Programme de bourses "Jeunes Chercheurs"

Landscape dynamics in Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park, Nepal: Impacts on selected environmental services and adaptive capacities

Land use and cover change is one of the most important forms of environmental change occurring in many of the world’s mountain regions (Körner and Ohsawa, 2005). Recent small-scale analyses highlight the current landscape dynamics in the Himalayas (e.g., Chaudhary et al., 2007). These ongoing, and in many cases, rapid transformations affect the ability of mountain ecosystems, particularly their vegetation, to provide many different environmental goods and services (or land functions), which, in turn, affects human well-being. Among the services affected are biodiversity, water provision, food production and, in terms of intensive climate change mitigation debates, also carbon sequestration (Chan et al., 2006). Despite the vital importance of these services, little information is available regarding the extent and the impacts of changes in land use and cover on mountain ecosystems at the localised level. Acknowledging that it is exactly at the local level that many policy decisions are made which strongly influence the overall dynamics of landscape change, there is an urgent need to fill this gap between decisions and available knowledge to support evidence-based decision making at the localised level.

My central research theme is to assess the causal links of ongoing land use and cover changes, and the impacts of such dynamics on the ability of mountain ecosystems to provide the above mentioned services in Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park (SNP), (see figure 1). The main scientific contribution of this research project lies in the development of a methodology to link land use and cover data in a spatially explicit manner, and in quantifying selected environmental services (and their stakeholders) at the localised level in space as well as time. By shedding light on the different dimensions of landscape dynamics it is expected to provide insights into the underlying drivers and processes, and identify tipping points beyond which the resilience of certain environmental systems is lost. Given the limited knowledge and experience of such research projects in mountain regions at high-resolution scales, it is critical to embed a stakeholder dialogue in such a research agenda, and thereby create a process of mutual learning and knowledge exchange with realties on the ground.  

                     
                                         Relationships between the different elements in the proposed project

References

Chan, M, K., Shaw, M. R., Cameron, D. R., Underwood, E, C., Daily, G, C., Conservation planning for ecosystem services. (2006)  Public Library of Science Biology, Vol. 4, No. 11. e379.

Chaudhary, R. P., Aase, T.H., Vetaas, O.R and Subbedi, B.P (2007) (Editors) Local effects of Global Changes in the Himalayas: Manang, Nepal. Tribhuvan University, Nepal and University of Bergen, Norway.

Körner, C. and M. Ohsawa (Coordinating Lead Authors) (2005) Mountain systems.  Chapter 24 In R. Hassan et al. (eds.) Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Current State and Trends, Volume 1, Island Press, Washington DC: pp 681-716

Contacts

PhD Candidate
Rodney Garrard
Kurvenstrasse 8
8600 Duebendorf
Tel + 41 44 820 1203
Email rodney.garrard@cde.unibe.ch,
Web: www.garrard.co.nz

Partner Institution and contact person:

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development,
Birendra Bajracharya,
PO Box 3226, Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Tel +977-1-5003222
Email bbajracharya@icimod.org
Web www.icimod.org