K Thapa, K Lamsal, RB Rana and S Subedi
Aimed at developing a participatory mechanism to manage lake watersheds through strengthened community initiatives, the Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research, and Development (LI-BIRD) piloted the Exploring Climate Adaptive Mechanisms on Watershed Management within the Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) framework design in Rupa Lake Watershed of Kaski District. The pilot followed participatory approaches and tools for community consultations, orientations, capacity building, and scoping of the watershed on climate change and watershed management issues.
The area in general has experienced increased temperature, erratic and intense rainfall. A major indicator of climate change as perceived by the local community near the lake is increased siltation. Decreased agricultural productivity due to prolonged drought and erratic rainfall has also affected the agricultural workforce which is turning towards migration. Farmers have experienced a delay in major rainfall patterns from June-August to July-September. Incidence of pests has also increased, especially due to fog and prolonged drought. The pilot recommends a number of climate change adaptation strategies at the watershed level.
There are numerous strategies available to minimise siltation due to climate change. Reforestation-including plantation of fodder trees and forages-in damaged and eroded lands is effective in minimising soil and loss erosion due to run off. Construction of gabions and loose stone-check dams or split-bamboo barriers are equally useful in reducing stream bank cutting (for long term investment) and minimises the loss of eroded soil from running into springs (for short term investment). Bioengineering practices are also recommended for gulley control. Mobilising the community for management of management of natural resources and establishing a market linkage of products from the community are crucial in order to adapt to the impacts of climate change through value addition, tourism, and information access. Assigning roles to separate groups for the management of ecosystem resources becomes imperative in order to develop ownership.
In order to reduce impacts of climate change on agriculture, we identified strategies that diversify livelihood, provide options to the community, add value to their products, and link their products with the market. Promotion and adoption of organic farming, promotion of agroforestry farming systems, integration of legumes in the farming system (especially in rain-fed or upland farming system), promotion and use of crops developed by participatory plant breeding and participatory variety selection are some of the key strategies and options for adapting to drought and flood in agriculture. Cultivation of non timber forest products and their market linkage is another strategy to diversify livelihood and utilise marginal lands. Conservation of local crop varieties through seed banks and field gene banks, identification and promotion of climate stress (particularly drought, flood, and pest) tolerant underutilised crops, fruits, small farm animals and their local breeds in the farming system are some of the adaptive strategies and options in the watershed. In addition, identifying and promoting income generating activities and adding niche based climate proofing is an important strategy for local level adaptation.
Since social assets are important from the climate change adaptation perspective, a synergistic association of community organisations and development of social cohesion is essential. The implementation of any intervention mechanism, therefore, should also mobilise the community through the establishment of group funds that help develop a sense of ownership. More importantly, a reciprocal benefit sharing mechanism between upstream and downstream communities has the potential to initiate and sustain the management of ecosystem services from the climate adaptation perspective. It increases community access to markets and brings about a remarkable social change. In order to sustain the management of the lake by engaging all stakeholders of the watershed, a voluntary payment mechanism is in place.
The mechanism of local adaptation should engage all local stakeholders and include district and village level governmental agencies, community based organisations/institutions, the private sector and nongovernmental organisations demonstrating a public-private partnership. The mechanism should define specific roles and responsibilities that each partner should take into account while providing their services. There should be a two way delivery mechanism of service in order to truly enhance the adaptive capacity of the poor, climate vulnerable communities and equally vulnerable ecosystems.
A bottom-up as well as top-down monitoring and evaluation mechanism should be in place and should be implemented to ensure effective and efficient implementation of adaptation interventions in Nepal. A watershed or sub-watershed shares boundaries with districts, VDCs or municipalities that are different from political boundaries.
Along with multifaceted benefits and opportunities of local level adaptation of this mechanism in Nepal, there are some barriers for its development and delivery which should be taken with caution. One barrier to developing and delivering local level adaptation is the lack of climate foresight in sectoral policies and plans. In this context, a thorough review of existing national policy and plans need to be carried out from the climate change perspective. The top bottom approach to planning needs to be made participatory while designing LAPAs in order to develop ownership by local community. Since the political context of the country is in transition--with rapidly changing governments and government officials--political leaders, constituent assembly members and policy makers need to be regularly updated on climate change progresses in the country and the need of LAPAs and NAPA implementation. Capacity building of stakeholders (at local, regional and national levels) on climate change issues is very important to effectively and efficiently create and implement LAPAs.
In the circumstance of NAPA preparation and its implementation, formulation of LAPAs and their efficient and effective implementation are crucial for climate proofing the local and national development of Nepal. The proposed LAPA design should be comprehensive in order to cover all aspects of climate vulnerability and adaptation options at the local level. This can be achieved through a thorough analysis of the climate and livelihood context of the given area from the climate change perspective. The learning and experiences generated from LAPAs provide important feedbacks to the local and national development plans, programmes and policies. Involvement of private sector, nongovernmental organisations and certainly government institutions (development and academic institutions) will be unique to LAPA if we are successful in demonstrating public- private partnership on tackling climate change. Last but not least, we should not forget community institutions such as cooperatives and natural resource management groups as entry points for developing and implementing LAPA in a given area.
Published on: 2012-02-16 04:44 in The Kathmandu Post, National Daily
