Duty of world community to conserve mountains, say experts at Sagarmatha Sambaad in Nepal

Kathmandu, May 17 (PTI) Experts participating in the Sagarmatha Sambaad “Mountain Dialogue” in Kathmandu on Saturday said it is the duty of the world community to conserve mountains as they are the lifeline of humanity.

On the second day of the three-day international dialogue, participating in a panel discussion on the theme “Exploration of Nature, Culture and Adventure in the Mountains”, they said “the protection of mountain ecology is important for preservation of eco-system of the mountains”.

“It is important to preserve the Himalayas for the sake of culture, lifestyle, wildlife, biodiversity and tourism from the Himalayas to the downstream region,” they said.

Those taking part in the panel discussion included Ghanashyam Gurung, country director of World Wildlife Fund, Nepal, Rajan Subedi, River Basin Manager of Oxfam, Maurin Anino, deputy commissioner of Water and Forest Ministry of Uganda, Chhiring Sherpa, CEO of Everest Pollution Control Committee and Anil Chitrakar, leading environmentalist.

The mountain region has covered 22 per cent of the area of the earth and the mountain eco-system supports livelihood of around fifty per cent of the population of the world, according to the experts.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya region with its unprecedented diverse culture, language, religion, ethnicity and traditional knowledge attracts more than 70 million tourists from across the world, they said.

The experts on the occasion underscored the need to identify new solutions for strengthening the ecosystem of the mountain region and to explore possibilities of investing in natural capital with a view to benefitting a large number of people living in the region.

Speaking at a separate discussion under the Sagarmatha Sambad, Minister for Forest and Environment Ain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri said that the residents of Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region were facing serious impacts of climate change though their contributions to carbon emission is negligible.

Stating that the rise in temperature in the Himalayan region was relatively higher than the global average, Thakuri said that the rise in temperature was taking a toll on both ecosystem and human lives.

Highlighting the vulnerability of mountains to climate change, he said that “mountains, which are the sources of our civilization and prosperity, are reeling under adverse impacts of climate change and contributing to recurring cases of disasters, including burst of glacial lakes, drought, landslide, erratic rainfall among others”.

He said that climate action should be taken forward in collaboration as rivers, glacial rivers and ecosystems are not confined to the countries’ borders. PTI SBP GSP GSP