South Asian countries— Nepal, Bangladesh, India— share the same Himalayan ecosystem, and represent one of the world’s most diverse regions in terms of language, culture, religion and geography. The floodplain riverscape of Koshi River Basin (KRB)— from source to sink (e.g., Nepal to Bangladesh via India) is one of the largest river basins of Gangas in the Himalayas encompassing the diverse communities where people have maintained strong links to ecosystem dynamics and developed knowledges, practices, and institutions to accommodate recurrent disturbances and natural ecosystems, yet is also among the most vulnerable area to disasters (e.g., landslides, floods, and sedimentation). This region has high ethnic and cultural diversity, with many have unique local approaches and capabilities—embedded as a part of cultural practices and social systems— for coping with disasters and harnessing the opportunities therein.

An overwhelming emphasis of most adaptation strategies to DRR has been on engineering structures such as dams and embankments. There is an urgent need for a new approach that is socially and culturally acceptable, economically viable and low-cost, and based on already existing practices embodied in TLEK. Ecosystem-based adaptation approaches provide flexible, cost-effective and useful alternatives for reducing and/or avoiding  the impact of disasters, and can be enhanced by careful attention to TLEK. In this project, the study explored the extent of resilience provided by traditional and local ecological knowledge (TLEK) using both empirical and theoretical frameworks and validate the usefulness of TLEK to DRR. Additionally, national polices of Nepal, India and Bangladesh were assessed for their extent of integration with Eco-DRR and TLEK, and provided training to university students.