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Project Leader	Prof. Kedar Lal SHRESTHA President Institute for Development and Innovation 21/85 Pimbahal, Lalitpur P.O. Box 12088 G.P.O. NEPAL Tel: +977-1-533-028 Fax: +977-1-225-474 Email: klshrestha@wlink.comp.np
Funding	US $21,555
Participating countries	India, Nepal and Pakistan

Introduction/Background
APN granted the project for organising a Scoping Workshop in Kathmandu to assess and identify key issues relating to global change impacts on the Himalayan Mountain environments, and to work out a regional project proposal for a coordinated and integrated multidisciplinary study in the Himalayan Region. The aims of the project were to detect and articulate the consequences of global environmental change and globalisation, in particular, on the livelihood of mountain people and informing policy processes at the local, regional and global scale with specific focus on natural resources management and sustainable development.
 

Outline of activities conducted
Initial Meeting
An Initial Meeting was held in Kathmandu from 21 to 22 July 2001 for planning and finalizing the programme of the Scoping Workshop.
Scoping Workshop
The Scoping Workshop was held in Kathmandu from 2 to 5 October 2001 on 'Global Change Impact Assessment for Himalayan Mountain Regions for Environmental Management and Sustainable Development'. Just under forty participants from Nepal, India and Pakistan took part in the workshop including representatives from the APN and the Mountain Research Initiative of IGBP. In the first two days of the workshop, during the four Technical Sessions, about 20 papers by various speakers were presented dealing with various aspects of global change issues in the Himalayan Mountain region, including some country presentations. During the Scoping Workshop, in the remaining two days, participants deliberated in particular on the regional project proposal submitted earlier to APN for funding on the topic of the workshop. In the course of the deliberations, the need and importance of such a study focusing specifically on the Himalayan Mountains and the mountain people was recognized. Climate change and variability, demography and land use intensification were all identified as some of the major driving forces causing stress to human society.

Outcomes/Products

• As per the schedule of activities in the Project, both the Initial Meeting as well as the Scoping Workshop accommodated all targeted objectives, including awareness generation among policy and decision makers.
• An improved APN project proposal for 2002-2003 has been developed after extensive deliberations at the Scoping Workshop and consultations thereafter, and the proposal in its final form has already been submitted to APN.
• All papers presented during the Scoping Workshop have been collected, compiled and printed as a Monograph. (A CD version of the publication has been sent by courier mail). The publication will soon be distributed.
• Visualizations on the status of selected Himalayan Mountain Ecosystem for selected regions have been prepared and will soon also be distributed.

• To assess the relative importance of global change impacts on the Himalayan mountain environments in order to prioritise monitoring efforts and to anticipate consequences with respect to food security and water resources including transfer of resources between uplands and lowlands;
• To assess the vulnerability of mountain people to global change and to investigate the factors that promote resilience of these groups in the face of multiple and interacting environmental stresses; and
• To synthesize and aggregate national assessments and other pertinent studies to inform on the scientific basis the policymaking processes at local to regional scales regarding global change impacts on food security and water resources in the Himalayan Mountains as well as response strategies for coping/adapting with the changes.