Thursday 4 August 2011 | 12:00pm - 1:30pm | Gold Coast campus, The Chancellery, G34_1.04
Friday 5 August 2011 | 12:00pm - 1:30pm | Nathan campus, Bray Centre, N54_2.02
Professor Krishna K. Shrestha
Head of Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University
Kirtipur Kathmandu, Nepal
Presentation Title
Biodiversity in the Himalayas: Threats and Conservation Issues
Abstract
The Himalaya stretching over 2400 km, runs from Indus river valley in the west to Brahmaputra river valley in the east, has an average width of 400 km in the west to 150 km in the east. It is remarkable to mention that “among the top 10 highest mountains of the world, eight of them lies in Nepal” ranging from Annapurna Himal (8,091 m) to the Mt. Everest (8,848 m). The Himalayan Mountains occupy “nearly one fourth of the global land surface area, and home to 12% of world population”. The mountains contribute fresh water, hydroelectricity, food, timber, firewood, medicinal herbs and many other basic commodities to 40% of world’s population. The Himalayas, particularly the Hindu-Kush Himalaya, is considered as one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world, with four global biodiversity hotspots, 60 ecoregions, 488 protected areas, 13 world heritage sites and 27 Ramsar wetland sites. The Flora of Pan-Himalaya (Himalaya and adjacent region), encompassing seven countries (NE Afghanistan, N. Pakistan, N. India, Nepal, Bhutan, N. Myanmar and SW China) comprises 1,000 species of ferns and fern allies, 85 species of gymnosperms and 18,095 species of flowering plants. The Pan-Himalaya is also regarded as one of the centre of global biodiversity hotspots, especially with reference to temperate and alpine plants.
The mountain regions are quite vulnerable to climate change, because the life of the 1.3 billion people living in the downstream of river basins will be at risk. The rate of increase in temperature in the Himalayas is higher than the global average. Observing the trend of increase in temperature since the last 25 years, it has been noticed that there is an increase of temperature from 0.03-0.070C per year in the Tibetan Plateau, and even up to 0.04-0.090C per year in Nepal. It is also noticed that the rate of increase in temperature is much higher in the high altitude regions in comparison to lower altitude regions. According to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), by the end of the century, there will be an increase in temperature by 10C in all areas of South Asia, whereas in many areas of the Himalayas, the temperature rise will be up to 3.5-40C.
Population growth, poverty, forest fire, introduction of invasive alien species, local climate change, and greater carbon emissions, are the major factors affecting existence of biodiversity and balancing the environment. Furthermore, most frequent threats for the loss of biodiversity in the Himalayan region by human activities are extension of agriculture, continued deforestation for logging, over grazing, habitat loss and fragmentation, over-exploitation or unsustainable utilization of commercially important species, road construction, and mining, which leads to the acute shortage of food supply, fresh air and clean water.
Several researches are on-going throughout the world in exploring, documenting and conservation of biodiversity, and the Himalayan region is no exception. The systematic explorations to document the Himalayan biodiversity, especially in the less known areas of the mountains, and relatively unknown group of organisms should be the primary goal of biodiversity experts. Human activities and climate change is threatening the biodiversity and ecosystem services directly to the people living in the Himalayan region, and indirectly to many parts of the world. It is quite evident that the biodiversity loss is irreversible, and we should be prepared to deal with dire sequences and worst environment that can happen in future. Thus, emphasis should be given to call upon attention of governments and various stakeholders for extensive collaborations between technical experts working in the fields of biodiversity and climate change research, in order to sustain the mountain biodiversity, and maintain Himalayan ecosystems for future generations.