Sustainable Mountain Development No. 56, ICIMOD, Winter 2009
Promoting value chains for sustainable livelihoods agreement with the newly-established Regional Mountain
ICIMOD signed a number of agreements with
Centre of Central Asia for experience sharing and
regional institutions to improve livelihoods through
knowledge management beyond the boundaries of the
knowledge partnerships and value chains for bee
Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.
products and services in the Himalayas including the
Alital Multipurpose Cooperative Limited Nepal; the
Other agreements
Honeybee Research Program; the National Agriculture ICIMOD also signed agreements with the following
Research Centre, Pakistan; NWFP Agriculture University partner organisations:
Peshawar; Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and • Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bio
Forestry India; Bangladesh Institute of Apiculture; Central resources, Nepal
Himalayan Environmental Association (CHEA) India; the • Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal,
Federation of Nepal Beekeepers; and the Agha Khan (FECOFUN)
Rural Support Programme, Pakistan. • Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-Nepal
• Council for RNR Research, Bhutan Ministry of
Partnerships with international resource centres
Agriculture, Thimpu, Bhutan
Through its diverse strategic partnerships, ICIMOD is • Beekeeping Development Section, Department of
developing synergies among relevant institutions to Agriculture, Nepal
address the emerging issues and challenges of mountain • Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese
development in the region. ICIMOD sees partnership Academy of Sciences, China
as the main strategy for knowledge development, • Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and
networking, and impact orientation. Development (LI-BIRD), Nepal
• Research Centre for Rural Economies, Ministry of
In order to strengthen research and capacity
Agriculture, China
development in the area of natural resources, ecosystem
• Gross National Happiness Commission, Bhutan
services, policy, and governance, ICIMOD signed
MOUs with several international resource centres
Ayushma Rana Basnyat, ayrana@icimod.org
including the Institute for Global Environmental
Farid Ahmad, faahmad@icimod.org
Strategies, Japan, and the Global Biodiversity
Information Facility. ICIMOD also entered into an
Unplug and go!
Since May, ICIMOD has been charging its electric vehicles from a solar charging station. The three electric smart cars, used to take staff and
visitors to meetings around Kathmandu, are now parked under a purpose built solar charging system where they can plug in and recharge at
any time. The system has 28 photovoltaic panels each of 175 watt, which charge 24 2-volt deep cycle batteries, together with a recording
device for the solar power input and usage metres charge controllers. Under ideal sunshine conditions, the station generates 4.9 kW
electricity. Surplus electricity was used in the summer to power the lights of the ICIMOD compound at night through batteries.
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