Mountain Forum Bulletin January 2008
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Mountain Forum Bulletin January 2008 Climate Change in Mountains: Impact and Adaptation u Intangible Ecologies: Sacred Mountain Landscapes in a Changing Climate u Climate Change Impacts: Winter Tourism Adaptation Strategies u Effect of Climatic Change on the Endangered Dracaena Ombet Tree in the Gabel Elba Protected Area in Egypt u Experience of a Herder’s Life in Western Bhutan u Climate Change: Opportunity or Threat in the Central Andean Region of Peru http://www.mtnforum.org Mountain Forum Bulletin Volume VIII Issue 1, January 2008 ISSN 1029-3760 Editor: Marianne Heredge Publication Coordination Team: Ujol Sherchan, Suman Jaiswal, Shreeza Rajbhandari Design: Payas Chhetri Cover photographs (clockwise from right) Glacier at Gaumukh, Uttarakhand, India. Photo: G.Areendran Tribal settlements in Kurangani Hills (Mudhuvakkudi, Muttam hamlets). Photo: P. S. Bose Beech (Fagus sylvatica) tree line in the East Carpathians. Photo: V. Kricsfalusy Snow cover decrease and climate change, French Alps. Photo: Guillaume Prudent Published by the Mountain Forum Secretariat in cooperation with regional nodes in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. The opinions expressed by contributors to the Mountain Forum Bulletin are not necessarily those of the Mountain Forum Secretariat, regional nodes of the Mountain Forum, or any of their host institutions. The Mountain Forum Secretariat reserves the right to edit contributions for the sake of clarity and brevity. Contents Editorial 2 Feature Intangible Ecologies: Sacred Mountain Landscapes in a Changing Climate 3 Jonah Steinberg Resource Conflicts in Mountains: Sources and Solutions 5 Carmen de Jong Climate Change Impacts: Winter Tourism Adaptation Strategies 7 Guillaume Prudent, Emmanuelle Marcel-Poiland Vincent Boudières The Impacts of Climate Change on the Alpine Biota: Management Adaptations in the Australian Alps 9 Roger Good Effect of Climatic Change on the Endangered Dracaena Ombet Tree in the Gabel Elba Protected Area in Egypt 11 Usama Ghazaly Climate Change and Philippine Teak – Mass Flowering Episode 13 Anacleto M. Caringal Management of Indigenous Mountain Rice and Fodder Tree: Short Notes on the Lowest Practice of Climate Change Mitigation 15 Leo D. Cueto and Anacleto M. Caringal Changes of the Upper Tree Line in the Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine 15 Vladimir Kricsfalusy, Wojtek Mrózand Sergey Popov Climate Change: Opportunity or Threat in the Central Andean Region of Peru 18 Luis Suarez Experience of a Herder’s Life in Western Bhutan 19 Nakul Chettri Food Security Amidst Climate Change in Nepal 21 Dinanath Bhandari A Coping Strategy to the Impacts of Climate Change in Mountain Regions of Nepal 24 Gehendra Bahadur Gurung Climate Change in the Western Ghat Mountains: Impact and Adaptation 26 S P Anandan Potential Impacts of Climate Change in the Uttarakhand Himalayas 28 Prakash Rao, G.Areendran and Rajneesh Sareen Book Review 30 Mountain Forum News Asia-Pacific Mountain Network 31 European Mountain Forum 32 InfoAndina – Latin American Mountain Forum 32 North American Mountain Forum 33 Mountain Forum Secretariat 34 Member Initiatives Children’s Movement for Mountain Environment Conservation 35 Aftab-ur-Rehman Rana, Pakistan Adventure Foundation Moving Medical Corp Helps over 1,000 People 35 Mountain Fund Potential source of conflict in the Alps: use of water for artificial snow production 36 Mountain Wilderness Mountain Academy Nepal 37 Dorjee Jangbu Lama Balkans Peace Park Project In Running For Top Tourism Award 38 Balkans Peace Park Project Livelihoods and Conservation of Medicinal Plants 38 Applied Environmental Research Foundation Summer Environmental Exchange (SEE) 2007 40 Farmer Tantoh Geo-Referenced Biological Databases: A New Mountain Biodiversity Tool 41 Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) Ev-K2-CNR - SHARE (Stations at High Altitude for Research on the Environment) Project 42 Ev-K2-CNR Adaptation to Climate Change: Biodiversity and Sustainable Livelihoods at Lake Fúquene, Colombia 44 Fundación Humedales Andean Solar Villages – Project Note 45 Yolanda Ortiz Environmental Awareness Among Children and People 47 Global Mass Community Welfare Organisation Mitigation of Climate Change in the Western Himalayas 47 Pragya IUCN-Med Workshop, December 2007 - Mediterranean Mountains in a Changing World 48 IUCN-Med Partnerships in action in the HKKH Region 49 HKKH Partnership Mountain Calendar 2008 51 Editorial Welcome to the January issue of the Mountain Forum Bulletin. Dear Mountain Forum Members, Reflecting the theme of the International Mountain Day in December 2007, this Bulletin focuses on climate change, but this As the Executive Secretary of the Mountain Forum, it is a time, looking at the impact and adaptation that has occurred as great pleasure for me to introduce you to the January issue of a result. our Bulletin, which is focused on adaptation and the impact derived from climate changes in different mountain places of Climate change is impacting the mountains in many different the world. ways. From the impact on sacred mountains, to the world of tourism, where winter sports are threatened due to the lack Raising awareness and information sharing are important of snow. In many mountain ranges, climate change is affecting elements to assist mountain communities in the challenges the species of plants and animal life that are living in already they are facing due to climate changes and the Mountain Forum fragile ecosystems. Climate change in mountains particularly has been assisting this process throughout the year as part of a impacts communities, dependent on traditional methods of coordinated awareness campaign with mountain development farming and crops that they now find hard to grow. Recognition organisations. Hence, the past two issues of the Bulletin have and awareness of climate change has helped communities where focused on the topic of climate change. they are changing the methods and crops they grow and so are adapting to the changes. Awareness, however, is not enough and action is required to achieve positive impact in the life of mountain communities. As always, members of the Mountain Forum are very active with The Mountain Forum has a key role to convert awareness into initiatives around the world that are contributing to preserving action. This bulletin includes a valuable selection of experiences the environment, increasing awareness of mountains and of positive impact derived from climate changes from our development initiatives that help mountain communities. We members from different mountain regions. take a look as encouraging project in Argentina, where solar cookers are being used by mountain villagers. In the face of the On behalf of the Mountain Forum Secretariat, let me take this environmental damage posed by production of artificial snow opportunity to express my gratitude to my colleague Marianne to feed the ever hungry tourism industry in the Alps, Mountain Heredge for her wonderful role to put together the current Wilderness is working to campaign and raise awareness about the issue of this Bulletin with a rich selection of case stories from damage being caused. Another member describes a wonderful different continents in a very timely manner. project in Pakistan, where now for the last few years there have been children’s camps, each year taking over a hundred children The next issue of our Bulletin will focus on the topic of conflicts from all over the country to the mountains for 10 days to learn and issues derived from unbalanced management of resources about the mountains and the environment and to work on small in mountain regions, including gender issues. We encourage projects. A similar project in India does great work in positively our members to share their experiences with us, enriching the engendering in the young people an appreciation of mountains, content of the Mountain Forum Bulletin. the environment, communities who live there and can only help for the future. These are just a few examples of the initiatives My deepest gratitude goes to our members contributing case that members – individuals and organisations – are working on. studies and stories from all over the world. Thanks to their contributions, the Mountain Forum will continue playing a key On behalf of the Mountain Forum community, I thank very much role raising awareness, sharing information and harnessing everyone who has contributed to share their knowledge and resources from different mountain regions of the globe. experiences, without whom, this edition of the Bulletin would not have been possible. Sincerely yours, Yours sincerely, Dr. Ana Maria Ponce Executive Secretary Marianne Heredge Mountain Forum Your feedback is precious to us. Please write in with your comments to [email protected]. You can also write to us by regular post at the address provided on the back of the Bulletin. 2 [ Mountain Forum Bulletin January 2008 ] Feature find a unique nexus of culture and environment through which Intangible Ecologies: Sacred Mountain it may be demonstrated how global warming affects people Landscapes in a Changing Climate and culture. Jonah Steinberg Impacts How does climate change transform human interaction with sacred mountain landscapes? Potential effects of climate change are of course diverse. To begin, changes are likely in the form, appearance and status of sacred lakes. This may include a potential water-level rise or, in the case of increased aridity or over-irrigation, an evaporation and fall in water levels. A related