Asia Pacific Youth Forum and Training Workshop 2014 ‘Adaptation in the Mountains: Issues and Gaps beyond Boundaries’ WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS Organized by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) Asia Pacific Mountain Network (APMN) and Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) 21 – 24 September 2014, Kathmandu, Nepal
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Asia Pacific Youth Forum and Training Workshop 2014
‘Adaptation in the Mountains: Issues and Gaps beyond Boundaries’
WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS
Organized by
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) Asia Pacific Mountain Network (APMN)
and
Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN)
21 – 24 September 2014, Kathmandu, Nepal
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Table of Contents Acronyms ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction and Background ....................................................................................................................... 5
Day I – Soft Opening ..................................................................................................................................... 6
Presentation and Discussion on National‐Regional‐Global Process (UNFCCC) Interface ............................. 7
Introduction on Networking and Social Media Usage .................................................................................. 8
Showcasing of the Key Technologies for Adaptation at ICIMOD Knowledge Park ....................................... 8
Day II – Formal Opening.............................................................................................................................. 10
Keynote Presentation Session: Adaptation in the Mountains .................................................................... 11
International Context.................................................................................................................................. 11
Civil Society Context.................................................................................................................................... 12
Government Context .................................................................................................................................. 13
Youth Constituency at UNFCCC .................................................................................................................. 20
DAY III ‐ Field Visit ....................................................................................................................................... 21
Day IV ‐ Knowledge Session ........................................................................................................................ 24
Reporting from Participants........................................................................................................................ 26
Annex I ‐ Agenda for the Workshop ........................................................................................................... 29
Annex II ‐ List of Participants ...................................................................................................................... 35
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Acronyms APAN Asia Pacific Adaptation Network
APMN Asia Pacific Mountain Network
CDM Clean Development Mechanism
COP Conference of the Parties
ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute FEWS Flood Early Warning System GCF Green Climate Fund GIS Geographic Information System GPS Global Positioning System HKH Hindu Kush Himalayan ICIMOD International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development ICT Information and Communication Technology
IGES Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
LDC Least Developed Countries
NAP National Adaptation Plans NCWF Nepal Water Conservation Foundation NGO Non‐Governmental Organization PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal REDD Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation UN United Nations UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change WWF World Wide Fund for Nature
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Executive Summary It is well accepted that adaptation is the key to mitigating and reducing climate change effects. Although
the impact of climate change continues to increase in mountain areas, there is a lack of knowledge and
information about the various adaptation practices (incorporating both science and traditional
knowledge) being implemented by societies, institutions, and individuals in the mountains. Accordingly,
there is a need to identify the issues and gaps in relation to adaptation in the mountains in the Asia
Pacific region and beyond.
Against this background, the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) through its thematic node for
mountains, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), and its Asia Pacific
Mountain Network (APMN), organized the Asia Pacific Youth Forum and Training Workshop on
‘Adaptation in the Mountains: Issues and Gaps beyond Boundaries’ from 21–24 September 2014 in
Kathmandu, Nepal.
The main objectives of the workshop were to share evidence‐based knowledge to improve
understanding of actions for adaptation and to identify and discuss the role of stakeholders, adaptation
options, and cross‐border issues.
From the workshop presentations and field visits the participants learnt about adaptation practices
related to water, agriculture, natural disasters, and energy, among other things. Adaptation approaches
that can be implemented at the individual, community, and national levels were identified. The
workshop underlined the need to share knowledge on practical on‐the‐ground options for climate
change adaptation. Participants explored common challenges, opportunities, and examples of good
adaptation practices. The gap between knowledge and practices was identified as an issue and
communication was acknowledged as vital tool for local, national, and international engagement. The
importance of regional knowledge sharing, awareness building, and communicating knowledge to the
communities was also discussed.
The workshop provided participants with an opportunity to discover relevant adaptation practices,
technologies, and applications that take vulnerable groups, communities, and ecosystems into
consideration. Participants agreed to develop learning networks within and between regions in order to
share best practices and knowledge on adaptation. The workshop also provided young professionals
from the Asia Pacific region with a platform from which to network, collaborate, and communicate on
climate change adaptation issues and observe innovative practices on adaptation. Participants
expressed their appreciation of the workshop sessions and commitment to share the knowledge gained
within their communities and workplaces.
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Introduction and Background A total of 47 participants from 17 countries in the Asia Pacific region, including government
representatives, media personnel, researchers, academics, and members of civil society, convened at
ICIMOD’s headquarters in Kathmandu to interact with high‐level bureaucrats, youth leaders,
researchers, and tech innovators from the region to gain knowledge about adaptation issues and gaps.
The workshop included capacity building and knowledge exchange, leadership exercises, and excursions
to environmental projects to learn about adaptation practices on the ground. Including as well
presentations from participants on various adaptation issues, the workshop showcased adaptation
technology and an adaptation toolkit and included a market place featuring displays and demonstrations
of innovative solutions for adaptations.
The workshop was held over four days from 21‐24 September 2014. The soft opening session on the first
day with field visit to ICIMOD Knowledge Park was followed by the formal opening of the workshop on
the second day at ICIMOD headquarters including various sessions on exploring the issues and gaps on
adaptation in the mountains and interactive sessions between participants and resource persons. On
the third day, a whole‐day field visit was organized to ICIMOD project sites in the Kavre Palanchowk
district, showing local adaptation measures in water conservation in the mid‐hills. The final day of the
workshop focused on knowledge sessions in market‐place format and experience sharing from the
participants on the lessons learnt from the overall event.
The workshop was highly informative and useful for understanding the importance of the participation of
different stakeholders in the implementation of adaptation practices, and highlighted the need for
increased cooperation among communities, institutions, and countries to address the issues and gaps on
adaptation.
About ICIMOD The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is a regional inter‐
governmental learning and knowledge sharing centre serving the eight regional member countries of
the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar,
Nepal, and Pakistan. Our aim is to influence policy and practices to meet environmental and livelihood
challenges emerging in the HKH region. To do this we bring together researchers, practitioners, and
policy makers from the region and around the globe to generate and share knowledge, support
evidence‐based decision making, and encourage regional collaboration. ICIMOD delivers impact through
its six Regional Programmes of Adaptation to Change, Transboundary Landscapes, River Basins,
Cryosphere and Atmosphere, Mountain Environment Regional Information System, and Himalayan
University Consortium. These regional programmes are supported by the four Thematic Areas of
Livelihoods, Ecosystem Services, Water and Air, and Geospatial Solutions and a r e
underpinned by Knowledge Management and Communication. ICIMOD seeks to improve the lives and
livelihoods of mountain women and men, now and for the future.
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About APMN Asia‐Pacific Mountain Network (APMN) is a knowledge‐sharing platform connecting mountain regions
and communities through dialogue and networking. Managed by the International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development (ICIMOD), APMN captures, enriches, and disseminates information on mountain
development issues in and for the Asia‐Pacific region. APMN acts as the Asia‐Pacific node of the
Mountain Forum (MF) and decentralized Mountain Partnership Asia‐Pacific Hub, and has shared
resources including a dedicated web page, a n experts database, a n e‐dialogue platform,
thematic and geographic discussion lists, an online library, a alendar of events, and survey and e‐
election tool. APMN also publishes the biannual Asia Pacific Mountain Courier, occasional e‐dialogue
synthesis reports, mountain development briefs and publicity materials. All these products are offered to
interested readers for free.
About APAN The Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) is the leading climate change adaptation network in the
Asia‐Pacific region. APAN is supported by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, the Asian
Development Bank, the USAID Adapt Asia‐Pacific project and others. The mission of APAN is to build
climate change resilient and sustainable human systems, ecosystems and economies through the
mobilisation of knowledge, enhanced institutional capacity and informed decision‐making‐processes, and
facilitated access to finance and technologies.
Day I – Soft Opening Inaugurating the training workshop, Dr. David James Molden, Directorate General of ICIMOD, welcomed
participants from the Asia‐Pacific region at Nepal for learning on adaptation issues in the mountains and
encouraged participants to share their experiences regarding issues and gaps on adaptation. Anja Møller
Rasmussen, Senior Manager, Knowledge Management and Communication, ICIMOD on her opening
remarks highlighted the needs of the youth forum and training workshop and shared information about
the overall event.
After the introduction session, Mr. Udayan Mishra and Mr. Utsav Maden, ICIMOD provided the overview
of the four‐day forum and training workshop. Screening of the documentary ‘Disruption’ about the
people’s climate march led by civil society, youth organizations and activists provided participants with
insight into the current issues on climate change.
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Presentation and Discussion on National‐Regional‐Global process
(UNFCCC) Interface Mr. Ugan Manandhar, Deputy Director, Climate Change, Freshwater and Energy, WWF Nepal in his
presentation and discussion mentioned that the major objective of the UNFCCC treaty is to stabilize
GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic
interference with the climate system. His presentation highlighted the major outcomes from COP 1 to
COP 19 and later explained the role of various negotiating groups with particularly focus on LDCs. Mr.
Manadhar stressed the outcome from COP 13 being important in terms of shared vision, mitigation,
adaptation, technology transfer, finance and capacity building. He further explained the financing
mechanisms including Adaptation fund, LDC fund, Special Climate Change fund and Green Climate fund.
In the context of the Paris Agreement in 2015, he acknowledged the voluntary cooperation in areas of
high mitigation potential currently taking place. He talked about the agreement to set up the Warsaw
International Mechanism on loss and damage under the Cancun framework to share information and
best practices, explore strategies to address loss and damage, and provide technical support to
vulnerable countries. In highlighting the issue of adaptation he explained about the adaptation
committee, the National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and the adaptation fund. At the end of his
presentation, he noted the high level of frustration regarding the slow progress of the process, as there
are many differences in understanding of the interface between developed and developing countries.
During the session, one of the participants was curious
to know if REDD is working or not, to which it was
replied that there are market and non‐market
approaches and that REDD is still complicated.
However, Nepal is an implementation mechanism and
there are issues yet to be addressed. Another
question that was raised in between was: does Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) help to offset
emissions? Addressing the query, Mr. Manadhar
replied, “It’s not solution we should take into account,
but a baseline scenario should be considered to
keep exploring ways to reduce emissions.” A third question was raised about how money is being used by
LDCs, to which he explained that funding is being used only for documentation of National Adaptation
Plans and not for actions.
A further inquiry related to how the whole process looks, to which he explained that the whole process
is party‐driven but cannot influence anything and can’t force any countries as it is nothing more than an
advocating body. The final query was in regard to the outcome of involvement of NGOs from the
community level; Mr. Manandhar explained that involving NGOs helps to address the concerns of
community and identify the real problems on issues of climate change.
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Introduction on Networking and Social Media Usage This session was facilitated by Mr. Ustav Maden, outlining the following aspects of the need and use of
social media.
Social media for building and connecting relationships
Collaborating and doing things with various groups of people
Creating and sharing content
Finding, using, organizing and reusing the content
Brand value (for organizations)
Engage with stakeholders/ Solicit feedback
Social media as an outreach medium across a virtual audience
Accordingly, Mr. Uddhyan Mishra
explained the Pecha Kucha format of
presentation that participants need to
follow at the last day of the workshop
during plenary presentation from the
groups. He mentioned that the pecha
kucha format should consist of 20 slides
where each slide is displayed only for 20
seconds. The session was followed by a
networking exercise where participants
along with official members built a web net
and were asked to pass on the thread ball
once they
introduced themselves and share the challenges they face while working on climate change adaptation
issues. At the end, all the thread connectivity was analyzed and the nodes where tensions were
generated with respect to the difficulty in communicating and understanding different dimensions.
Showcasing of the Key Technologies for Adaptation at ICIMOD
Knowledge Park
The participants were divided into three groups for a guided tour of adaptive technologies housed at
Knowledge Park, Godavari. The groups were guided by ICIMOD Knowledge Park staffs with assistance
from the workshop organizing team. The ICIMOD Knowledge Park at Godavari is regarded as one of the
best sites for testing and demonstration of various methodologies related to integrated mountain
development and sustainable farming practices on the sloping land of the mid‐hills of the Hindu Kush
Himalayan region. The tour provided participants with practical demonstrations of different technologies
and practices on adaptation in the mountains. At Godavari Knowledge Park activities are carried out in
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the areas of renewable energy technologies, water, vegetation, and soil management, livestock and
aquaculture, income generation, biodiversity conservation, training and community outreach.
The participants were provided with brief overviews of major adaptation technologies and approaches
comprising of solar technologies, flood early warning system, cool chamber, peltric set, water harvesting,
kiwi fruit farming, sloping agricultural land technology (SALT), medicinal plant nursery, wetland,
hedgerows, horticulture, beekeeping, high value cash crops, productive trees, polythene film technology,
polypit and hotbeds, bio‐ pesticides and plant tonics, animal husbandry, improved stoves, solar wall,
photovoltaic electricity, puxin biogas plant, mushroom cultivation, and others. Additionally, half an
hour was allocated to each group to have hands‐on training on bio‐briquette technology.
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Day II – Formal Opening Formally, the workshop was inaugurated on the second day, at the start of which Ms. Anja Moller
Rasmussen, Senior Manager, Knowledge Management and Communication, ICIMOD provided an
overview of the event. She stated the need for collaboration of government, policy, media, scientists,
politicians and young professionals to bring mountain agenda to a global level and hoped that the event
will be regarded as a practical way of communicating science on adaptation practices.
Mr. Basanta Shrestha, Director, Strategic Cooperation on behalf of Dr. David James Molden, Directorate
General of ICIMOD, provided an overview of ICIMOD work in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. He
mentioned ICIMOD as the regional mountain knowledge, learning and enabling centre devoted to
sustainable mountain development for mountains and people. Considering the Hindu Kush Himalayan
region as a global asset, he talked about the occurrence of GLOF events, future implications for
water resources and multiple benefits of black carbon mitigation in the region. Taking into
consideration the poverty and high male outmigration in the region, in spite of the region being
ecologically rich, he stressed the need of linking science, policy and practice and ensuring sustainable
and resilient mountain development for improved and equitable livelihoods through knowledge and
cooperation.
He also briefed on regional programmes of ICIMOD which incorporate innovation, integration and
impact on the region and shared a case of a community‐based flood early warning system being able to
save many lives and property recently . He
explained the new research initiatives of ICIMOD on forest
fires and dispersion, atmospheric observatories, improved
biomass cook stoves and application of remote sensing in
monitoring and data management. At the end of his
presentation, he urged the participants to share the
information by using relevant data, knowledge and analysis
to influence the policy and practice and enhance the
regional cooperation on adaptation issues and practices.
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Keynote Presentation Session: Adaptation in the Mountains
International Context Dr. Daisuke Sano, Director, Regional Centre IGES
Dr. Daisuke Sano in his presentation briefed on the diversity of issues from the Asia‐Pacific region being
a major challenge to address and stated the need for sharing of the available information on the
regional level. He pointed to institutional capacity as being crucial for taking actions on adaptation and
sustaining them. He said, “We need to understand how to address the challenges and use our resources
and we need to follow a programmatic approach which may solve problems.” He shared thoughts about
the current mechanisms of utilization of climate funds from Nepal, India and Bangladesh and stressed
the need to learn from success stories and to scale up the works on adaptation. During the presentation
he mentioned the following things as being crucial in the adaptation sector:
To incorporate knowledge into actions
To define preparedness and the need for government
To facilitate mutual learning
To idealize institutional capacity crucial for taking actions and sustaining them
To use resources
To solve problems through a programmatic approach
To be accountable about the funds that come from rich countries
To prioritize the need for some entity to coordinate among various agencies
He provided an overview on the APAN
partners and requested that the participants
refer to the website materials on workshop
and training that are regularly organized in the
Asia Pacific region. At the end, he called on the
participants to subscribe to the APAN knowledge
management newsletter, share their learning
with the colleagues and counterparts, join many
practitioners and ask questions and provide
answers on issues of adaptation.
After the presentation, one of the participants was interested to know the reason behind weak
implementation in spite of the policies and work plan being strong. Dr. Sano in his response said that the
governments are still not able to utilize all the funds due to low working efficiency and that there is an
urgent need to change the current scenario. The next question was whether there are any
measures for checking accountability of government, to which he responded that more strict
regulations are required to react and that there is need of more pressure from NGOs and other civil
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organizations to check actions of governments. In the discussion it was reported that governments are
quite ambitious to provide more funds to communities but have not been able to spend money
properly.
Civil Society Context Dr. Arjun Karki, International Co‐ordinator, LDC Watch
Providing an overview in t h e civil society context, Dr. Karki mentioned the role of young
professionals being crucial to participate and take actions on adaptation issues. He shared a fact that 20
out of 48 UN defined least developed countries constitute mountain countries having geographical
and environmental vulnerabilities as key characteristics. He outlined the fact that LDCs have higher
vulnerability than other regions and very low adaptive capacity. He pointed out that climate change
impact of melting glaciers in the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau makes Bangladesh and Nepal prone to
increased flash floods and destruction of river flows. He also added that the coastal zones and low‐lying
deltas in Myanmar, Cambodia and Bangladesh are severely affected by rising sea levels and increased
frequency of storms and cyclones. He added that the climate summit must focus on developed countries
announcing their finance commitments to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) which was established for
adaptation and mitigation for developing countries. He also talked about resource mobilization and
historical responsibility on climate change issues and explained about the UN mechanism which
highlights before and after actions and consequences at COPs. The other important thing that was
highlighted during the session was that there are false solutions on mitigation and adaptation and civil
society should be advocating against such solutions and practices. He shared his view that if mandatory
commitments by developed countries with regard to emission cuts, climate finance and technology
transfer are not upheld, then LDCs and developing countries will unjustifiably continue to face climate
change hazards with no adaptive capabilities. The session was ended with a conclusion in a nutshell that
climate justice is needed as there is need to understand system change along with climate change.
Addressing the query of a participant on Climate
Change responsibility, Dr. Karki mentioned that
historically developed countries are responsible for
climate change. The next question was whether
development is adding to climate change, responding
to which he agreed and mentioned that technical
assistance is required to minimize the climate change
impacts. The final question was on how civil society
can address the cross‐border issues on climate
change, to which he indicated that technology and
knowledge are required with assistance and funding in
development projects.
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Youth Context Mr. Gagan Thapa, Youth leader, Member of Constituent Assembly, Government of Nepal
Mr. Gagan Thapa, talking within the youth context
about the concerns of the climate change, shared the
case for involvement of youth in climate negotiations
and the impacts that will occur due to doubling of the
greenhouse gases in the future. Mr. Thapa who is
involved in addressing the climate change issues in the
new constitution drafting in Nepal, mentioned climate
change impacts as the fundamental geological
challenges and shared some of the impacts of climate
change at national and local level. He briefed his idea
about ‘Livable Kathmandu’ for making Kathmandu suitable for living and addressing critical issues on
water, air, waste and mobility problems which have occurred due to the increase in number of vehicles
by three times in the last ten years.
He suggested that all the participants should understand and work accordingly on the issues of
climate change and mentioned the requirement of support from developed countries in order to take
actions on adaptation. He mentioned that youths themselves needs to be aware of their power to
influence the community and groups. He said, “Youths should not only be limited to understanding but
need to take actions and such actions are the key for adaptations on mountain issues.”
Government Context Prof. Dr. Govinda Raj Pokhrel, Vice Chairman, National Planning Commission, Government of
Nepal
Dr. Govinda Raj Pokhrel highlighted the
importance of knowledge and skills on green
technology essential for adaptation in the
mountains and shared the view on mountain
countries having their own vision of economic
development. He mentioned agriculture,
hydropower and tourism are the key sectors for
economic development of Nepal with the use of
technology, investments and fascination in these
areas. He shared his ‘Vision 2025’ for guiding Nepal
on double digit economic growth and gaining comparative advantage from the neighboring countries
India and China. He emphasized that Nepal has comparative advantage in the above key sectors for
bringing opportunities for development of the country. His main vision was focused on ‘ICE‐TEA’ which
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includes infrastructure, capacity building and education for tourism, energy and agriculture and making
‘climate change concerns’ the base of economic growth for prosperity of the country.
Overview Presentation Session: Mountain Context Dr. Dhrupad Choudhury, Regional Programme Manager, Adaptation to Change, ICIMOD
An overview presentation session on Mountain Context was an interactive and focused group discussion
led by Dr. Dhrupad Choudhury, Regional Programme Manager, Adaptation to Change, ICIMOD, and later
jointly concluded with Ms. Neera Shrestha Pradhan, Water and Adaptation Specialist, ICIMOD.
As the session was mostly focused on the mountain context, the participants during the session talked
about their place of origin, the physiographic differences and the climatic variations in their country and
community. The main idea of the session was to particularly talk about the issues of climate change on
various geographical levels with respect to participants’ place of origin. Firstly, Dr. Choudhury
explained the aspects of mountain and the geographical discrepancies these boundaries face. Then,
further by accepting queries from participants, he provided an overview on adaptation in the mountain
context.
The discussion was fueled up by a question from a participant from Nepal about an issue of mosquitoes
even in the Himalayan region of Nepal which could result from the melting of snow‐capped mountains.
Further, an opinion from a Bhutanese participant about how the capital city of Thimpu, which posed
a moderate climate some years before but is now one of the highest fan‐selling cities during summer,
touched on the issue of global warming, rising temperature and its impact on the current world. To
substantiate the opinion, Dr. Choudhury remarked the fact that, as we move further towards the
eastern side of the world we observe that the summer has started becoming warmer, impacting
even the winter seasons.
Shifting the paradigm from
mountains to plains, Dr. Dhrupad
Choudhury asked participants from
Bangladesh about the climatic
changes faced in plain areas.
Participants explained how flood,
cyclones and heat stroke are the
major problems in the plain areas.
The major reason Dr. Choudhury
reframed for these problems was
seasonal delays. “The duration of
rainfall and snowfall has gone
down and there is no longer
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Spread‐out rainfall,” he stated. He further stated that this trend has been developing since the last 4‐5
years, causing shortfall of the rain. However, according to him, the total amount of rainfall hasn’t gone
down and that whenever it rains it pours heavily and intensely. This is particularly one of the reasons why
plain areas like Bangladesh face flash floods, landslides and storms as a result of climatic disparity.
After assessing some impacts of various climatic conditions, Dr. Choudhury proceeded and talked
about the changing lifestyle of the people because of the issues discussed earlier. He barbed a point
that it doesn’t matter which place we belong to; from eastern Himalayas to western Himalayas or any
other plain areas‐ there has been a shift in agriculture. This has led to decline in crop productivity, and
whenever there is less return to anything people start shifting their priorities. In this case, farmers are
slowly giving up farming. This generally comes into the picture because of the invested effort is not
resulting in higher productivity. Representing the government of the Meghalaya, India, Mr. Don Patrick
Kharsati suggested that some of the intervening models to combat the problems faced by farmers taking
Meghalaya as an example. He introduced a crucial impact that once production experiences a downfall,
farmers will want to accommodate the problem by migrating and for any reason migration is just not a
proper solution to any given problem. An action that he explained to mitigate this problem was creating
seed banks in various communities and exchanging them with one another. An example he put forward
was: suppose that the climatic condition of an area ‘A’ has changed to that kind of area ‘B’. The better
prospect would be to provide an area ‘A’ with the seeds according to the area of ‘B’. Also, he further
explained that the seed distribution will be done through random sampling (example; supposing there
are 50 seeds in the bank, there will be distribution of 10 seeds to 5 different villages). Later, correction
can be done according to the need and finding of the seed assessment process. “This kind of
intervention is not a reactive approach but an adaptation mechanism for the long term”, Dr. Choudhury
said. On to the situation when there is delay in rain, Dr. Choudhury explained the condition that
might create another problem of drought. Similarly, reflecting upon the similar agenda, Ms. Sonam L.
Khandu, Senior Environment Officer working in National Environment Commission Bhutan supported
the fact that integrating the knowledge of adaptation into implementation process is something that
should be very much considered. It should be well coordinated with the planning commission of
government for the larger output. Nonetheless, she also explained the challenges of integrating
adaptation with different ministries alongside the projects. The main issue of the session was to
coordinate the knowledge of climate change with the implementation. Supporting this, Ms. Neera
Shrestha Pradhan highlighted three major key points:
1. Bringing together science and policy into practice to develop a dialogue between scientists and
policy makers to promote informed decision making.
2. Simplifying scientific findings and sharing it with local communities for informed decision. 3. Demand‐driven research is always resourceful and succeeds when there is demand coming from
the grass‐root level, assessing what is actually needed rather than having everything dictated from
above.
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Wrapping up, Dr. Choudhury concluded on a simple yet effective mechanism for bridging the gap
between the information that exists among the scientists on the one hand and the decision makers,
politicians and community people on the other. While what he said about having good climate science,
projections and IPCC reports are all true and are there, what matters at the moment is “what is
happening now?” and designing the plan alongside the bridging of this gap, which can be ensured
through access to knowledge that is readily available to people who want to use it.
Measuring Adaptation in the Mountains: Participatory Approaches and Toolkits As the earlier session was highly on the adaptation strategies and livelihood enhancement of community
households, Dr. Choudhury started the other half of the session by stating that nothing can be a better
model than Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) for assessing community needs. He further added, “It is in
PRA where people will give you lots of responses and with lots of information that strategies can be
developed easily.” He stated the need of following factors for measuring adaptive capacities in terms of
mapping risks and vulnerability.
1. Community perceptions on change in weather events, impact on livelihood activities and
adaptive responses.
2. Identifying vulnerable groups linking with household wealth ranking, capacity to cop and access
to institutional support.
3. Identifying response mechanisms for action based on community consensus, need assessments
and institutional support. Explaining all these, he stated the idea among participants to develop a researcher’s point of view
especially while working with communities and to follow a process mostly scientific and authentic. Along
the process, while mapping the risks and vulnerabilities it is really important that one avoids researchers’
biases and look into the ground specifically. The major idea he incorporated introducing PRA as an
effective tool was to assess the community need and also not to forgo marginalized families inside the
communities such as, women‐headed families, poverty and link it with wealth ranking so that mal‐
adaptations could be charged out and researchers could continue with the coping mechanisms. This was
a breaking point where the issues and tools started coming together and started making sense. As a
result, participants also responded to the idea quite instantly.
After the identification process, he explained a lot more on looking at the support system. Here he
explained that it is very important to do a neat assessment about the dependency of households either
on food security or income security. T h e following are the major questions to consider that
would simplify the evaluation process.
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1. What kinds of resources are important to the community household?
2. When are these resources available (which time of the year/what month)?
3. Where are the households getting these from? Simplifying even more, Dr. Choudhury explained the use of the seasonal calendar as a tool (not the
typical calendar we follow. It’s about the agricultural‐cum‐harvest‐centered calendar) to outline the
agricultural disparities that communities face. An example he shared in the process was the result from
the study in mountain areas which showed that households were mostly dependent on rain‐fed
agriculture, forest and animal husbandry. In this way it could be concluded that the highest support
received by communities from mountains were from these agricultural conditions. Thus, linking it to
other communities, their dependencies could be traced out easily.
After highlighting on how to look at the support system at various communities, he turned to the
evaluation of some of the methodologies including comparison with scientific values such as quantitative
data or building a spider web to assess the severity of the environments. Once this process has been
followed it is easier to see through the disparities. At the end, he also mentioned the probability that
every response we get from communities might be driven by markets and not only because of climate
change. At this point, it is necessary to realize the gaps, and if there are any then reformations can be
done, but this solely depends on the process we follow. The process is generally known as "adaptation
learning highways," where exchange of information and knowledge strengthen informed decision
making, local governance becomes more responsive and contributes to the formulation of effective local
adaptive strategies.
Building Capacity through Collective Learning and Flexible Planning Ms. Neera Shrestha Pradhan, Water and Adaptation Specialist, ICIMOD
Ms. Neera Shrestha Pradhan in her presentation introduced the idea that it is equally important to look
to future as looking to the past and present conditions while working with community on issues of
adaptation and disaster management. This statement was well made and backed up by various ideas and
a formal procedure. She named this process as building capacity through collective learning or, in other
words, ‘flexible planning.’ She explained in the process that it is very important for every one of us to
understand how we travel from present to future, emphasizing mostly on ‘how’ as it sums up all the
alternatives in the process. Ms. Pradhan explained the importance of developing alternatives for our
development projects as our future is uncertain. She stated the importance of addressing the following
key questions to clarify the context of flexible planning:
1. Why should community care about planning for resilience?
2. How can community support the leadership in making plans and policy?
3. How to empower women and under‐represented community groups for adaptation planning?
18
For the stated point, Ms. Pradhan made a clear suggestion that the only effective model of incorporating
all these ideas that communities possess is flexible planning. To make the implication of the tool rather
transparent, she illustrated an applied project for disaster and risk reduction, a pilot project site at
Assam, and clearly articulated the fact that flexible planning as a tool is effective in solving and assessing
any livelihood issues, and not only those centered on disaster risk management. She further
explained these ideas step by step. This planning tool simply followed four important steps outlined
below:
1. Community risk mapping to assess and compare participants’ understandings of the spatial
distribution, frequencies and causation of floods within the communities.
2. Community‐ based monitoring for identifying 3‐5 indicators that will be monitored for each
sector of interest by communities where communities can generate data on their own when
provided with simple measuring technologies.
3. Envisioning the future with storylines of how the future could be overlaid with down‐scaled
climate projections.
4. Preparing flexible flood management plans with inputs from the community by layering concrete
ideas, challenges and opportunities for the future.
So, as an initial step it is very mportant to sit
down with the stakeholders and community
members for risk mapping, and to outline the
social maps which include aspects like durations,
frequencies and impacts of the events that people
of the community have been experiencing. Steps
can be taken to quantify other issues. For
example, if people say ‘there’s too much rainfall,’
then how much ‘too‐much’ can be measured
simply by using rain gauge.
Measuring the amount of rainfall and converting it into some quantifying shape was one good example
Ms. Neera presented. “Asking community people to quantify these standards would be rather effective
and will make community people feel rather inclusive,” explains Ms. Pradhan. After that, she
emphasized how crucial i t i s to envision the future. Then she urged everyone to close the i r eyes
and insightfully think upon the questions
1. How will the community look socially and physically?
2. What will you and your community do in future?
3. What are the available resources and what are not?
4. What will your children’s lives be like?
19
Even in terms of the Assam project, these were exactly the same kinds of questions she asked the
stakeholders of Assam while working under this planning method. And these questions were necessary,
because it was asked how to prepare community people to envision their future. As explained by Ms.
Pradhan, this provides an interface where scientists and community people meet and the exact point
where the information provided by scientists can be traced into simpler terms and then given to locals.
With a short and cohesive explanation of implementation of a planning project on a real setting she
ended her session on a statement that the community is now ready to draft out future plans.
After the session, one of the participants commented that for her part she found the session really
intriguing because, being a science student, she always thought quantitative approach to data collection
mattered a lot, but it was only after the session that she actually appreciated the participatory approach
of data evaluation. After taking comments from participants Dr. Choudhury gave his concluding
remarks restating the real importance of integrating adaptation into development plans and following a
bottom‐up approach of decision making to link it with flexible planning for an effective community
10:40 – 11: 00 Special Remarks from the Chief Guest
highlighting Government Context
Prof. Dr Govind Raj Pokhrel,
Vice Chairman,
National Planning Commission,
Government of Nepal
11:00 ‐ 11:30 Group Photo, Tea Break
Overview Presentation Session
11:30 – 12:00 Mountain Context Dr Dhrupad Choudhury, ICIMOD
12:00 – 13:00 Presentation on Adaptation
toolkit/Adaptation Highway +
Discussion points sharing on using tools to
operationalizing adaption in their work
Dr Dhrupad Choudhury, ICIMOD
Ms Neera Shrestha Pradhan,
ICIMOD
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Youth Energizing Session
14:00 – 16:00 Leading by Example
3 motivational presentations
Mr Sudip Pradhan, ICIMOD
Mr Prashant Shrestha, Young
Innovations
Mr Brijendra Joshi, Rooster Logic
16:00 – 17:00 Youth constituency at UNFCCC Mr Abhishek Shrestha and Ms
Danaé Espinoza, YOUNGO Focal
person (via Skype)
31
Day 3 (Tuesday, 23 September 2014) – Field Visit
- Field visit to ICIMOD project sites in Kavre Palanchowk district, Koshi Basin Programme’s (KBP) Spring and
Pond project showing local adaptation measures in water conservation in the middle hills, in cooperation
with KBP staff and Nepal Water Conservation Foundation(NWCF)
- *More information about the visit and resource persons is available in a separate sheet (Field Activity II).
Time Programme Remarks
6:30 AM Sharp Departure from Koteshwor 7:45 AM Arrive at Dhulikhel 7:45 – 8:30 Breakfast
8:30 – 9:15 Arrive at Namobuddha Resort 9:15 – 11:00 Work Site visit within Namobuddha
Resort
Facilitated by Mr Narendra Dangol
and Ms Sushma Acharya
11:00 – 11:30 Short Rest 12:15 Arrive back to Dhulikhel 12:15 – 13:30 Lunch and Rest
13:30 Head towards Thati Pokhari 14:00 – 15:30 Introduction by ICIMOD Resource
Person and overall briefing about the
project SSTWC.
Briefing about the field experience and
implementation part of the project
Documenting of the public interaction
and conducting interviews with few
locals and participants.
Dr Santosh Nepal, ICIMOD
Ms Sushma Acharya, NWCF
Mr Prakash Sundash, Local Radio
Journalist from Radio Namobuddha
15:30 – 17:00 Travel back to Kathmandu
32
Forum Day 4 (Wednesday, 24 September 2014)
Venue: ICIMOD Headquarters, Khumaltar, Lalitpur
Time Particulars Responsible person
9:00 – 9:10 Recap of the event Volunteer participant
Knowledge Session
9:10 – 10:30 Group Activity: KnowledgeMarket Place
Brainstorming ideas in groups and Communicating
solutions through effective Knowledge
Management (KM) and Communication Tools
Ms Anja Moller Rasmussen
Mr Udayan Mishra
Mr Utsav Maden
Group 1: Geo‐fencing Mr Rajan Bajracharya
Group 2: Story Maps Mr Sameer Bajracharya,
Mr Sudip Pradhan
Group 3: Case of ICT in agriculture, ICIMOD’s
Innovation project
Mr Sushil Pandey,
Mr Deependra Tandukar
Group 4: Community based Early Warning System Mr Narendra Bajracharya
Ms Neera Shrestha Pradhan
Mr Sagar Bajracharya
Mr Umesh Khanal
Group 5: Communication (Making Science Message
travel beyond boundaries, Exploring Ideas to
Engage Youth in the ‘Climate+Change’ Exhibition)
Mr Ujol Sherchan
10:30 – 11:00 Plenary Presentation from the groups Plenary
11:00 – 11:15 Tea break
11:15 – 12:00 Preparation time for presentation by participants
incorporating learnings from the event + additional
Ideas (for the session after lunch)
Participants
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 14:45 Reporting from the representative participant
(based on Pecha Kucha format, 20 slides x 20
seconds for each slide)
Participants (Group leader)
14:45 – 15:00 Evaluation form submission
Closing Session
15:00 – 15:45 Experience sharing from the participants (HKH, and
beyond HKH)
Participants
15:45 – 16:00 Sharing key observations from the event ICIMOD
16:00 – 16:15 Key Message from the Director General, ICIMOD Dr David Molden, ICIMOD
33
16:15 – 16:30 Certificate Distribution Dr David Molden,
Ms Anja Moller Rasmussen, Ms
Smita Ghimire
16:30 – 16:40 Vote of Thanks Ms Smita Ghimire, ICIMOD
16:40 – 17:00 Final Remarks and Way forward Ms Anja Rasmussen, ICIMOD
Field activity I
SUNDAY, 21 September 2014, ICIMOD Knowledge Park, Godavari
Time: 14:00 – 16:30
Group Responsible Person Activities
Group 1 Mr Jeevan Tamang
Ms Smita Ghimire Half an hour allocated to each
group to have a hands on training
on Bio‐Briquette Technology at
ICIMOD Point‐1
Starting point ‐ Training Centre
- Solar Technologies, Bio Briquette (hands on
exercise), Flood Early Warning System, Cool
Chamber, Peltric Set, Water Harvesting,
Kiwi Fruits, SALT, Medicinal plant, Nursery
Assemble back to the Training Centre.
Group 2 Mr Poorna Thapa
Mr Udayan Mishra
Half an hour allocated to each
group to have a hands on training
on Bio‐Briquette Technology at
ICIMOD Point‐1
Starting point ‐ Training Centre
- Medicinal Plants, Mushroom, Carbon
Monitoring, Solar, Bio Briquette (hands on
exercise), Flood Early Warning System, Cool
Chamber, Peltric Set, Water harvesting,
Kiwi Fruits, SALT, Wetland, Nursery,
Assemble back to the Training Centre.
Group 3 Ms Yashodha Budhathoki
Mr Utsav Maden
Half an hour allocated to each
group to have a hands on training
on Bio‐Briquette Technology at
ICIMOD Point‐1
Starting point‐ Training Centre
- Wetland, Nursery, Composting, Medicinal
Plants, Mushroom, Solar, Bio Briquette
(hands on exercise), Flood Early Warning
System, Cool Chamber, Peltric Set, Water
harvesting, Kiwi Fruits, SALT
Assemble back to the Training Centre.
34
Field Activity II WEDNESDAY, 23 September 2014, Visit to ICIMOD’s project site on springs and ponds Organized by ICIMOD with support from Nepal Water Conservation Foundation (NWCF)
Time: 06:00 – 17:00
Places of visit:
- Namobuddha Resort and it’s premises
- SSTWC (Springs, Storage Towers and Water Conservation) project sites
o Daraune Pokhari, Jogipani Pokhari, Thati Pokhari Purpose of the visit:
Namobuddha Resort area to observe the adaptation practices on spring water recharge
technologies and other water treatment methods.
Daraune Pokhari: The historical pond at the top of the hill has been providing water supply to
the community for ages through recharge of springs in the downstream area. The site can be
cased to indicate how recharge ponds are instrumental in the revival of dried springs
downstream.
Jogipani Pokhari to see the effort from community and the action research programme on
SSTWC, joint venture of ICIMOD and NWCF, on construction of recharge ponds and its
connection to the springs downstream. After consultation with the locals, learning from their
indigenous knowledge, the history of the place regarding pond‐spring relationship, and scientific
theory developed after doing some geological study around the place, this study and action
work intends to explain the relation between ponds and springs.
Thati Pokhari: to observe the rehabilitated ponds for recharge and have a short interaction with
the local community. Facilitators and resource persons: