Wetlands in the Himalaya: Securing Services for Livelihoods About ICIMOD
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Special Publication Wetlands in the Himalaya: Securing Services for Livelihoods About ICIMOD The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), is a regional knowledge development and learning centre serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan – and based in Kathmandu, Nepal. Globalisation and climate change have an increasing influence on the stability of fragile mountain ecosystems and the livelihoods of mountain people. ICIMOD aims to assist mountain people to understand these changes, adapt to them, and make the most of new opportunities, while addressing upstream-downstream issues. We support regional transboundary programmes through partnership with regional partner institutions, facilitate the exchange of experience, and serve as a regional knowledge hub. We strengthen networking among regional and global centres of excellence. Overall, we are working to develop an economically and environmentally sound mountain ecosystem to improve the living standards of mountain populations and to sustain vital ecosystem services for the billions of people living downstream – now, and for the future. About HICAP The Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP), one of the initiatives under ICIMOD’s Regional Programme on Adaptation to Change, is a six-year research programme initiated in 2012. It is implemented by ICIMOD in collaboration with CICERO and GRID-Arendal, with responsibilities for overall research competence and communication and outreach respectively. With 28 international and regional partners, HICAP carries out basic and applied research as well as policy engagement to contribute to enhanced resilience to change, particularly climate change, through improved understanding of vulnerabilities, opportunities, and potentials for adaptation. It covers five river sub-basins: upper Indus (Pakistan), Koshi (Nepal), upper Brahmaputra (Tibetan Autonomous Region, China), eastern Brahmaputra (India), and upper Salween-Mekong (China). The programme is supported by the Governments of Norway and Sweden. For more information, please visit www.icimod.org/hicap ICIMOD gratefully acknowledges the support of its core donors: the Governments of Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Sweden, and Switzerland. Special Publication Wetlands in the Himalaya: Securing Services for Livelihoods Editors Laxmi Dutt Bhatta, Wu Ning, Erica Udas, Nand Kishor Agrawal, Sunita Ranabhat and Deepa Basnet Reviewers Ram Prasad Chaudhary, Hem Sagar Baral, and Eklabya Sharma International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, February, 2018 Copyright © 2018 International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial, No Derivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Published by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) GP Box 3226, Kathmandu, Nepal ISBN 978 92 9115 577 4 (printed) 978 92 9115 582 8 (electronic) LCCN 2018–305027 Production team Shradha Ghale (Consultant editor) Christopher Butler (Senior editor) Dharma R Maharjan (Graphic designer) Asha Kaji Thaku (Editorial assistance) Photos: Jitendra Raj Bajracharya - cover; Alex Treadway - p1; ICIMOD - p2; Nasaratullah Jahed - p15; Dhritiman Mukherjee - p40 (a&b); Neeraj Mahar - p40 (c&d), p42 (b&d); S.A. Hussain - p42 (a&c); Haiya Zhang - p47; Nabin Baral - p48, 99; Top B. Khatri - p135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140 Printed and bound in Nepal by Hill Side Press (P) Ltd., Kathmandu, Nepal Reproduction This publication may be produced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit purposes without special permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. ICIMOD would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source. No use of this publication may be made for resale or for any other commercial purposes whatsoever without express written consent from ICIMOD. The views and interpretations in this publication are those of the author(s). They are not attributable to ICIMOD and do not imply the expression of any opinion concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or the endorsement of any product. This publication is available in electronic form at www.icimod.org/himaldoc Citation: Bhatta, L.D., Wu, N., Udas, E., Agrawal, N.K., Ranabhat, S., Basnet, D. (eds) (2018). Wetlands in the Himalaya: Securing services for livelihoods. Kathmandu: ICIMOD. Contents Foreword v Acknowledgements vii Acronyms and Abbreviations viii Summary xi PART I – Wetland Management: Drivers of Change and Impacts 1 Himalayan High-Altitude Wetlands: An Ecosystem beyond Habitats for Waterfowls – Experiences and Lessons from Northern Mountainous Areas of Pakistan 3 Babar Khan, Farasat Ali, and Fazal Karim Ecosystem Services and Management of Band-e-Amir National Park 14 Nasaratullah Jahed Peling-Tso, a Low-Altitude Wetland and Its Management Practices, Southern Bhutan 25 Pema Wangda and Dorji Gyaltshen Wetlands of the Indian Himalayas: Status and Conservation Initiatives 33 Syed Ainul Hussain, Neeraj Mahar, Chongpi Tuboi, and Ruchi Badola PART II: Wetland Ecosystem Services Valuation, Livelihoods Interface and Sustainability 47 The Economic Value of Ecosystem Services from Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake in Yunnan Province, China 49 Kentaro Yoshida and Ke An Peatlands Valuation and Livelihoods in Zoige Plateau, China 55 Xiaohong Zhang Understanding Coupled Human and Natural Systems in the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, a Ramsar Site in Nepal 64 Nakul Chettri, Sunita Chaudhary, Kabir Uddin, Bikash Sharma, Pratikshya Kandel, Top Bahadur Khatri, Maheshwar Dhakal, Wu Ning, and Eklabya Sharma Indigenous Knowledge for Wetland Conservation and Resource Utilization: A Case Study of Ramsar Sites, Nepal 80 Shalu Adhikari and Amir Poudel iii PART III: Wetland Policies and Cooperation 91 Policy and Practices with Respect to Wetland Conservation in Nepal 93 Maheshwar Dhakal and Bishwa Nath Oli How Power Can Play a Role in Making an Integrated Wetland Management Practice to Disintegrate 104 Yang Shuo, Li Zhuoqing and Song Fuqiang Management and Governance System of Wetlands in Bangladesh: A Case Study on Co-Management of Tanguar Haor 114 Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmad Community Involvement in the Management of High-Altitude Wetlands in Nepal: A Case of Gosaikunda 125 Rajendra Khanal, Bishnu Bhandari, and Sony Baral Conservation and Sustainable Use of Ghodaghodi Lake Area: Lesson from CSUWN Wetland Project in Nepal 132 Top B. Khatri iv Foreword The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, which stretches across eight countries in Asia and covers an area of 3.5 million km2, is home to spectacular lakes, rivers, aquifers and wetlands. They are a major source of freshwater indispensable to the lives of 230 million people living in the region. These ecosystems also play a vital role as regulators of water storage and ensure a wide range of goods and services such as drinking water, irrigation, hydro-energy, food-processing, recreation, habitats for biodiversity including rare and endemic species, water purification and buffering floods, among many others. Although these ecosystems provision such important goods and services, managing them wisely is challenging due to their remoteness and limited accessibility. Where they are accessible, local communities heavily depend on them for their livelihoods. Furthermore, the wetlands in the HKH region are steadily declining and undergoing degradation with substantial impacts on ecosystem services, biodiversity and the livelihoods of people. The major driving forces, either natural or anthropogenic, include siltation, expansion of agricultural land, over harvesting of wetland resources, runoff from agriculture and industrial pollution, among many others. Given the insufficient documentation of wetlands in the HKH and through witnessing the cascading effects of climate-glacier-water-livelihoods interface, there is an urgent need to- i) prepare a detailed wetland inventory underlining the current status, threats and challenges, and ii) explore future prospects of wetlands from a standpoint of sustainable development. Goal 6 of the 2030 sustainable development agenda stresses the need to “protect and restore water related ecosystems” and “implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation”, among the others. Beyond this, there are numerous inextricable linkages between other sustainable development goals too. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is pleased to join hands with the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) and Chengdu Institute of Biology (CIB) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Yunnan Institute of Environmental Science (YIES) and the Ramsar Convention Secretariat to build a common platform to initiate discussions on existing wetland policies and frameworks in the HKH region as well as to improve the understanding of the current status and trend of wetlands for provisioning goods and services to local people and ensuring sustainable management. This publication provides a summary of the Regional Expert Symposium on ‘Managing Wetland Ecosystem in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Securing Services for Livelihoods’,