Climate change is a pressing issue. Nepal is one of the fourth most vulnerable countries in the world based on a 2010 vulnerability assessment. Adaptation to climate change must be of high priority; national attention to changing weather patterns is necessary in helping poor communities cope with and adapt to the many and unforeseeable consequences of climate change. In particular, watersheds in mountain regions are considered more vulnerable to risk of flooding, erosion, mudslides and glacial lake outburst floods.
The lives of all Himalayans are affected as their farms are decimated and crops are lost. As a result, climate change is altering the face of the Himalayas, devastating poor communities and making the high mountains including Mt. Everest increasingly treacherous to climb. The HSFF work closely with communities, Government agencies and international partners for adaptation to climate change and research.
HSFF focuses on the following themes.
Assessing Impacts in Divergent Ecosystems
- Mountain ecosystem impacts
- Forest and grassland ecosystem impacts
- Impacts on wilderness and protected areas
- Impacts on specific biomes
- Impacts on biodiversity, potential extinctions
- Regional variations: temperature and rainfall
Human Impacts and Impacts on Humans
- Anthropogenic factors in climate change: determining the relative contribution of human causes
- Land use patterns, agriculture and livestock husbandry as factors in climate change
- Impacts on humans: agriculture, food supply, health
- Impacts on humans: water resources, desertification
- Impacts on humans of intense weather events, natural disasters and ecological surprises
- Impacts of climate change in the mountain areas
Technical, Political and Social Responses
- Environmental policies in response to climate change
- Controversy and denial: politics, the media and scientists with dissenting views
- The international politics of climate change
- The past, present and future of international agreements
- Education and awareness for management of global climate change
- Protected areas and preservation of biodiversity: ‘corridoring’ and other strategies
- Strategies for sustainability
- Human adaptive strategies
- Alternative and renewable energy sources: technologies, policies and strategies
- Eco-development, eco-efficiency
