transboundary issues

Are we scorpions? The role of upstream–downstream dialogue in fostering cooperation in the Nile Basin
Water consumed upstream does not flow downstream. Consequently, upstream–downstream relations along a shared river may entail competitive use or even conflict. What is the role of communication in preventing or transforming such behaviour? The present article addresses this question based on lessons learned in three Dialogue Workshops carried out between 2002 and 2004 in the Eastern...
ICIMOD's transboundary biodiversity management initiative in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas

This paper discusses the criteria for biodiversity management in transboundary landscapes:

  • Identify transboundary candidate priority landscapes that are critical for biodiversity management. Countries sharing the areas should be committed to develop and manage such landscapes.
  • Apply participatory management of biodiversity in the PAs of candidate...
A UNU climate change initiative: Sustainable land management in Central Asia

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), that took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, identified three key environmental issues facing the global community in the 21st century: climate change, biodiversity, and desertification. The follow-up World Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002 reviewed progress in addressing these closely interrelated issues and...

Drawing the line: Nature, hybridity and politics in transboundary spaces

Protected areas - national parks, biosphere reserves, and the like - contribute importantly to the preservation of the ever more beleaguered wild plants and animals with which humankind shares this planet. The many thousand kilometres of national boundaries that separate the approximately 190 intensely sovereign nations (with at least half of those boundaries being undefined or contested) have...

Mountain communities in Central Asia: Networks and new forms of governance
Mountains have been an intergovernmental and transnational issue of growing importance for 15 years. Thanks to global conferences such as the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and regional treaties such as the Alpine Convention (1991), it is easier and increasingly useful for local communities to connect across borders. This growing will and capacity to be associated with...
Is “culture” still relevant to regional policy? Conclusions from DIAMONT, a European Union Research Project
The Alps, in the heart of Europe, are obviously an asset, but they also pose a serious challenge: some Alpine regions lag quite far behind economically, mainly because of the disadvantages of location. At the same time, their fragile ecological and cultural systems suffer from the unbalanced economic exploitation inherent in the “open access” policy formulated by the European...
The mixed blessings of the Lesotho Highlands water project: An assessment based on local perspectives

The signing of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project treaty in 1986 between Lesotho and the then apartheid government of the Republic of South Africa triggered mixed feelings. In Lesotho and several other countries in the region, the project was seen as a sellout that compromised the struggles of the oppressed, tantamount to Lesotho becoming a province of South Africa. Additional objections grew...

Introducing a transboundary ecosystem management approach in the Mount Elgon region: The need for strengthened institutional collaboration
The Mt Elgon ecosystem straddles the international boundary between Kenya and Uganda and is a watershed of international importance, feeding the waters of Lake Victoria, the Nile River system, and Lake Turkana. The core ecosystem in the Mt Elgon area is characterized by large montane forest landscapes; it comprises several protected areas. Adjacent is a vast, heavily populated agricultural...
Developing forested conservation corridors in the Kangchenjunga landscape, eastern Himalaya

The Kangchenjunga landscape in the trans-boundary region of Nepal, Bhutan, and India has rich forest resources offering a wide range of ecosystem services to local people and habitats for many rare plant and animal species. Despite conservation efforts in several fragmented protected areas in the past, forest ecosystems and their multiple functions have been affected by over-extraction of...

Conservation of high-altitude wetlands: Experiences of the WWF network

Conservation of high altitude wetlands and lakes in the Himalayas poses an immense challenge to the world. Recent projections on climate change and its impacts on glaciers compound the problem.  The WWF High-Altitude Wetlands and Lakes Project is working to met this challenge in three ways:

1) Site-specific work in India, Nepal, Pakistan and China;

2)  Partnerships for...

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