[DIPECHO Network] FW: E-discussion Building resilience of mountain communities....

[Tek Jung Mahat]

Dear Colleagues,



Some of may like to join the ongoing e-discussion on BUILDING RESILIENCE OF MOUNTAIN COMMUNITIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE, 30 April-14 May 2008. Below find the announcement.



For more information write to apmn at mtnforum.org<mailto:apmn at mtnforum.org>



Best,

Tek

.........





-----Original Message-----
From: A. Schild, F. Neuman, H. Nishimiya and M. Khanal [mailto:apmn at mtnforum.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 3:17 PM
To: mf-global at mtnforum.org
Subject: [mf] E-Discussion: BUILDING RESILIENCE OF MOUNTAIN COMMUNITIES TO CLIMATE CHANGE, 30 April-14 May 2008



[Focusing on climate change adaptation in the Himalayas and

celebrating 25 Years of ICIMOD for mountains and people]



Dear Colleagues,



The 5th of June has been declared by the United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP) as World Environment Day (WED) and is celebrated

annually around the world since 1973. This year's main WED event is

being celebrated in Wellington, New Zealand (Asia Pacific) as the

host country with the theme 'Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon

Economy'. APMN/Mountain Forum with technical support from and

together with ICIMOD, UNEP and (Ministry of Environment, Science and

Technology (MoEST), Government of Nepal, is facilitating a dialogue

among the experts working in this Asia-Pacific region on Building

resilience against Climate Change in the Himalaya in order to

generate more views and insights from participants for better action,

assess existing knowledge resources and also to mobilize potential

stakeholders about the issues concerned. The e-discussion is being

organised by APMN to mark WED 2008 and is part of series of events

being organized this year to celebrate Silver Jubilee of ICIMOD. We

hope this sort of discussion to share and learn is conducive to

generate views from discussants on to fight against climate change

and to prosper environment friendly development.



The environmental treaties drawn up at the Rio (UNFCC, 1992), Kyoto

(1997), WSSD (2002), Bali roadmap (2007) and Bangkok Talks (2008) are

aimed to stabilize and minimize greenhouse gas concentrations in the

atmosphere. As signers, The United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change underscores the commitment 192 governments to fight

Climate Change. To date, the Kyoto Protocol has been signed by 178

members. Under the Protocol, 37 states, consisting of highly

industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of

transition to a market economy, have adopted legally binding

emissions limitation and reduction commitments. However, many of

these agreements are unlikely to meet their expectations and global

priority is gradually shifting towards institutionalization of

effective adaptation means, including building of community

resilience to fight against and to mitigate the loss due to adverse

impacts of climate change. Realizing the fact that if we managed to

cutoff all the green house gases emission well below the Kyoto

recommended levels, some of climate change impacts will still be

unavoidable. In fact, we have already started to witness adverse

impacts of climate change and adaptation would be the only long term

solution to tackle climate change problems as suggested by 4th IPCC

report.



Adaptation should be about preparing societies to cope climate change

impacts so that an unnecessary amount of resources do not go into

saving lives in areas where people have not taken steps to plan for

resettlement options and managing their land and villages in ways

that minimizes the catastrophe. Adaptation does not need to take away

from mitigation. It carries with it the perception of the inevitable,

and as such may very well be a useful tool to those who do not want

to confront the underlying drivers of climatic changes.



The e-discussion will provide an opportunity for people to share

their views how CC can be adapted. We look forward to the coming

three weeks of e-discussions on the various issues related to climate

change adaptation. Detailed event background and related resources

can be found at http://www.icimod.org/apmn/buildingresilience/ .The

contributions received during the e-discussion will be summarized and

organized. The summary will be shared among the e-discussant before

it will be disseminated at the main event in New Zealand. The

recommendations will also be sent to the line agencies, including the

government and UN agencies and will be available for download at

http://www.icimod.org/apmn/buildingresilience/ .



Thank you very much for your contribution.



Regards,



Andreas Schild, PhD

Director General, International Centre for Integrated Mountain

Development (ICIMOD)

Chairman, Mountain Forum Board of Directors



Frans Neuman

Executive Secretary, Mountain Forum



Hiroshi Nishimiya

Deputy Regional Director and O-I-C, United Nations Environment

Programme (UNEP) - Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP)



Mina Khanal

Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology

(MoEST), Government of Nepal

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