Climate Change Hits Mighty Himalayas

WHEN THE four countries, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and including Bhutan, came together for the “Experts’ Group Meeting on Biodiversity” each country presented its own regional issues on the impacts of climate change.

The agriculture and forests’ minister, Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho said that a sound biodiversity was crucial for all aspects of human existence. However, it is also clear that climate change will be the dominant direct driver of biodiversity loss by the end of this century.

Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho said biological diversity was important for the very human existence as they provide a vast range of goods and services ranging from food, clean water, fuel and construction materials to fertile soils, and healing plants for medicines, and the clean air that human’s breathe.

He said it has been predicted that climate change will be the dominant direct driver of biodiversity loss by the end of this century. Studies have shown that the eastern Himalayan region’s mean annual temperature is increasing at the rate of 0.01 to 0.06 degree Celsius per year.

The minister went on to say that the Himalayan range encompasses of about 15,000 glaciers, which, stores about 12,000Km of fresh water. Some of the world’s major river systems arise in the Himalayas and their combined drainage basin was home to some 3 billion people.

The Himalayas are home to an estimated 10,000 plant species, 300 mammal species, 977 bird species, 176 reptiles, 105 amphibians, and 269 freshwater fish.

The region has the highest density of the Royal Bengal Tiger and is the last bastion for the one-horned rhino.

“Unfortunately, pollution, degradation, and the overuse of non-renewable resources are depleting the vitality of the Himalayan ecosystems and have been causing an unprecedented loss in biodiversity,” said Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho.

Dr Tashi Yangzome Dorji, Program Director of National Biodiversity Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests said the climate change is happening in the Himalayas with the rapid melting of the glaciers, erratic and unpredictable weather, changing rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures.

Inertia in the face of such changes could severely challenge our food, water and energy security as well as biodiversity persistence, she said.

“So in order to build resilience to the impacts of climate change, the need was felt not only to address it at the national level but more importantly to strengthen regional cooperation and resilience against climate change,” said Dr Tashi Yangzome Dorji.

The climate change impacts and threats on biodiversity in Bhutan has caused disruption of ecosystem and ecosystem services- mainly due to rising temperature and altered precipitation regimes.

Over the recent years, Bhutan has observed mean winter and summer temperature and this will result not only in shifting of location of ecosystems and boundaries (tree line shift) but also changes in composition of ecosystems.

There has been establishment of invasive species; forest fire and droughts have been increasing.

Bhutan has faced loss of agro biodiversity resilience; food security.

The Bangladesh delegation, Ishtiag Uddin Ahmad, recommended the establishment of a biodiversity corridor and a regional gene bank for which the four countries come up with a consensual regional action plan on biodiversity conservation.

Bangladesh, a country that is said to be rich in biodiversity is bestowed with distinct physiographic characteristics, difference in hydrological and climatic conditions, and distinction in the soil properties has been facing adverse effects of climate change.

Impacts like serious and recurrent floods due to glacier melt, increased rainfall concentration, rise in strength and frequency of droughts (affecting agriculture the most).

The frequency of monsoon depressions and cyclones formation in the Bay of Bengal had decreased but the rate of intensity has been increasing thus causing severe damages to life and property in Bangladesh.

The presentation showed that there has been degradation of wetlands, biodiversity and ecosystems and that the salinity intrusion has already affected both land and water areas along the coastal zone of the country and about 1.2 million hectares out of 2.85 million hectares have been affected by varying degrees of soil salinity.

The projected sea level rise would affect millions of people in the coastal areas.

Ishtiag Uddin Ahmad pointed out that the climate change impacts on biodiversity in Bangladesh at the coastal wetlands were degradation of the coastal and delta ecosystems and this will have impact on migratory species and their migration paths.

He said due to this there will be massive change in forest species for which some forests will disappear and the species dependent on forest will face extinction.

In the lowlands, he said there was a decrease of landmass and the habitat and food sources for marine birds had decreased, even the rise in population had put pressure on narrow land.

Coming to India, Dr Ranbeer S Rawal of G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment & Development said for India the North East was the targeted region.

This he said was because the region was vulnerable to water-induced disasters – strong Brahmaputra and Barak river systems, low average economic growth, increasing population and decreasing land productivity.

The north east region was relatively higher dependent on natural resources like forest.

For Nepal the common threats were habitat loss, over harvesting, poaching in protected areas, gazing, theft (commercial tree species from low land forests), encroachment in wetlands, over fishing, pollution, and loss of local land races. A ministerial meeting is scheduled prior to the summit in Thimphu.

Source:- thejournalist.bt