Managing Ecosystem Services for Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in the Hindu Kush Himalayas - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 215

et al. 2007). Since ecosystems in the Himalayas are layered as narrow bands
along a longitudinal axis of the mountain range, they are greatly infl uenced
and easily impacted by climatic variations. For example, the sub-tropical and
temperate forests (broadleaved, coniferous, and mixed), include the tiger
( Panthera tigris ) and other members of the cat family (Felidae) which would
be extremely vulnerable to climate change as would narrowly endemic
taxa, such as Mishmi takin ( Budorcas taxicolor taxicolor ) and Hoolock gibbon
( Hoolock hoolock ), which are likely to face challenges to their conservation in
the forests. The brow-antlered deer ( Cervus eldi ), locally known as Sangai, is
endemic to the Manipur wetlands, especially Loktak Lake, and is the rarest
and most localized subspecies of deer in the world.
Potential impact people's livelihood
The increasing risk for human livelihoods and wellbeing include increasing
frequency and severity of extreme events such as cyclones, landslides and
fl oods. Within the Himalayan ecosystems, the impact of these changes is
often aggravated by existing environmental and socio-economic problems,
such as poverty, water scarcity or food defi ciency (Mertz et al. 2009). These
in turn contribute to a downward-spiralling cycle with adversely impacting
the livelihoods and driving people to desperate measures that decimate
ecosystem services. Observational evidence indicates that the impacts
related to climate warming are well underway on the Himalayas (Singh
et al. 2011) and increasing threats to biodiversity and derived ecosystem
goods and services (Chettri et al. 2010, Chettri et al. 2011). The poorer, more
marginalized people of the high mountains are likely to suffer the earliest
and the most. Given the evidence that many risks already threaten women
disproportionately; and also the elderly, disabled, and indigenous groups,
especially their poorer members; identifying changes in the cryosphere
and alpine ecosystem most likely to affect them is of utmost importance.
In addition, there are broader regional questions of which the more severe
highland-to-lowland dangers relate to rapid melting events, fl oods caused
by natural dam bursts, increased sedimentation, and droughts caused by
reduced or changed fl ow patterns.
Potential and Evolving Adaptation Strategies
In the HKH, the classical approach of biodiversity conservation started with
emphasis on the fl agship species conservation. The assumption was that if
the fl agship species, which usually occupied the tip of the pyramid in the
food web in an ecosystem, fl ourished, then the ecosystem was considered
healthy. However, the approach changed signifi cantly from species focused