PROJECT ASSESSMENTS - Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-income Countries - page 164

HIMALAYA-INDIA, NEPAL, PAKISTAN *

Himalayan degradation: An interdisciplinary approach do analyse the dynamics of
forest and soil degradation and to develop sustainable agro-ecological strategies for
fragile Himalayan watersheds

A) Project setting

1) What was the background and motivation of the project?

Soil and forest degradation in the Himalayan region is a serious threat to agricultural
sustainability. Increased anthropogenic activities in an inherently fragile ecosystem
with steep slopes and intense monsoon rains have accelerated the various processes
of soil and ecosystem degradation. The soil and forest degradation problems in the
Himalayan region are caused primarily by human induced marginalized agriculture,
livestock grazing, fodder and fuel wood collection, and timber cutting. The high rate
of population growth in the region and associated socio-economic development such
as rapid urbanization and infrastructure development accelerated and intensified the
degradation process. Deeper insights into such a complex and inter-related pheno-
mena are still lacking. The present levels of understanding and systematic analysis
of forest and soil degradation are very poor and databases for Himalayan region are
non-existent. No monitoring activities are carried out even in cases where such
monitoring can be of direct benefit to project-related management activities. The
motivation of the project was to gather data that would help increase this level of
understanding, and to come up with practical guidelines for managing the fragile
ecosystems in the Himalayan region.

2) What was the institutional context (partners with which cooperated?)

The project was funded in part by EU under '5th framework programme: Confirming
the International Role of Community, Research, INCO-DEV, Region Asia', and in
part by LNV. The research partners were the Agricultural University of Norway
(AUN), Alterra, the University of Wales at Swansea, Forest Research Institute
(FRI), Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI) and Tribhuvan University.

B) Project objectives

1) What were the initial project objectives?

• The overall objective of the project was to analyse the dynamics of forest and

soil degradation processes at the watershed level in the Himalayan region by

* Questionnaire received 2006, revised May 2007; Project leader E. Van den Elsen (Alterra)