Laxmi Dutt Bhatta

Ecosystem services and livelihoods in a changing climate: Understanding local adaptations in the Upper Koshi, Nepal

Mountain ecosystems are increasingly being affected by global environmental change, challenging the ubiquitous agro-ecosystem-based livelihoods of the people. This article uses participatory research methods to document and analyse (1) local and regional impacts of climate change on ecosystem services (ES) and livelihoods, and (2) the main current adaptation strategies of local peoples in the mountains of central Nepal. Major observed impacts include reduced precipitation and an irregular rainfall pattern, affecting paddy cultivation and winter crop production. Production is also affected by increased pest and pathogen prevalence. Other impacts include increased livestock disease and reduced forest regeneration. Our results confirm earlier findings of a decrease in the district’s forest cover in past; however, substantial efforts in forest conservation and management at the local level have gradually increased forest cover in recent years. Despite the increased potential for forest ecosystem services, the availability of forest goods, in particular fuel wood, fodder and litter, have decreased because of a strict regulation on forest goods extraction. Additionally, new invasive species are colonising these forests, preventing regeneration of preferred and local forest vegetation in some areas and, as a result, the densities of tree crops are changing. Most users cope with these changes by short term, reactive solutions. However, a number of local adaptation strategies, such as changing both agricultural practices and water harvesting and management, are increasing efficiency in resource use. To increase the adaptive capacity of poor households, we suggest it is essential to incorporate climate change adaptations within the local planning process.

Payment for ecosystem services: possible instrument for managing ecosystem services in Nepal

Payment for ecosystem services (PESs) is part of a new and more direct conservation and management paradigm explicitly recognizing: (1) the need to bridge the interests of communities connected by ecosystems, (2) the costs of securing and maintaining the provision of different ecosystem services and (3) that those who benefit from these services need to pay for these costs. While discussions on the potential of PES are becoming more frequent, Nepal lacks concrete policies and an umbrella legislative framework at the national, sub-national, and institutional levels to operationalize PES. A lack of vertical and horizontal coordination among government departments and agencies often creates problems at the implementation level. This paper discusses PES as a possible instrument to finance ecosystem management in Nepal, based on lessons learned from various ongoing PES-type schemes. We review a number of such schemes based on the available literature and key informant surveys in selected PES pilot sites. We argue that PES experience in Nepal remains limited and is as yet insufficient as basis for mainstreaming. We recommend that (1) existing schemes need to be monitored to analyze challenges and effectiveness, and (2) such analyses should be carried out simultaneously with informing the national policy dialog to support the debate on implementing PES for sustainable ecosystem management.

Deforestation trends and spatial modelling of its drivers in the dry temperate forests of northern Pakistan — A case study of Chitral

Deforestation is a major environmental challenge in the mountain areas of Pakistan. The study assessed trends in the forest cover in Chitral tehsil over the last two decades using supervised land cover classification of Landsat TM satellite images from 1992, 2000, and 2009, with a maximum likelihood algorithm. In 2009, the forest cover was 10.3% of the land area of Chitral (60,000 ha). The deforestation rate increased from 0.14% per annum in 1992–2000 to 0.54% per annum in 2000–2009, with 3,759 ha forest lost over the 17 years. The spatial drivers of deforestation were investigated using a cellular automaton modelling technique to project future forest conditions. Accessibility (elevation, slope), population density, distance to settlements, and distance to administrative boundary were strongly associated with neighbourhood deforestation. A model projection showed a further loss of 23% of existing forest in Chitral tehsil by 2030, and degradation of 8%, if deforestation continues at the present rate. Arandu Union Council, with 2212 households, will lose 85% of its forest. Local communities have limited income resources and high poverty and are heavily dependent on non-timber forest products for their livelihoods. Continued deforestation will further worsen their livelihood conditions, thus improved conservation efforts are essential.

Ecosystem Evapotranspiration as a Response to Climate and Vegetation Coverage Changes in Northwest Yunnan, China.

Climate and human-driven changes play an important role in regional droughts. Northwest Yunnan Province is a key region for biodiversity conservation in China, and it has experienced severe droughts since the beginning of this century; however, the extent of the contributions from climate and human-driven changes remains unclear. We calculated the ecosystem evapotranspiration (ET) and water yield (WY) of northwest Yunnan Province, China from 2001 to 2013 using meteorological and remote sensing observation data and a Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) model. Multivariate regression analyses were used to differentiate the contribution of climate and vegetation coverage to ET. The results showed that the annual average vegetation coverage significantly increased over time with a mean of 0.69 in spite of the precipitation fluctuation. Afforestation/reforestation and other management efforts attributed to vegetation coverage increase in NW Yunnan. Both ET and WY considerably fluctuated with the climate factors, which ranged from 623.29 mm to 893.8 mm and –51.88 mm to 384.40 mm over the time period. Spatially, ET in the southeast of NW Yunnan (mainly in Lijiang) increased significantly, which was in line with the spatial trend of vegetation coverage. Multivariate linear regression analysis indicated that climatic factors accounted for 85.18% of the ET variation, while vegetation coverage explained 14.82%. On the other hand, precipitation accounted for 67.5% of the WY. We conclude that the continuous droughts in northwest Yunnan were primarily climatically driven; however, man-made land cover and vegetation changes also increased the vulnerability of local populations to drought. Because of the high proportion of the water yield consumed for subsistence and poor infrastructure for water management, local populations have been highly vulnerable to climate drought conditions. We suggest that conservation of native vegetation and development of water-conserving agricultural practices should be implemented as adaptive strategies to mitigate climate change.

Factors Contributing to the Decline of Traditional Practices in Communities from the Gwallek–Kedar area, Kailash Sacred Landscape, Nepal

Traditional knowledge and practices are increasingly recognized in the resource conservation and management practices, however are declining in many parts of the world including Nepal. Studies on the inventory of traditional knowledge are available, albeit limited, and empirical analysis of factors contributing to the decline of traditional knowledge are negligible in Nepal. We thus initiated this study in the Nepal part of the Kailash Sacred Landscape to (i) document traditional knowledge and practices on agriculture, forest-based herbal remedy, and genetic resource conservation; and (ii) identify factors contributing to the decline of traditional practices in the communities. Data was collected during September–December 2015 through key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and households survey. The household survey data was used in binary logistic regression analysis to identify factors contributing to the decline of six key traditional practices. The study documented 56 types of traditional practices. The regressions showed that the age of the respondent, distance to the nearest forest, distance to the nearest motorable road, family members’ ill health, and seasonal migration of the household members for jobs significantly influencing to the decline of the particular traditional practices, however, their effects vary within a practice and among the practices. The use of modern medicine, increasing road linkages, decreasing trend of plant resource availability, and agriculture intensification are responsible for the decline of the particular traditional practices. We recommend to recognize their significance in the governing socio-ecological systems and to link the traditional and scientific knowledge systems through policy formulations.

Designing community-based payment scheme for ecosystem services: a case from Koshi Hills, Nepal

The study was carried out to design payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme to enhance the effectiveness of existing drinking water supply project. This study determined willingness-to-pay of water users using choice experiment method and identify the willingness of watershed households to participate in the scheme by household survey. The results suggest that creating a multi-stakeholder institution at the local level, led by local body, will make the implementation of the PES feasible. This would create trust between ecosystem managers and service consumers, facilitates monitoring system and encourages their participation in watershed management. In the beginning, water users would like to pay less than their willingness-to-pay because it may take time to improve the situation. This suggests that community-based payment for ecosystem services scheme in rural area can be kicked off, only after the external support this is because the amount committed by water users are not sufficient to implement all required activities and ecosystem managers will not make an investment expecting that they will be paid in the future. The study also recommends providing upstream communities in-kind support rather than cash may reduce the transportation cost as well as risk of corruption. This also ensures that the fund is spent on planned activities.

Ensuring Water Availability to Water Users through Incentive Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme: A Case Study in a Small Hilly Town of Nepal

This study was carried out to design an incentive payment for an ecosystem services (IPES) scheme in the Baitadi Town Water Supply and Sanitation Project of Nepal. The main intention behind the designing of the scheme was to develop strategy for equitable use of water resources and involve communities, watershed and water user, in the sustainable management of water resources. We administered household survey in both the watershed community and water users to elicit their preferences regarding water source management and drinking water supply. A discrete choice experiment was employed in the case of water users which showed that, for them, water quality and quantity are the most important attributes. The estimated annual willingness-to-pay of water users for doubling water availability is NPR 482,076 (USD 4,505) and for doubling the water quantity and the supply of clean water that can be drunk directly from the tap is NPR 1.18 million (USD 10,988). The results of consultations with stakeholders indicate ...

Determining community preferences to manage conflicts in small hydropower projects in Nepal

The livelihoods of local communities can be affected by environmental degradation and economic development resulting from the construction of hydropower projects, and failure to address issues of concern in a timely fashion can lead to conflicts. Working with communities to identify potential impacts, issues of concern, and community preferences for mitigation activities will help hydropower companies to plan and manage effective mitigation activities and avoid conflict. In this study, the preferences of the local community in the area affected by a four-megawatt hydropower project in Sankhuwasabha District in Nepal were measured using a discrete choice experiment survey. More than half of the respondents expected both positive (mostly economic) and negative (mostly environmental) impacts from the project. They were mostly concerned about the negative impacts that directly influenced their livelihood options, especially reduction in fish numbers and increased flooding. The analysis indicated that respondents wanted to have more fish available in the river, additional check dams to control floods, more funds allocated to conservation than to income generation, and less labour contribution. The estimated annual willingness-to-pay for the improved scenario was slightly more than the estimated cost of mitigating the physical and biological damage.

Policy Coherence and Interplay between Climate Change Adaptation Policies and the Forestry Sector in Nepal

Least Developed Countries are likely to be hit the hardest by climate change and need focused efforts towards adaptation. Nepal recognizes that it needs to integrate climate change adaptation into various policies, but limited understanding of how to make these policies coherent is among the factors that hinder effective adaptation action. This can lead to wasted resources and lost opportunities. This paper applies concepts from policy coherence for development frameworks and policy content analysis to examine coherence in Nepal’s climate and forest policies—and discusses the factors hindering effective implementation. The policies are analyzed at the horizontal/external level at three layers—motivation, measures, and planned implementation process. The paper finds that policies are more consistent on motivation level and adaptation measures, but are less coherent on implementation. The National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) is more explicit in identifying institutions, organizations, roles and responsibilities, resource allocation (financial), and a monitoring and evaluation plan for climate change adaptation while other policies such as Climate Change Policy 2011, National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2014–2020, Forest Policy 2015, and Forest Sector Strategy 2016 have critical gaps in this area. This paper conclude that formulation of a policy, articulating targets, and mobilizing financial resources are in themselves not sufficient to effectively address climate change adaptation. Policy-based legislation is required, together with development of a supportive collaborative multi-stakeholder approach at different levels of governance, backed up by effective, collaborative monitoring and enforcement.