Building Community Resilience to Climate Change through

Ecosystem-based Adaptation: Case Studies in

Bhutan and Nepal

Bhutan Country Overview

• Landlocked

• Area of 38,394 km2

• Population of approximately 800,000

• Altitude from 150 meters to 7,500 meters within a range of just 150 kms

• highest concentrations of biodiversity in the world

• 70% of land area covered by forest; 7.8 percent is agricultural land

• 79% of the people practicing subsistence farming

Nepal Country Overview

• Landlocked

• Area of 147,181 km2

• Population of approximately 30 million

• Altitude from 95 m to above 8,000 m in just 200 km from north to south

• 27 percent of the country’s land is cultivable

• 66% of the population depends on agriculture

Why ecosystem-based adaptation in Bhutan and Nepal

• Most of Bhutan and Nepal people hugely depend on forest ecosystem

• Ecosystem-based adaptation can be used to support community to manage climate induced risks and socio-economic stresses

Forest will enhances the opportunity for achieving food security when faced with risks

Provide Ecosystem Services

-Freshwater-Food-Fuelwood-Timber-Fodder-Medicines

Maintain Forest Integrity

-Local self-manage-Legal support-Reforestation

GLOF

Erratic Rainfall

Drought

RISK

Exploitation

RISK

Land slide

Encroachment

Why ecosystem-based adaptation in Bhutan and Nepal

EBA to support community resilience

Bhutan• Human settlements are allowed inside

protected areas• A group of at least ten households willing to

establish, control and manage a forest area can form their community forest group

• Community forest group need to prepare their own forest management plan

• Group members can harvest forest products• The community forest group will be managed

by forest guard• Forest guard will ensure that everyone has

adequate firewood and construction timber

Nepal• Approximate 16,000 Community Forest User

Groups-CFUGs country-wide, the network has well established

• Members have easy access to forest resources in low cost for household and agricultural needs

• CFUGs need to prepare their own operational plan

• CFUGs are managed by committee• Members are required to help group activities

e.g. reforestation• Members, who violate group rules, will be

penalised• Only group members can harvest forest products

EBA to support community resilience

Kavre District, Nepal

Village 1

• CFUG members pay small amount of fee for permission to harvest forest products for household use and sale in local market

• The group grows wild orchid for conservation and attract tourists to visit the area, thus, generating their incomes

• The group grow herbs and medicinal plants for their medicine and sale

Village 2

• Members required to help reforest pine trees

• Committee will decide when to cut the pine tree for timber

Challenges faced by government

• Lack of synchronisation among government agencies: District Forest Office (DFO), District Development Committee (DDC) and Village Development Committee (VDC)

• Illegal logging involved by loggers, forest based industries, users, government officials and political leaders

Challenges faced by communities

• Some forest areas provide non cash benefits only; whereas, poor and landless members need real income

• Some forest groups earning cash from the sales of products invest their benefits in community infrastructure development, while poor members still need real income

• Illegal logging by local political leaders/forest group officials

Multi-stakholder consultation: no existing optimum model

Proposed optimum model

Institutional framework

Solve conflict among government agencies

Explore opportunities to enforce regulations effectively

Monitor mechanism

Optimum Model

Replication and upscaling of proposed optimum model nationwide

Outcomes

Conclusion

Climate Change Adaptation should not be a separated policy, but should be mainstreamed into the existing policy

under climate change context

Thank you for your attention

dusita.krawanchid@sei-international.org