Story | 28 Mar, 2020

IUCN "Himalayan Adaptation Network"

Recognizing various environment and climate change issues and ongoing initiatives in the Indian Himalayan Region, IUCN launched its web-based network initiative known as ‘Himalayan Adaptation Network’ on 21 February 2020 in Sikkim.

Photo: Gurprit Singh

This platform has been established under the umbrella of the National Mission on Himalayan Studies (NHMS), supported project “Coping with Uncertainty: Building Community Resilience and Ecosystem Based Adaptation to Climate Change in the Indian Himalayan Region (hereby CwU)”.The project addressed the critical impact of climate change on water, energy, livelihoods, and biodiversity, as well as to build climate resilient strategies for reducing community and ecosystem vulnerability in the Indian Himalayan region (IHR) through the landscape approach.

A fundamental prerequisite for climate adaptation is knowledge, be it ecological or technological. Although this knowledge exists in abundance, actors on-the-ground do not have sufficient access. To provide adequate knowledge for designing and implementing climate change adaptation measures, IUCN is establishing an adaptation network which will primarily focus on climate change adaptation in the Indian Himalayan region. The aim of developing this network is to build climate change resilient and sustainable human systems, ecosystems and economies through the mobilisation of knowledge.

The goal of this knowledge based platform is to create a network of projects and partners with similar concerns to build the field of adaptation science, particularly for Indian Himalayan Region.