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
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