Improving ecosystem resilience and promoting women’s livelihoods in the mountains of Nepal
MOUNTAIN ECOSYSTEMS OF NEPAL IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
Panchase, which literally translates as ‘Five Seats’, is home to 5 statuesque peaks in Nepal. The area represents an important mountain ecosystem, linking the lowlands with the Annapurna Himalaya. The region is home to significant biological, cultural, and religious diversity, as well as abundant natural beauty.
The mountain ecosystems of Panchase, however, are highly vulnerable to the changing climate. Rising temperatures and increasingly volatile rainfall patterns are drying up water sources, changing vegetation characteristics, and making landslides more frequent and severe. Overgrazed, unproductive grasslands and abandoned lands are also particularly vulnerable to these effects of climate change.
These impacts both undermine the resilience of the mountain ecosystems and increase the vulnerability of the local mountain communities, whose livelihoods and well-being depend on their services. Mountain people tend to be among the world’s poorest and most marginalized populations. Not only do many share the disadvantages of rural poverty and ethnic or religious discrimination, they also face additional challenges to subsistence brought about by elevation, rough topography and severe climate.
Women in particular are affected, experiencing increases in the time required to gather water, fodder and firewood.
ENHANCING ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCE AND EMPOWERING WOMEN
To reduce these shocks and stresses from climatic variability and hazards, particularly for the women of the region, the Mountain Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Programme, led by the Department of Forests and UNDP Nepal, is supporting the Panchase Women’s Network to scale up its Amriso plantation.
Cultivation of broom grass (Thysanolaena maxima) - commonly known as Amriso - is a long-standing tradition among poor rural communities in the Panchase region of Nepal. In the past, households only cultivated enough for personal use. Amriso, however, is a plant with multiple benefits and significant and uptapped commercial potential. It has the ability to quickly regenerate, requires little maintenance, outcompetes invasive species, and with its strong web-like rooting system helps to reduce top- and sub-soil loss.
Additionally, Amriso’s stems can be used to make sweeping brooms, while the rest of the plant can be used as livestock fodder and fuelwood. Broom grass provides a stable and promising livelihood opportunity, with very high demand from local markets, regional centres, and even internationally (particularly India). Overall, these characteristics make Amriso ideal for ecosystem-based adaptation, as it can transform ecologically fragile ecosystems in a climate-resilient manner, while simultaneously providing sustainable livelihoods.
As part of this initiative, the women’s network was able to lease 0.25 hectares of marginal land, which was barren and degraded at the time, and prone to soil erosion given its steepness. Now the land is ecologically improved and economically productive, a marked improvement over the previous state of affairs.
CREATING A CLIMATE-RESILIENT LIVELIHOOD
A single cluster broom grass plant can provide enough material for the production of 7 - 9 brooms per year, which results in an annual income of $6 USD/year per plant. For comparison, most of the involved women live on less than $1 a day. Being a perennial plant, this income will contribute to households year after year. One study found that Amriso cultivation had a 3x return on investment, rendering it a uniquely profitable, and uniquely environmentally sensitive, forest product.
“The work that we are doing is not a one day or two day thing. It‘s long-term…We are convinced that we will be able to get the message out that having an Amriso plantation in barren land can give a lot of profit. I am looking forward to people investing time and effort in planting Amriso and other plants in barren and abandoned land. We are hoping that all these areas will be covered in Amriso one day.” Sabina AC, President, Panchase Women’s Network.
In addition to providing material support for the Amriso plantation, the Mountain EbA programme worked closely with the local community institutions and district-level government institutions to provide capacity building and training opportunities for the involved women.
AGENTS OF CHANGE – ONE PLANT AT A TIME
The Panchase region has been stripped of its healthy young men, as they increasingly search for better economic opportunities in Pokhara and Katmandu and further afield in India, Malaysia and the Middle East.
As a result, there is an absence of young men particularly in mountain communities, leaving only elderly parents, women and children behind to maintain the households. Approximately 30% of the land in Panchase is currently abandoned, leading to a problematic increase in invasive species. Despite these growing challenges, the lack of men has also opened up new opportunities for the women of the region, leading to social change.
“Normally in Nepal, be it in urban or rural areas, women are always bound by household responsibilities - especially after you get married. There are a lot of extra responsibilities that come upon you. Women are usually not allowed to go outside of the house and work. But after this initiative has come, it has kind of empowered women to the extent that now we can all come out and work.” Yam Kumari Dhungana, Secretary, Panchase Women’s Network.
Since Amriso requires little maintenance and grows rather quickly, the time and effort required, it is a good fit for the women’s demanding schedules and growing workloads.
PROMOTING SOCIAL INCLUSION, WHILE ENHANCING ADAPTIVE CAPACITY
Cultivating Amriso for commercial use has been integral in creating a much stronger social bond between the women in the Network.
“[T]here are a lot of different ethnic groups within our community - normally in Nepalese communities there is still distance between the castes, but where there used to be separation and discrimination, here we have women from all strata and we are all working together and I really enjoy that fact.” Yam Kumari Dhungara, Secretary, Panchase Women’s Network.
With 280 members, the Amriso initiative is planned, executed and safeguarded by the women themselves. So in addition to generating ecosystem and economic benefits, their work is also challenging traditional gender roles in Nepal. By involving women from different castes, not only are the involved women being empowered; the initiative is also helping to break down caste-determined social and cultural barriers.
MOUNTAIN EBA PROGRAMME
Through the global Ecosystems-based Adaptation (EbA) in Mountains Programme, UNDP, UNEP and IUCN, with funding from the German Government (BMUB), are using sustainable management, conservation and restoration of ecosystems, as part of an overall EbA strategy, to reduce the vulnerability and enhance the resilience of select fragile mountain ecosystems and their local communities to climate change impacts. The promoted EbA measures carefully takes into account anticipated climate change impacts trends to ensure a forward-looking process. It is a global partnership that involves national and regional government agencies, civil society and local communities in three pilot countries (Uganda, Nepal and Peru).
In Nepal, the above activities are supported by UNDP and implemented by the Department of Forests under the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment plays an overall coordination role.
While the current Amriso production is still only a relatively small pilot effort, it has proven its signiticant potential as a viable EbA measure and climate-resilient income generation, especially if production is scaled up, for the women, and the men, of the Panchase region. The Women’s Network is eager to expand its broom grass production to include cultivation on other marginal or otherwise unutilised lands. So further planting of Amriso will be carried out this year in the project site, which will be coupled with additional capacity-building efforts, including training in marketing and commercialisation.
For more information on the EbA work, please visit: www.undp-alm.org/projects/mountain-eba and www.ebaflagship.org.
FOOTNOTES: Story by Andrea Egan, Tine Rossing and Nawang Chhenjum Sherpa