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Vulnerability and impacts of climate change on forest and freshwater wetland ecosystems in Nepal: A review

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Abstract

Climate change (CC) threatens ecosystems in both developed and developing countries. As the impacts of CC are pervasive, global, and mostly irreversible, it is gaining worldwide attention. Here we review vulnerability and impacts of CC on forest and freshwater wetland ecosystems. We particularly look at investigations undertaken at different geographic regions in order to identify existing knowledge gaps and possible implications from such vulnerability in the context of Nepal along with available adaptation programs and national-level policy supports. Different categories of impacts which are attributed to disrupting structure, function, and habitat of both forest and wetland ecosystems are identified and discussed. We show that though still unaccounted, many facets of forest and freshwater wetland ecosystems of Nepal are vulnerable and likely to be impacted by CC in the near future. Provisioning ecosystem services and landscape-level ecosystem conservation are anticipated to be highly threatened with future CC. Finally, the need for prioritizing CC research in Nepal is highlighted to close the existing knowledge gap along with the implementation of adaptation measures based on existing location specific traditional socio-ecological system.

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Notes

  1. Kipat is a system of land management under which the state recognized the land owned by the ethnic Limbu people of eastern Nepal; under this system, the right to use the land was given to a member of a Kipat-owning ethnic group. Some CFUG in the eastern regions are reported to use Kipat along with other traditional practices.

  2. Nawa system is a traditional institution of the ethnic Sherpa community that controls the use of village land and forest for the purpose of agriculture and animal husbandry.

  3. Mukhiya system, also called village chief or headman, is practiced mostly in the highland of central Nepal in ethnic Thakali people to implement the indigenous system of forest and pasture land management as per the rules framed by their community.

  4. http://climateactiontracker.org/countries/nepal.html.

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Acknowledgements

We thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Rural Science, The University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia

    Pramod Lamsal & Lalit Kumar

  2. Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB), P.O. Box 11035, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Kishor Atreya

  3. School of Arts, Kathmandu University, P.O. Box 6250, Lalitpur, Nepal

    Krishna Prasad Pant

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Lamsal, P., Kumar, L., Atreya, K. et al. Vulnerability and impacts of climate change on forest and freshwater wetland ecosystems in Nepal: A review. Ambio 46, 915–930 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-017-0923-9

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