Managing Ecosystem Services for Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in the Hindu Kush Himalayas - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 210

al. 2000, Pandit et al. 2007, Xu et al. 2009, Singh et al. 2011). The ecosystems
in the HKH are degrading mainly due to lack of incentive provisions for
maintaining ecosystems and the goods and services provided by them.
This is leading to development that is unsustainable including loss of
biodiversity. Even the protected areas such as national parks, nature
reserves and wildlife sanctuaries face tremendous pressures from external
driving forces and communities living inside and outside (Sharma and
Yonzon 2005). It is a paradox that in spite of being rich in biodiversity the
region is also home to poorest of the world and the most vulnerable in
the face of climate change (Chettri et al. 2010, Singh et al. 2011). So, there
is a mounting challenge to balance conservation with development in the
region. This chapter is an attempt to document the reconciling initiatives
on maintaining ecosystem resilience through integrated conservation and
development initiatives to address prevailing climate change challenges
faced by the region with some evolving regional experiences.
Ecosystem Diversity, Their Services and Human Wellbeing
The ecosystems of the HKH are inherent component of the culture, landscape
and environment of this high mountain area of Asia. Elevation zones across
the HKH extend from tropical (>500 meters above sea level) to alpine ice
snow (>6,000 meters above sea level), with a principal vertical vegetation
regime composed of tropical and subtropical rainforest, temperate broadleaf
deciduous or mixed forest, and temperate coniferous forest, including high
altitude cold shrub or steppe and cold desert (Guangwei 2002, Pei 1995). The
dominant vegetation types such as forests and rangelands have multiple
functions: they harbor biodiversity, anchor soil and water, provide carbon
sinks, regulate climate, and temper stream fl ow. Likewise the wetland
ecosystems, which are the transitional ecosystems between terrestrial
and aquatic habitats encompassing water, soil and organisms, supports
rich agricultural and wild biodiversity as well as provides environmental
services such as food, fl ood regulation, nutrient and sediment retention,
maintenance of groundwater table and so on, that in turn, become valuable
benefi ts to the society. They are also habitat for a wide variety of birds,
mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fi sh and invertebrate species. They are
sometimes described as 'the kidneys of the landscapes' because of the
functions they perform in hydrologic and chemical cycles and as a store
house of carbon as a result in the form of peat lands.
The HKH is characterized by fi ve agro-climatic zones and farming
practices viz. (i) specialized pastoralism (purely livestock based, high
altitude transhuman subsistence livelihoods); (ii) mixed mountain agro-
pastoralism (livestock, agriculture, and agroforestry livelihoods based
in the mid hills); (iii) cereal based hill farming systems (agriculture