In promoting regional environmental cooperation in South Asia, the Regional Environment Office (REO) for South Asia sponsors key regional environmental initiatives to enhance transboundary collaboration in addressing environmental, science & technology and health issues. Much of its focus in project support has been on some of the key water problems prevalent throughout South Asia.
Regional Flood Forecasting Information Exchange: The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with support from REO and the USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), began this initiative in May 2001. Representatives of six Hindu Kush-Himalayan countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan) agreed to establish an information-sharing system for meteorological and hydrological data to make significant improvements in their shared capacity to forecast the flows of floods that afflict the South Asia annually. During the 2005 monsoon season, a test phase of real time sharing of hydrological/meteorological data proved successful among five of the countries via a central web-based data exchange platform. The U.S. Government’s involvement in the project ended on December 31, 2005. ICIMOD is seeking future support for a pilot phase. Contact: www.southasianfloods.org
Research on Arsenic Groundwater Contamination: REO and U.S. embassies New Delhi and Dhaka sponsored U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research into the geochemical and hydrological causes of arsenic groundwater contamination in the Bengal Basin – a problem affecting tens of millions of people in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. The USGS fieldwork yielded major discoveries that will assist regional governments in establishing guidelines for safe tubewell drilling practices and evaluating interim mitigation technologies appropriate to the South Asian social environment. For more information, please refer to: http://international.usgs.gov/regional/regasiapacific.htm or http://international.usgs.gov/projects/bg_arsenic.htm.
South Asia Water Quality Monitoring: REO and Sandia National Laboratories' Cooperative Monitoring Center (part of the U.S. Department of Energy) facilitated the creation of partnerships between scientists in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Regional water experts, who exchange near real-time water quality data over an electronic network. http://sawan.icimod.org.np
Promoting Regional Cooperation to Eliminate Trafficking in Wildlife: This project brought together senior officials dealing with wildlife conservation in South Asian countries and China to develop a regional action plan to combat illegal wildlife trafficking, which has reached sky high proportions in recent years. During the workshop, the South Asian countries agreed on a roadmap emphasizing greater information sharing between regional member governments and community participation. The project especially promoted greater coordination between the governments of India, Nepal and China to combat wildlife trafficking along their common border areas. International wildlife experts have pointed out that coordination of these three countries is vital to break the back of the wildlife traffickers in the region who have brought the Royal Bengal tiger and the one-horned rhino almost to the brink of extinction. As follow-up, China convened a workshop in Urumchi, China that brought all the Asian tiger range countries together to create a more effective network to halt the rise in tiger poaching and trafficking in Asia. For additional information on the Project, please refer to www.traffic.org/news/south_asia.html.
Drought Assessment and Mitigation in South West Asia: The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), in conjunction with various international and national agencies, implemented this project to: review the current status of drought research and management in western South Asia (western India, Pakistan and Afghanistan); and identify priority areas and techniques in drought management for regional governments, relief agencies and local communities.
The project produced greater coordination between scientific and research communities with civil society organizations across India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a shared effort to assess and mitigate the impact of droughts in the region. The project resulted in more than a dozen publications providing important policy insights and recommendations on ways that decision makers in South Asia can address drought issues more effectively. In addition, the project developed an on-line remote-sensing-based drought monitoring system. Those who are interested, please refer to www.dms.iwmi.org. Details on the project activities and project documents can be accessed from the project website www.iwmi.cgiar.org/droughtassessment/index.asp.
Sustainable Livelihoods, Environmental Security and Conflict Management: Implemented by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Asia Environmental Law program, the project brought in leading international environmental security experts to advise on techniques to reduce tensions over environmental protection and livelihood issues. In-depth country studies in the causes of such issues in parts of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, led to greater workshop focus on two of the most important natural resource in South Asia – Wetlands and Forests. In Nepal and Bangladesh, the project concentrated on wetlands and people interactions, whereas in India and Pakistan, it dealt on forest and human dynamics.
This project led to a path-breaking study on the cause-and-effect dynamic between restrictions on resource access and conflict in South Asia. Noting that the legal framework in this arena dated back many years (often to colonial times), participants concluded that the legal context first needed to be amended to: reduce local conflicts over natural resources; promote resource access and local participation in decision making; strengthen managerial capacity; and facilitate greater access to information. The project brought the resource conflict and environmental security issue into national discussions and has encouraged regional governments to integrate concern over resource rights and environmental security into economic and developmental policies. For more information, please refer to the following website: http://www.iucn.org/places/asia/livelihood.
Adaptive Strategies for Floods and Droughts in South Asia: The Colorado-based Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET), with its Nepal office, implemented this initiative addressing the social, economic and environmental impacts of emerging water problems in South Asia, via a research project documenting current individual, community and governmental strategies for coping with floods and water scarcity. The eye-opening results showed that local people have often adapted gradually to recurring floods and droughts in ways that are often more effective than delayed government responses. For example, flood victims salvage whatever they can within the first ten days after a flood, which is often how long it takes for official responses. Similarly, communities in India’s state of Bihar have collaborated to gradually raise the ground level of whole villages to avoid the worst impacts of floods. In contrast are government-built river embankments that raise riverbed levels, which in fact exacerbates the impact of floods. Given its sociological approach, this research concluded that a paradigm shift was required to address flood- and drought-response decisions. The authors recommended that traditional national approaches to dealing with floods and droughts were inadequate responses at the popular level. The conclusions drew great follow-on interest from the UN, World Water Forum and South Asian government representatives. For more information on the project and downloading of the final document, please refer to: http://www.i-s-e-t.org.
Regional Flood Forecasting Information Exchange: The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with support from REO and the USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), began this initiative in May 2001. Representatives of six Hindu Kush-Himalayan countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan) agreed to establish an information-sharing system for meteorological and hydrological data to make significant improvements in their shared capacity to forecast the flows of floods that afflict the South Asia annually. During the 2005 monsoon season, a test phase of real time sharing of hydrological/meteorological data proved successful among five of the countries via a central web-based data exchange platform. The U.S. Government’s involvement in the project ended on December 31, 2005. ICIMOD is seeking future support for a pilot phase. Contact: www.southasianfloods.org
Research on Arsenic Groundwater Contamination: REO and U.S. embassies New Delhi and Dhaka sponsored U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research into the geochemical and hydrological causes of arsenic groundwater contamination in the Bengal Basin – a problem affecting tens of millions of people in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. The USGS fieldwork yielded major discoveries that will assist regional governments in establishing guidelines for safe tubewell drilling practices and evaluating interim mitigation technologies appropriate to the South Asian social environment. For more information, please refer to: http://international.usgs.gov/regional/regasiapacific.htm or http://international.usgs.gov/projects/bg_arsenic.htm.
South Asia Water Quality Monitoring: REO and Sandia National Laboratories' Cooperative Monitoring Center (part of the U.S. Department of Energy) facilitated the creation of partnerships between scientists in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Regional water experts, who exchange near real-time water quality data over an electronic network. http://sawan.icimod.org.np
Promoting Regional Cooperation to Eliminate Trafficking in Wildlife: This project brought together senior officials dealing with wildlife conservation in South Asian countries and China to develop a regional action plan to combat illegal wildlife trafficking, which has reached sky high proportions in recent years. During the workshop, the South Asian countries agreed on a roadmap emphasizing greater information sharing between regional member governments and community participation. The project especially promoted greater coordination between the governments of India, Nepal and China to combat wildlife trafficking along their common border areas. International wildlife experts have pointed out that coordination of these three countries is vital to break the back of the wildlife traffickers in the region who have brought the Royal Bengal tiger and the one-horned rhino almost to the brink of extinction. As follow-up, China convened a workshop in Urumchi, China that brought all the Asian tiger range countries together to create a more effective network to halt the rise in tiger poaching and trafficking in Asia. For additional information on the Project, please refer to www.traffic.org/news/south_asia.html.
Drought Assessment and Mitigation in South West Asia: The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), in conjunction with various international and national agencies, implemented this project to: review the current status of drought research and management in western South Asia (western India, Pakistan and Afghanistan); and identify priority areas and techniques in drought management for regional governments, relief agencies and local communities.
The project produced greater coordination between scientific and research communities with civil society organizations across India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a shared effort to assess and mitigate the impact of droughts in the region. The project resulted in more than a dozen publications providing important policy insights and recommendations on ways that decision makers in South Asia can address drought issues more effectively. In addition, the project developed an on-line remote-sensing-based drought monitoring system. Those who are interested, please refer to www.dms.iwmi.org. Details on the project activities and project documents can be accessed from the project website www.iwmi.cgiar.org/droughtassessment/index.asp.
Sustainable Livelihoods, Environmental Security and Conflict Management: Implemented by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Asia Environmental Law program, the project brought in leading international environmental security experts to advise on techniques to reduce tensions over environmental protection and livelihood issues. In-depth country studies in the causes of such issues in parts of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, led to greater workshop focus on two of the most important natural resource in South Asia – Wetlands and Forests. In Nepal and Bangladesh, the project concentrated on wetlands and people interactions, whereas in India and Pakistan, it dealt on forest and human dynamics.
This project led to a path-breaking study on the cause-and-effect dynamic between restrictions on resource access and conflict in South Asia. Noting that the legal framework in this arena dated back many years (often to colonial times), participants concluded that the legal context first needed to be amended to: reduce local conflicts over natural resources; promote resource access and local participation in decision making; strengthen managerial capacity; and facilitate greater access to information. The project brought the resource conflict and environmental security issue into national discussions and has encouraged regional governments to integrate concern over resource rights and environmental security into economic and developmental policies. For more information, please refer to the following website: http://www.iucn.org/places/asia/livelihood.
Adaptive Strategies for Floods and Droughts in South Asia: The Colorado-based Institute for Social and Environmental Transition (ISET), with its Nepal office, implemented this initiative addressing the social, economic and environmental impacts of emerging water problems in South Asia, via a research project documenting current individual, community and governmental strategies for coping with floods and water scarcity. The eye-opening results showed that local people have often adapted gradually to recurring floods and droughts in ways that are often more effective than delayed government responses. For example, flood victims salvage whatever they can within the first ten days after a flood, which is often how long it takes for official responses. Similarly, communities in India’s state of Bihar have collaborated to gradually raise the ground level of whole villages to avoid the worst impacts of floods. In contrast are government-built river embankments that raise riverbed levels, which in fact exacerbates the impact of floods. Given its sociological approach, this research concluded that a paradigm shift was required to address flood- and drought-response decisions. The authors recommended that traditional national approaches to dealing with floods and droughts were inadequate responses at the popular level. The conclusions drew great follow-on interest from the UN, World Water Forum and South Asian government representatives. For more information on the project and downloading of the final document, please refer to: http://www.i-s-e-t.org.
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