Taking Climate Justice to the Himalayan Heights: A Proposed Adaptive Mountain Governance Framework to Address Climate Change Impacts in the Indian Himalayan Region

• Author: Naysa Ahuja
• Pages: 435-470

435

Taking Climate Justice to the

Himalayan Heights: A Proposed

Adaptive Mountain Governance

Framework to Address

Climate Change Impacts in

the Indian Himalayan Region

Naysa Ahuja

Introduction .................................................................................................436

I. e Himalayan Context and Climate Change Adaptation ....................440

II. Indian Himalayan Region Environmental Governance .........................443

A. Mountain Delimitation ..................................................................445

B. Mountain Legal Framework............................................................446

C. Mountain Institutional Framework .................................................450

D. Mountain Financial Mechanism .....................................................453

III. Good Models of Himalayan Management for Eective Climate

Adaptation ...........................................................................................455

A. International Practices ....................................................................455

1. Nepal’s Climate Change Budget Code and Local Adaptation

Plan ..........................................................................................456

2. Bhutan’s Project-specic Adaptation Targets ..............................458

3. Bangladesh’s Climate Adaptation Action Plan and Food

Security ..................................................................................... 459

B. State Practices in the IHR ............................................................... 460

1. Forest and Biodiversity Management ........................................461

2. Hill Town Planning and Urbanization ......................................462

3. Agriculture and Food Security...................................................462

C. Community Practices and Adaptation Mechanisms ........................ 464

IV. Proposals to Promote Climate Justice in the IHR With Increased

Planning, Funding, and Coordination .................................................. 466

Conclusion ...................................................................................................469

Chapter 16

436 Climate Justice

Introduction

Mountain ecosystems cover one quarter of t he earth ’s surface, representing

irreplaceable sources of biological and cultural diversity.1 ese areas are

havens for natura l resource trade and tourism, contributing substa ntially to

a country’s gross domestic product (GDP). e ecosystem services of the

mountains as carbon sinks and water towers further attach immeasurable

value to these landscapes. Yet mountain communities su er from high vul-

nerability factors such as poverty, isolation, and hunger, while the fragile

ecosystem struggles with environmental degradation, especially from cli-

mate change impacts. is situation is exacerbated in developing countries

where, due to limited resources a nd lack of political wil l, the environmental

law discourse failed to address mountain contexts in their long-term gov-

ernance models. However, mountain-specic governance is slowly becom-

ing an emerging legal trend since the global importance of mountains and

mountain communities was rst recognized at the Earth Summit in 1992.2

Mountain regions throughout the world typica lly have peculiar environ-

mental, climatic, economic, and social cha racteristics. ese features pri-

marily include geographic isolation, harsh climate, high natural resource

dependency, and fragile ecosystems, coupled with politica l marginalization,

weak infrastructure, and limited market ac cess and means of communi-

cation. ese characteristics have a considerable inuence on the way the

mountain laws and institutions are shaped to protect the environment and

communities. is legal framework further establishes criteria for develop-

ment and sets environmental priorities in the mountain context, given its

political, geographical, and systemic concerns.3

Despite t he rich biodiversity, high quality of agricultural produce, and

valuable traditional knowledge (TK), most of the mountain regions are poor.

Mountain people from developing countries form about 13% of the global

population.4 Yet, their limited access to climate-smart technology make s the

mountain population extremely vu lnerable to climate change impacts. More-

over, policy incoherence and institutional incapacity to adequately address

1. A V  ., M   L: E T iii (2002).

2. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain

Development, http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=52&Article

ID=61(last visited Aug. 23, 2016).

3. CAPRI, Publications: CIFOR’s new series of legal studies (Apr. 11, 2016), http://capri.cgiar.

org/2016/04 /11/publicatio ns-cifors-new -series-of-leg al-studies/?ut m_source=feedbu rner&utm_

medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ifpri-info+%28IFPRI.INFO%29.

4. Aruna Dutt, Fund Launched to Help Mountain People Face Climate Change reat, I P

S, May 11, 2016, http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/05/fund-launched-to-help-mountain-people-

face-climate-change-threat/.

Taking Climate Justice to the Himalayan Heights 437

mountain governance issues in the climate change era is a major source of

climate injustice that mountain communities encounter. Mountain region

legislation seeks to address these mountain-specic concerns, and countries

have adopted a similar governance approach to these areas. However, it is

only now that the climate-mountain nexus is being acknowledged at the

policy level. With the immediac y of climate change threats and dierent

levels of adaptive capacities, mounta in States have taken dierent approaches

to introduce eective adaptation and mitigation strategies.

To ensure sustainable development of mounta ins, the legal principles and

policy measures are devised to enable mountain dwellers to live respectfully

with their cultural identity intact and to nd liveli hood opportunities in

their native place, without compromising their standard of living compared

to other regions.5 However, this governance framework in developing moun-

tain countries of ten becomes a “tangled web of norms and rules” within

which the institutions struggle to fu lll their respective roles, including gov-

ernance of a unique ecos ystem.6 is is partly because most countries have

conveniently extended the scope of national environmental laws and poli-

cies to the mountain regions without conducting any scientic and socioeco-

nomic place-based needs assessment. is practice has failed to address the

existing inequalities regarding opportunities and access between mountain-

dwelling and lowland communities. It has further failed to appreciate the

economic interdependence between mountains and lowland, to the detri-

ment of mountain ecology and culture.7 erefore, an environmental gov-

ernance mechanism sensitive to climate change impacts in the mountains

can bring coherence between development and conser vation goals only if the

social, economic, and environmental policies are customized according to

the needs and conditions of the region in an integrated manner. In response

to climate change impacts, it is equally crucial for the mountain regions to

have a n adaptation governance framework that is exible, responsive, and

informed by both science and local traditions.

e ecological and economic relevance of the Indian Himalayan Region

(IHR) with its geographical range of 5.37 lak h km2 (0.537 million km2) is

incontestable.8 e Himalayas are the youngest and highest mountain ra nge

5. Explanatory Memorandum—CG(10)9—Part II—e European Charter for Mountains, Cong. of Local

& Regional Auth., 10th Sess. (2003), https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?p=&id=893235&Site=DC&

direct=true.

6. Id.

7. V  ., supra note 1, at 22.

8. G  I, N M  S  H E (NMSHE)

5 (2016), http://knowledgeportal-nmshe.in/Pdf/NMSHE%20brochure.pdf.