Regional Symposium on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in South Asia
Outputs from the ESPA Regional Finale conference: Practical approaches to improving human wellbeing and natural resources in South Asia
Tackling poverty in a rapidly changing world
South Asia faces the challenge of tackling persistent poverty at a time of rapid and large-scale changes in social, environmental, and economic conditions. Governance and management approaches across spatial scales that can deal with complexity and uncertainty in order to deliver benefits to both people and the natural resources they depend on are therefore required.
Through presentations and group discussions, policy-makers, researchers and practitioners, this event explored the question: Could smart upstream-downstream management of natural resources—from mountains to deltas—hold the key to environmentally sustainable and equitable development for South Asia?
Organisers: The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and ESPA in close collaboration with the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) Implementation Centre, Nepal.
Presentations
Ecosystem services, poverty and wellbeing
Kate Schreckenberg, ESPA - ESPA headline findings
Golam Rasul, ICIMOD - Cryosphere ecosystem services and their role in food security and poverty alleviation in the HKH region
Naya Sharma Paudel, Forest Action - Political economy of ecosystem services and poverty reduction in Nepal
Governance, policy and institutions
Bhaskar Vira, University of Cambridge - Key insights from ESPA’s Political Economy of Water Resources project and governance synthesis
Santosh Mani Nepal and Ugan Manandhar - Governing ecosystem services: Institutions and policies in Nepal
Pratikshya Kandel, ICIMOD - Multidimensional assessment of ecosystem and ecosystem services in the Himalayas
Complexity and social change
Craig Hutton, University of Southampton - SDGs and trade-offs: A role for intergarted systems (ΔDIEM)
Mani Nepal, SANDEE - Complexities in valuation of multiple ecosystem services: Learning from the ICIMOD-SANDEE landscape programme
Fiona Marshall, University of Sussex, and Ritu Priya, Jawaharlal Nehru University - Key insights from ESPA's synthesis on urbanisation
Valuation of ecosystem services
Kate Schreckenberg, ESPA - Understanding ecosystem services valuation through the lens of wellbeing and justice
Rajesh Rai, SANDEE - Valuation of ecosystem services in the Himalayas
Tang Zhonglin, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences - Valuation of ecosystem services: Projects in Southwest China
Payments/compensation for ecosystem services
Ina Porras, IIED - Key insights from ESPA's synthesis on PES and conditional transfers
Keshav Khanal, Purna Bahadur Kunwar, WWF/ Hariyo Ban Program - Designing PES scheme at watershed level, learning from Phewa watershed
Bhaskar Karky, ICIMOD - Principles of PES in a REDD+ context in the Himalayas
'How to' achieve development impact in South Asia
Mahesh Poudyal, ESPA - Research for development impact: Lessons learned from the ESPA programme
Craig Hutton, University of Southampton - ESPA Deltas and the integrated ΔDIEM Model: Case study of the application to the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100
Wu Ning, ICIMOD - Generating knowledge on ecosystem services in the Hindu Kush Himalayas
