to climatic aberration. Those who have flown on these over-used and under-maintained planes would agree that such disasters were indeed waiting to happen. Professionals who have no option but to fly to distant locations within the [...]

Assam Tribune: Ignoring the crucial linkages of a river’s upstream, midstream, and downstream flows can endanger not just the river, but human communities and ecology sustained by it. A disregard of ‘environmental flows,’ by construction of dams, has already harmed many rivers in the Western Ghats, giving rise to political as well as environmental issues. [...]

Chinadialogue: Tourism offers an opportunity to rebuild the local economy of Pakistan’s Swat Valley, ravaged by conflicts and floods. But can it also restore its rivers and forests? Rina Saeed Khan reports. For years, Pakistan’s former princely state of Swat, famous for its fruit orchards, snow-clad mountains, Buddhist stupas and trout-filled rivers, was a popular [...]

Jagaran Post: Members belonging to various parties on Monday demanded immediate intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to save the river Ganga and make it pollution free at the earliest. “I demand that the Prime Minister should intervene to save the Ganga which is not just a river but our lifeline and part of our [...]

Kashmir Images: As the rise in temperature, by 4 degrees Celsius, by the next decade is considered inevitable, it is time to prepare for the fallout.The fact that India faces multiple environmental crisis’s was highlighted by the government’s report on the impact of global warming across the country. The report, soon to be submitted to [...]

Gadling: The Himalayan Stove Project is a non-profit organization that has a very clearly defined message and goal. The group looks to improve the lives of those living in the Himalaya Mountains while simultaneously preserving the environment there as well. To accomplish this lofty goal, the HSP intends to deliver 10,000 clean cooking stoves to [...]

International Affairs review: The energy partnership between China and India could become a leading example of progress on climate change. China and India have positioned themselves as defenders of the global South in the international climate change arena. The climate change debate, meanwhile, is firmly centred on whose responsibility it is to clean up the [...]

Times of India: The EU has shifted its goalpost for climate change again, unilaterally seeking talks on a new global protocol from this year that puts India and other developing nations at par with developed world. Ironically, the new condition, if implemented, will exempt Europe from divulging its targets for emission reduction in violation of [...]

The Tibet Post: His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorjee addressed the “Bodh Dharama-Vishva Shanti” summit, a large gathering of Indian and Tibetan Buddhists at Dharamshala on Wednesday. His Holiness thanked the Government of Himachal Pradesh and its people for their assistance and hospitality to the Tibetan people. “I think, Himalaya is an [...]

The Bhutanese: Weather forecast is a piece of information that can be used by anyone, from a farmer to a tourist, or for construction projects, or to simply planning a picnic! Have you ever wondered where and how the country gets its weather forecast? The Department of Hydro-Met Services (DHMS) under the Ministry of Economic [...]

Financial Express: Fight climate change with green energy. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has emphasised on the need for incorporating renewables in the energy matrix for climate change mitigation and for reducing greenhouse gasses. India’s national agenda on climate change is to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by 2020 in tune with its Copenhagen [...]

weADAPT: This work is part of a Policy Brief on Climate Change in Nepal produced by Practical Action in 2008 and provides a summary of climate change as currently experienced in Nepal, and projections of future changes. Climate change in Nepal Some level of uncertainty is inevitable in measuring and anticipating climate change. Attributing individual [...]

The Tribune: A collective scientific approach is required for mitigating the impact of climate change which is one of the most serious social, economic and environmental challenges facing humanity. This was discussed at an international conference on “Climate Change: Opportunities and Challenges” held at the National University of Science and Technology here on Wednesday. The [...]

Zee News: Possibly the least urbanized country in South Asia, Nepal is also the fastest urbanizing nation in the region — and unless the government seriously manages urbanization better, the country could fail to attain economic efficiency from the process, a new World Bank study has warned. The findings of the study — Urban Growth [...]

Zee News: Climate change will be an additional stress on Indian forests, especially in Upper Himalayan stretches, which are already subjected to multiple challenges including over-extraction, livestock grazing and human impact, a government report said here today.   India’s second National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, released by Environment Minister [...]

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 [...]

IRIN News: The needs of millions of indigenous mountain people across Nepal are overlooked, imperilling their food security and hindering their economic progress, activists and experts say. “People in the mountains of Nepal are worse off in terms of total poverty – food and non-food poverty,” said Jean-Yves Gerlitz, co-author of a recent study on [...]

Environment News Service: India is considering integrating Israeli water technologies into a national initiative to clean up the polluted Ganges River, which provides water for 40 percent of India’s population in 11 states through which it flows. Indian engineers, scientists and officials from water technology companies visited Israel late last month to explore the possibilities. [...]

New Internationalist: At the frontline of climate change, the people of Bangladesh are using every ounce of their creativity to adapt. Hazel Healy assesses whether it will be enough. It is hard to believe the village was built from scratch. It looks as if it has always been here. Tidy kitchen gardens sit next to thatched [...]

Bangkok Post: Mountain kingdom has inspired choice for conference on sustainable tourism. Few people would have pictured Bhutan as the site of an event staged by a large mainstream tourism organisation, given the mountain kingdom’s zealous attempts to guard against being overwhelmed by the outside world. But the choice of the picturesque town of Paro [...]

Hill Post: Ignorance is not always bliss; not when the climate and pristine ecology is at stake. A change in the climate that has served millions of life forms from the beginning of time does not just affect our surroundings. It ropes in our future generations too. 2 years ago, I crossed the Rohtang Pass [...]

The News Pakistan: A Bangladeshi disaster management expert, Khurshid Alam, on Friday emphasised the need for training the local community in playing an effective role in recovering from natural calamities and minimising the adverse effects of an emergency. Local knowledge should be incorporated in designing a disaster management plan. It is very important to learn [...]

Dr. Sudhirendar Sharma: I’m indeed grateful to all the members who made written submissions to the discussions on ‘rewriting mountain perspective‘. At bilateral level, many others have contributed their unwritten thoughts and reflections. While many have gone public with their inputs, others have restricted themselves to drawing-room conversations such that they remain ‘unidentified’ in the [...]

Ekantipur: Climate change is the definitive challenge of the 21st century. Changes in the climate destroy the basis on which human life subsists; drought, for instance, leads to shortages in food and water. Rising sea levels are already threatening the territories of small island states and vast stretches of coastland. Climate change impacts in Nepal [...]

Hill Post: Himachal Green Court imposes Rs 100 Cr damages on Jaypee Cement Plant Getting tough on blatant violations of environment laws, a green bench of Himachal Pradesh High Court (India) on Friday not only imposed Rs 100 crore damages on Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. (JAL, a Indian industry) for having set up a whole cement [...]

One World South Asia: At an outreach event in New Delhi, India, climate experts said that South Asian countries will have to work hard on climate change related issues not just because the region is vulnerable but also because there is not much research and data collection. By: Rahul Kumar/OneWorld South Asia New Delhi: Even though [...]

Daily Mail: When it comes to conservation of river Ganga, the government seems to be moving at snail’s pace. Even 10 months after issuing a notification to declare 135 km stretch of the river from its origin at Gaumukh as eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), the ministry of environment and forests has failed to finalise it. The [...]

Sudan Division: Rio+20 offers the world a unique chance to advance the sustainable development agenda. The conference has three main objectives: to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development, to assess progress and gaps in implementation of agreed commitments, and to address new and emerging challenges. The two themes of the Conference are a green [...]

Sustain Labour: Nepalese workers and their trade unions are committed to fighting climate change by protecting Nepal’s beautiful forests and livelihoods, and are taking concrete actions to reduce deforestation. For over 30 years Nepalese communities have been working hard to manage their forests and to help protect their environment. Between 119 million and 1.42 billion [...]

Dawn (PESHAWAR): To offset the effects of climatic change and global warming in the country, the Pakistan Forests Institute (PFI), Peshawar has completed a comprehensive study to determine the climatic change scenarios in Pakistan’s various ecological zones and its impact on forests resources. “It is the first professional attempt to address the emerging issues of [...]

Kashmir Life: After Sichaen Glacier devoured more than 130 men in a single avalanche early this month, Islamabad is again seeking a way out from the inhuman, refrigerated battleground it is sharing with India for the last 28 years. In the apparent spring of relations, if the two countries warm up to undo their glaciated [...]

WRI Publication: This report introduces the National Adaptive Capacity (NAC) framework, a tool to help governments bring institutional capacity development into their adaptation planning processes. The NAC framework enables its users to systematically assess institutional strengths and weaknesses that may help or hinder adaptation. National adaptation plans may then be better designed to make best [...]

Times of India: The fight against climate change will take a strategic jump in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017) with the government intending to plough in almost Rs 2 lakh crore through the various missions, the working group on climate of the 12th Five-Year Plan has said. The report seeks setting up of a dedicated [...]

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 [...]

Business Bhutan: A shared vision and collaborative efforts at public and the private sector level can mitigate the impact of climate change. Climate change affects everyone and while countries around the world are failing to reach a global agreement on the issue, it is at the local levels that global action must begin. This is [...]

The Himalayan glaciers are not shrinking at an alarming rate under the influence of the global warming syndrome. This was the assertion made by Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Advisor and Head of the Climate Change Programme of the Government of India (GoI). He was delivering the keynote address at a consultation workshop organised by the Assam [...]

Dawn Pakistan: Speakers at a workshop here on Thursday said that glacier lake outburst floods (GLOF) were posing threat to Hindukush-Himalya region that could play havoc with human settlements. They stressed the need for taking steps to reduce the risk. The workshop titled ‘Reducing risks and vulnerabilities from glacier outburst floods in northern Pakistan’ was [...]

SciDevnet: Climate researchers pay too little attention to social sciences, delegates at the International Conference of Mountain Countries on Climate Change have heard. The meeting in Nepal (5–6 April) was attended by around 30 country representatives, and concluded with a ‘Kathmandu Call for Action’, with a view to highlighting the specific needs of mountain countries [...]

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 [...]

Eurasia Review: Environmentalists and scientists have urged India and Pakistan to free the world’s highest battleground‎ of Himalayan Siachen glaciers from military forces to avoid devastating ecological disasters. “From human and environmental perspective, it is an expensive and tragic standoff on Siachen between two countries where either is too proud to back off unilaterally as [...]

The Hindu: India’s space and security capabilities are poised for a big leap with the launch of an entirely indigenous radar imaging satellite, RISAT-1. In the popular mind, radar satellites have a swashbuckling image that is often associated with covertly watching over other countries and tracking their military hardware. These satellites can certainly serve that [...]

UNECE: The Third workshop on water and climate change in transboundary basins: Making adaptation work will bring together more than 140 participants from all over the world on 25 and 26 April 2012 in Geneva to discuss how to prevent conflict in transboundary basins over dwindling water resources by cooperating at the transboundary level in [...]

Express Tribune: Struck by worst natural disasters in recent years, Pakistan needs resources, long-term policy and political commitment to cope with climate change. This was said by Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO) Chief Executive Naseer Memon during a workshop on climate change on Monday. A group of journalists attended the session, which was organised by a [...]

Himalayan Times: Ace mountaineer Appa Sherpa, who has conquered Mount Everest for 21 times, is planning to announce a greater alliance for the preservation of Himalayan region in the country and taking an initiative to form an international support group for the overall development of the region. “With an aim to preserve the entire Himalayan [...]

Deccan Chronical: Indian and Pakistani glaciologists have crossed swords over whether the Siachen glacier is melting or not. Leading Indian glaciologist Dr Vijay Kumar Raina, formerly of the Geological Survey of India and author of a report on glaciers prepared for the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) in 2010 has stated categorically that the [...]

Environmental and Civil News: Climate change impacts are likely to affect societies in complex and broad-ranging ways as technological, economic, social and ecological changes take place across regions, groups and sectors. Climate Change impacts have cascading effects on social and health concerns.  Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable development are often developed separately at the local as [...]

The News: Siachen is the only Glacier of Karakorum range melting with unprecedented rate, the cause of which is the military presence in the area and not global warming. The high-resolution images of the Siachen glacier show deep cracks every 10 feet (crevasses), both in longitudinal and transverse directions. The retreat of the glacier is [...]

UNDP (India): To ensure that national climate change policies are modified/adapted to meet needs of states, in partnership with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India this project aims to strengthen the capacities of state governments and other stakeholders both nationally, and across states address climate change challenges. The project will support national [...]

The Daily Star: South Asian nations should converge on stronger climate change negotiations in the global levels to protect hundreds of millions of people being affected in this region, suggested experts. They also recommended that South Asian countries actively collaborate among themselves in sharing knowledge and technologies to increase food productivity, energy efficiency and reduce [...]

RTCC: Pakistan has launched its first climate change adaptation project aimed at tackling the threats communities face from bursting glacier lakes in the country’s northern mountains. With Northern Pakistan being home to 5,218 glaciers and 2420 glacial lakes – 52 of which have been classified as potentially dangerous – the two year pilot project is [...]

Himalayan Times: The government of Nepal recently hosted a high level international conference of mountain countries on climate change. Nepal extended invitation to 55 countries, however, only nine ministers attended and less than 30 countries sent their representatives. Regardless of the attendance, one must praise the courage shown by the government in hosting such a [...]

Time: India’s Wular Lake, a popular picnic and tourist spot nestled in the Kashmir Valley, is an unlikely site for conflict. But India’s plan to build a structure on the Jhelum River at the mouth of the lake that will allow it to release water during the river’s lean winter months has outraged neighboring Pakistan, [...]

Daily Times: Say 52 glaciers in mountainous regions have dangerous tendencies ISLAMABAD: Speaking at a seminar, environment experts highlighted that 52 glaciers in mountainous regions of Pakistan have dangerous tendencies and warned of more disasters like Attabad Lake and recent avalanche in Gayari area of Siachen. They were expressing their views at the media launch [...]

Forestry Nepal: Climate change is contemporary global threat to the animal world. Green house gases are resulting global warming which is creating different impacts in the world. Because of human activities green house gases are increasing. Nepal’s temperature is increasing at an alarming rate. Increasing temperature is creating different impacts on biodiversity, health the environment [...]

KuenselOnline: This is the  last article on the GLOF research and mitigation project between May 2009 and March 2012.  The articles will highlight latest findings on glacier, glacial lakes condition and natural hazards in the Bhutan Himalayas. Experts from the department of geology and mines (DGM), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Science and [...]

Alertnet: Water is key to food security. Meeting mounting food needs of a burgeoning population increasingly depends on efficient use of the water. That is possible if people are educated about its prudent use. According to the a UN Water, “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access [...]

SNV Nepal: Given the high potential for renewable energy technologies (RETs) to contribute to both climate mitigation and adaptation, it is increasingly important to address climate change issues when planning for RET dissemination. However, sustainable utilisation of Nepal’s available energy resources will only be possible if planning is carried out at the local level with [...]

GlacierWorks: is pleased to present Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya for a limited engagement at Everest Base Camp (April 10 – May 10, 2012). Sponsored in part by Mountain Hardwear, the Base Camp exhibition showcases mountaineer David Breashears’ modern, high-resolution glacier imagery alongside matched archival photographs taken over the past century [...]