Abstract
Himalayan region is a trans-boundary area with rich biodiversity of global importance, while this region has been subject to great human stress and continues to face multiple threats with the global change. Inadequacy of the institutional arrangements and shortcomings of governance practice are challenging the effective conservation of trans-boundary biodiversity in this region. This chapter synthesizes an empirical overview of trans-boundary cooperation in establishing institutions for biodiversity conservation through case study in bordering areas across India, China, Nepal and Bhutan. Based on the hypothesis that trans-boundary biodiversity protection involves understanding tightly coupled interrelationships between natural systems and human society, a theoretic institution framework of sixfold matrix including economic, technical, social, environmental, ethnical/cultural, and political dimensions was structured to promote the efficient trans-boundary biodiversity conservation in the Himalayan region. It was proposed in this chapter that regional institutions, in close collaboration with national governments of member countries, needed to develop a vision for an integrated approach to institutionalize the trans-boundary biodiversity conservation.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the funding organizations including Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (Grant no. 2016YFC0501906), National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Asian Scholar Foundation, India, China Institute of New School, Beijing Normal University for their financial supports. The authors are grateful to the scholars whose articles, tables and figures are cited in this chapter. The authors are most grateful to the farmers/herders, practitioners, and professionals for their cooperation and efforts during my interview. The case study cited here is from the programme supported by ICIMOD’s member countries, its core donors including German Development Cooperation - GIZ and Austrian Development Agency.
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Dong, S., Chettri, N., Sharma, E. (2017). Himalayan Biodiversity: Trans-boundary Conservation Institution and Governance. In: Dong, S., Bandyopadhyay, J., Chaturvedi, S. (eds) Environmental Sustainability from the Himalayas to the Oceans. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44037-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44037-8_6
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