[DIPECHO Network] ICIMOD Celebrates World Environment Day 2007 [1 June 2007]
Nira Gurung
ngurung at icimod.org
Fri Jun 1 05:11:11 CDT 2007
ICIMOD Celebrates World Environment Day 2007 [1 June 2007]
Warm greetings from Kathmandu, Nepal!
ICIMOD celebrates World Environment Day every year in close collaboration
with the lead agency in Nepal, the Ministry of Environment, Science and
Technology, Government of Nepal (MOEST/GON) along with other partners, by
organising various programmes.
Similarly, for this year, ICIMOD in collaboration with MOEST/GON, the
United Nations Environment Programme, Regional Office for Asia and the
Pacific (UNEP/ROAP) has lined up several activities to mark this event.
1. Inter-School Environment Quiz Contest, 31 May, 2 June and 3 June
2007 (Final)
2. Symposium on Climate Change Impact in the Himalaya, 4 June 2007
3. Launch of Publications and Books Online, 5 June 2007
4. Painting Competition for school children, 5-7 June 2007
5. Atmospheric Brown Cloud Consultation and Awareness Seminar, 6 June 2007
For more details on these events log onto:
http://www.icimod.org
or you can read it as pasted below..
Thank you for support!.
Best wishes,
Nira Gurung
========
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 5 JUNE 2007 PROGRAMMES
Melting Ice a Hot Topic?
1. Symposium on Climate Change Impact in the Himalaya, 4 June 2007
The most visible impact of climate change is undoubtedly in the glacial
environment, with retreat and thinning of glaciers seen in many high
mountain areas. The societal and environmental implications of such trends
are serious, in particular because they may have a marked impact on water
availability with all the related consequences. The Himalayas appear to
have been particularly affected. There is considerable evidence of
widespread loss of ice-mass in the Himalayan glaciers. Changes in the
hydrological regime, decline in water availability, increase in sediment
delivery, and increase in flash floods are all possible consequences of
glacier decline.
Unfortunately, the people of the Himalayas are not well prepared to cope
with many of the consequences of climate change. There is still
insufficient scientific understanding of the processes and future
scenarios. The region lacks adequate policies on climate change and very
little has been done to build adaptation measures for climate change
impacts. There is a need to raise awareness about climate change at
different levels and to build policies and strategies for mitigation and
adaptation. This has to be substantiated by sound scientific knowledge of
climate processes at different scales and possible impacts. To help raise
awareness of these topics, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain
Development (ICIMOD) together with the Ministry of Environment, Science and
Technology, Government of Nepal (MOEST/GON), and UNEP-ROAP is organising a
half-day symposium on 4 June 2007 as a precursor to World Environment Day.
The objectives are
1. to share current understanding of climate change impacts on the
Himalayan environment and livelihoods of the people residing in the region
and to discuss policy, plans and action necessary to address climate change
impacts;
2. to disseminate the results and findings of ICIMOD and partner
institutions’ works on climate change and its impacts on the Himalayan
environment; and
3. to raise awareness about climate change among the scientific
community and disseminate important messages to the general public at large.
A press release will be issued on 5 June 2007.
2. Inter-School Environment Quiz Contest , 3 June 2007
ICIMOD, MOEST/GON, and UNEP ROAP in close coordination with Team for Nature
and Wildlife (TNW) Nepal, and Radio Nepal will be conducting an
Inter-school Environment Quiz Contest among schools from Kathmandu,
Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur Districts. The students will be drawn from classes
9-10. The theme is Climate Change and Other Related Environmental Issues.
The main objectives of the contest are
· to cultivate environmental awareness among students so that they
will act positively towards protecting the planet; and
· to highlight the importance of climate change and its impacts,
especially the melting of Himalayan glaciers, on our lives
The final will take place on 3 June 2007 at the ICIMOD Headquarters,
Khumaltar. The programme will be telecasted live by the Radio Nepal and
will be transmitted throughout the country, including through its 11 FM
stations and online Radio.
3. Launch of Publications, 5 June 2007
The following products will be formally launched during the main day event
on 5 June 2007.
(i) ‘ICIMOD Books On-line’ ICIMOD publications available to all
ICIMOD Books On-line is a new service from ICIMOD, accessed through the
website. It will provide direct access to all technical and scientific
publications published by the Centre with full-text and chapter-wise
download options (pdf format) for all books published from 2000 onwards and
some selected earlier publications (scanned form), and cover and table of
contents files for the remaining publications. Books On-line will have a
link for ordering hard copies (or photocopies of out-of-stock
publications), or PDF files of those not posted in full (scan on demand).
The collection can be searched using full-text contents, titles, year of
publication, keywords, language, author, and broad subjects. ICIMOD Books
On-line will be an open access online resource.
(ii) Nepal Biodiversity Resource Book
[Published by ICIMOD and MOEST in co-operation with UNEP-ROAP, prepared by
Nature.com]
Nepal comprises only 0.1% of global land area, but it possesses a
disproportionately rich proportion of floral and faunal diversity at
genetic, species, and ecosystem levels. Comprehensive information on the
flora and fauna recorded up to 1995 was published in the Biodiversity
Profiles of Nepal in 1996, the first initiative of this kind. The present
‘Nepal Biodiversity Resource Book’ has been prepared as an update of the
1996 Biodiversity Profiles focusing on the floral and faunal diversity
present in the Protected Areas, Ramsar Sites, and World Heritage Sites of
Nepal, and including information published between 1996 and 2005 and field
verification of earlier data. So far a total of 6666 flowering plant
species have been recorded in Nepal representing 1607 genera and 229
families; in 1995 a total of 4259 species had been identified representing
1447 genera and 194 families. Similarly the current list includes 185
species of mammals, of which four species are believed to be extinct in
Nepal and four are new additions; 187 species of fish; 874 species of bird,
compared to 843 in 1995; and 195 herpeto species, compared to 143 in 1995.
The information is listed in terms of the two bio-geographic realms, the
Palaearctic and the Palaeotropic, and the two major zoogeographical
kingdoms, the Palaearctic in the north and the Indo-Malayan in the south.
The book is accompanied by a CD Rom containing the detailed lists of flora
and fauna. A pdf version of the report will be made available at
www.books.icimod.org.
(iii) Impact of Climate Change on Himalayan Glaciers and Glacial lakes,
Case Studies on GLOF and Associated Hazards in Nepal and Bhutan [Published
by ICIMOD in co-operation with UNEP-ROAP]
The Himalayan glaciers are a freshwater reserve; they provide the
headwaters for nine major river systems in Asia a lifeline for almost
one-third of humanity. In the face of global warming, most of the glaciers
have been retreating at a rate that ranges from 10 to 60 metres per year
and many small glaciers (<0.2 sq.km) have already disappeared. As glaciers
retreat, glacial lakes grow, and many Himalayan basins are reporting very
fast growing lakes. This publication looks at glaciers and glacial lakes in
two sub basins that have a particularly large number of glaciers (so-called
‘hot spots’) the Dudh Koshi sub-basin (Khumbu-Everest region in Nepal),
and the Pho Chu sub-basin in the Bhutan Himalaya. Lake Imja Tsho in the
Dudh Koshi sub-basin is one extreme example of a fast growing lake; it was
virtually nonexistent in 1960, but now covers nearly 1 sq.km, and the Imja
glacier which feeds it is retreating at an unprecedented 74m per year
(between 2001 and 2006). In the Pho Chu basin, some glacial lakes have
increased by 800 per cent in area over the past 40 years. At present,
several supraglacial ponds on the Thorthormi glacier are growing quickly
and merging. These lakes pose a threat because of their proximity to other
large glacial lakes in the sub-basin. In a worst-case glacial lake outburst
flood (GLOF) scenario, they could cascade on to these with catastrophic
consequences for the lives and property of the mountain people living
downstream.
A hydrological model was used to provide information on likely discharge
and flood arrival times in downstream areas. Based on observations of
damage caused by the Dig Tsho GLOF of 1985, the vulnerability of various
terrain units in the vicinity of a possible Imja Tsho GLOF was assessed.
This terrain classification scheme provided valuable information on the
possible extent of the damage to be expected.
GLOF mitigation measures and early warning systems are resource intensive
and require much detailed field-work and maintenance. An alternative, which
is being considered in a feasibility study, is regular temporal monitoring
of potentially dangerous glacial lakes using RADAR satellite-based
techniques to detect any changes. The results provide a basis for the
development of monitoring and early warning systems and planning and
prioritisation of disaster mitigation efforts that could save lives and
property.
The report will be useful for scientists, planners, and decision makers, as
well as for raising the awareness of the public at large to the potential
impacts of climate change in the Himalayas. By informing actions, we hope
it will contribute to improving the lives of mountain people and help
safeguard future investments in the region. The report highlights the need
to replicate, refine, and scale up such studies, using scientific
approaches and empirical evidence, in other parts of the Himalayan region.
A PDF version of the report will be made available at www.books.icimod.org.
5. Painting Competition for schoolchildren, BICC, 5-7 June 2007
A children’s drawing competition hosted by ICIMOD will be held among
schoolchildren from classes 6-8 within the ICIMOD stall at the 3-day
exhibition to be held at the Birendra Convention Centre, the venue for the
main day event in Kathmandu. The aim is to create a sense of awareness
among young children and to cultivate social responsibility towards our
planet, earth.
6. Atmospheric Brown Cloud Consultation and Awareness Seminar, 6 June 2007
Project Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) has a network of over a dozen climate
observatories strategically located across Asia and the Pacific and
equipped with sophisticated state-of-the-art instruments to measure
radiation, aerosol, precipitation chemistry, and meteorology. There are two
fully functional ABC climate observatories in Nepal: the Nepal Climate
Observatory at Godavari (NCO-G), maintained by ICIMOD, and the Nepal
Climate Observatory at the Pyramid (NCO-P) in the Khumbu Valley near Mt.
Everest operated by an Italian Team from the Ev-K2-CNR Committee.
The objectives are
· To inform the stakeholders about the environmental challenges with
interaction between the professionals and institutions involved in air
pollution studies and atmospheric research, and those in the policy making
level, by bringing them on a common platform; and
· to disseminate information about the ongoing ABC activities in
Nepal and other regions along with other national and regional initiatives;
and to raise awareness about the impact of ABC to mitigate its adverse
consequences on climate, precipitation and hydrological cycle, agricultural
productivity and human health.
The Seminar will be held on 6 June 2007 at the Hotel Radisson, Kathmandu, Nepal
***’’
Nira Gurung (Ms)
Communications Officer
Information Management, Communications, and Outreach
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)
Khumaltar, P.O. Box 3226
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: (977 1) 5003222
Fax: (977 1) 5003299/5003277
E-mail: ngurung at icimod.org, info at icimod.org
Website: http://www.icimod.org
ICIMOD publications on-line -- order direct at
http://www.icimod.org/home/pub/index.php
http://www.panaseanemall.org/shop/icimod
http://www.earthprint.com/icimod
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