This book includes a plain text version that is designed for high accessibility. To use this version please follow this link.
Sustainable Mountain Development No. 56, ICIMOD, Winter 2009
Himalayan Wetlands Initiative –
conservation and wise use of natural
water storage in the HKH region
Celeste Harris, Integrated Water and Hazard Management, ICIMOD, charris@icimod.org,
Bishnu B. Bhandari, Integrated Water and Hazard Management, ICIMOD, bbhandari@icimod.org
Ouyang Hua, Integrated Water and Hazard Management, ICIMOD, houyang@icimod.org
Eklabya Sharma, Environmental Change and Ecosystem Services, ICIMOD, esharma@icimod.org
H
imalayan wetlands store freshwater and a large number of water retaining wetlands in the form
provide many ecosystem services to sustain of lakes, marshes, peatlands, wet grasslands, streams,
the livelihoods of people in the mountains glacial lakes, and rivers (ICIMOD 2009). These
and downstream. wetlands are both biologically and culturally signifi cant;
28 have been designated as ‘Ramsar sites’ (included
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region covers an
in the ‘List of Wetlands of International Importance’, or
area of about 3,500,000 sq.km extending across eight
Ramsar list) by the Convention on Wetlands, 14 of them
countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China,
in the high altitude wetland category, i.e. above 3,000
India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan). The region has
metres above sea level (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Important wetlands and the Ramsar sites in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region
LEGEND
Ramsar site - high altitude wetland
Ramsar site
Hindu Kush-Himalayan region
Wetlands (Lehner and Doll 2004)
River Kilometres
0 195 390 780 1,170, 1,560
Source: Map background image from ESRI data
21
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64
Produced with Yudu - www.yudu.com