Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Services in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

With 22% global land surface area, the mountains ecosystem is home to 13% of the total human populations. Evolved as a unique ecosystem, the mountain adds value with diverse ecosystems; tradition and culture as well as ecosystem services for socio-economic development in the mountain areas and beyond. As it caters half of the humanity with its diverse types of ecosystem services, the realization of its significance are still limited in national, regional and global discourses. In the conservation front, there has been a significant progress in the concept and practices from species focussed interventions to habitat and ecosystem/landscape conservation approaches. The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), known as the highest mountain ecosystems in the world is also the water tower for the region often referred as the third pole. This unique ecosystem is an important repository of biological and cultural diversities and source of varied ecosystems services to 240 million people living within and about a one third of global population living downstream. The region has been in spotlight for being part of the 36 ‘Global Biodiversity Hotspot’ as well as climate change hotspot. However, our understanding the dynamics of changing landscapes and climate and its linkage to people, mostly challenged by poverty are limited. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an inter-governmental regional knowledge and enabling centre, has been instrumental in developing knowledge about the dynamics of these fragile ecosystems and support its regional member countries through science based integrated approaches. Since its inception, ICIMOD has been engaged in developing knowledge and supporting policies for mountain development focusing on socio-economic, ecological and environmental dimensions. In this paper, we present the retrospect of our understanding and learnings in the HKH through transboundary landscape management and regional cooperation mostly focused on conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services perspectives. The paper reflects on changing paradigm and complex process for strengthening regional cooperation in the HKH.