Himalaya Biodiversity
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region is home to a rich biodiversity of global importance. It is also an important repository of cultural diversity. The region contains all or part of four of the 34 global Biodiversity Hotspots (the Himalaya, Indo-Burma, Mountains of Southeast China and Mountains of Central Asia hotspots). An estimated 39% of the landmass is allocated for in-situ biodiversity conservation (with 488 protected areas falling within IUCN categories I-VI notified by the national governments). Although there are a number of successful community-based conservation practices in the region, several challenges remain, such as habitat fragmentation and climate change and including understanding of the rights of indigenous and local communities for conservation and their sustainable use. Further there are many critical transboundary biodiversity complexes with intricate biodiversity management issues demanding transboundary cooperation for their management.
Year: 2012