Outlook on climate change adaptation in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

snow cover (Singh et al., 2011). Within the HKH there are four biodiversity hotspots – Himalaya, Indo-Burma, the mountains of southwest China, and the mountains of Central Asia – covering roughly 32 per cent of the region. These hotspots are recognized as globally important due to their unique biological richness, which is currently threatened by a range of anthropogenic stressors (Chettri et al., 2008).

Rich with unique cultural, ethnic and religious diversity, the HKH is home to one sixth of all human languages (Turin, 2005). It also presents radical contrasts in the level of urbanization, from cities with millions of inhabitants, such as Kabul in Afghanistan and Kunming in China, to remote high mountain villages that are only accessible after days of trekking, including almost everything in between.

The water tower of the world

Water is one of the HKH region’s most valuable resources. Ten of Asia’s largest river systems originate in the HKH and are the main sources of freshwater in South Asia, providing drinking water for over 240 million people in the region and another 1.9 billion people living downstream (ICIMOD, 2018). These mountains offer far more than drinking water – they are the basis of communities’ livelihoods, where subsistence farming is the main way of life, which is essential to the HKH and key to Asia’s food security. 1 The agriculture sector throughout the region and downstream depends on water for irrigation and ecosystem services that these rivers provide (Shrestha et al., 2015). For example, Pakistan’s food security relies heavily on the Indus River, which provides water for up to 80 per cent of the country’s crops (Government of Pakistan, 2010). Similarly, 60 per cent of India’s irrigated area is located within the Ganges river system (NGRBA, 2011).The region’s rivers are also essential for industry and hydropower (Shrestha et al., 2015; Rasul, 2014), and provide important waterways, such as in Vietnam, for example, where over 70 per cent of cargo tonnage and 27 per cent of passengers travel on the Mekong River annually (Mekong River Commission, 2018). In Central Asia, the Amu Darya River, which runs through the HKH (from the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan), is one of Central Asia’s most important rivers. The Amu Darya and Syr Darya river basins jointly provide 90 per cent of the regions’ water and are home to 80 per cent of the region’s population. Most of the water in the region is used for irrigation (Russell, 2018).

Ama Dablam mountain peak overlooking Dudh Kosi, Nepal

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