Citizen Knowledge for Climate Adaptive Governance through Virtual Observatories:

A case study of Upper Kaligandaki Basin, Mustang, Nepal

ESPA 2014 Annual Science Meeting

26-27 November, 2014 Presentation by

Deepak Paudel and The MOUNTAIN-EVO Team

deepaksoham2012@gmail.com deepakndmf@yahoo.com

Presentation Outline

• About the Study Area

• Ecosystem Services Issues

• The Way forward: Citizen knowledge for ESS Management in Kaligandaki Basin-Mustang

Nepal: Vulnerability & Risk

Climate change Vulnerability- 4th rank ---Maplecroft, 2011 Flood and Landslide risk-----30th rank UNDP, 2004 Kathmandu, the capital city -Earthquake among 21 mega Cities in the

world top 10 high risk UNDP2004 2 peoples loss lives daily in average and Thousand of HHs displaced

every year (GoN, 2010) Fertile soil loss by 1.2 % due to floods and landslides (Environment

Statistics of Nepal 2013) Earthquake vulnerability risk----11th rank UNDP, 2004

The Study Site

Physiography: Trans-Himalayan Region between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna Area of 3,573 km2 (district) Population of 14,000 people (district) Climate: Alpine cold, dry, and arid climate (total average annual rainfall:250mm) Major stress: Decreasing snow and erratic rainfall, land degradation-rangelands services, food insecurity Main income source: On farm and off farm activities Major Ecosystem Services: Provisional services (Food and Water); soil, Rangeland ecosystem, Recreational services and regulating

A. Situation Analysis: Literature, District and Community level

B. Monitoring of river flow and climate through Citizen Science

C. Development of platform on Sharing and dissemination

D. Capacity development on decision making process

Project Methodology

Do decision-makers have a lack of local knowledge about ecosystem processes to implement adaptive governance of ESS?

Can adequately communicated results of citizen science knowledge support the decision making process on livelihood strategies?

Key research questions / hypotheses

1. Provisional services (Food and Water)

• Mainly yak & goat 62% of total 77000 animals

• Cereal crops, cash crops and vegetables, distillery,

• Fuel wood, Timber, Dry leaves and fodders, Grassland

• Water for irrigation, drinking, hydro-electricity, mills

2. Regulating services (climate and natural hazards)

• Maintenance of soil fertility;

• Biodiversity;

• Soil erosion, landslide, floods, droughts,

• Purification of water and air,

• Pest and disease control

3. Recreational services (Landscape, and social values)

• Ancient caves, monasteries and unique geographical structures and landscape

• Tibetan culture; Tourism, trekking; Popular pilgrimage locations

Key ESS in the Upper Kaligandaki basin

Low annual value of ESS for Poor community (e.g Food security)

Only 13 % people have food security year-round from own production whereas

about 19 % people have access to food available for less than 3 months in a year (ACAP 2011)

More than 90% people keep animals and 77% people are involved in agriculture for economic supplements.

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Village Development Committee

Population Status (2001- 2011)

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2011

Issues we found

Annual trend y = 0.2444x - 217.51

Winter trend y = -0.2533x + 531.04

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Annual and Winter Precipitation Time Series of Jomsom

annual winter

Irrigation practice

Good practices in land and water management but lack of strengths in regular monitoring of changes

As a result: Degrading pasture lands Increasing energy demand, Drying spring sources causing water conflict, Ignoring ESS values

Issues we found

Hard to decide on livelihood change strategy-for Primary users of ESS-Poor Community

e.g. Shifting apple farming from lower to higher region due to change in temperature (increased)

Difficulties to cope with a rapidly changing weather risk affecting tourism e.g. 32 people lost their lives due to the impacts of Indian Cyclone named Hud-Hud Cyclone on local weather in Annapurna range on 12-15 October, 2014

Issues we found

Governance of ESS Customary system and statutory law-conflicts and sustainability?

Informal ecosystem services management through the Mukhiya system (village headmanship)

The formal mechanism (Village Development Committees) try to integrate the Mukhiya system

Conventional command-and-control resource management is criticized (Holling and Meffe 1996)

Gaps in knowledge between the informal and formal systems

New innovative approaches for understanding and managing social-ecological systems may address this gap

Issues we found

Application of citizen science to provide evidence to support and adaptive governance for ESS management (Buytaert et al. 2014)

Explore ICT in adaptive governance e.g. internet, mobiles with Android system etc. facilitate citizen knowledge

Data/information dissemination and utilization in Local development planning process

Ways forward

Detailed Situation Analysis • Focus group discussion

• Resource map preparation

• Seasonal calendar preparation

• Irrigation canal mapping

• Observation of sources of water

• Sampling of agricultural production and water for irrigation per unit area.

• Site selection for river gauging station

Research Team

Application of citizen science approach in adoptive governance for ESS management

The participation of general public in the research design, data collection and interpretation process together with scientists is often referred to as citizen science (Wouter et al. 2014)

ICT in adoptive governance-ecology and society

e.g. Cellular networks, internet, mobiles with Android system etc facilitate citizen knowledge

Data/information dissemination and utilization in Local development planning process

Thank You !