BookGanga Ram Regmi, Falk Huettmann, editors.
Summary: This book describes the myriad components of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region. The contributors elaborate on challenges, failures, and successes in efforts to conserve the HKH, its indigenous plants and animals, and the watershed that runs from the very roof of the planet via world-rivers to marine estuaries, supporting a human population of some two billion people. Readers will learn how the landforms, animal species and humans of this globally fascinating region are connected, and understand why runoff from snow and ice in the world's tallest mountains is vital to inhabitants far downstream. The book comprises forty-five chapters organized in five parts. The first section, Landscapes, introduces the mountainous watersheds of the HKH, its weather systems, forests, and the 18 major rivers whose headwaters are here. The second part explores concepts, cultures, and religions, including ethnobiology and indigenous regimes, two thousand years of religious tradition, and the history of scientific and research expeditions. Part Three discusses policy, wildlife conservation management, habitat and biodiversity data, as well as the interaction of animals and humans. The fourth part examines the consequences of development and globalization, from hydrodams, to roads and railroads, to poaching and illegal wildlife trade. This section includes studies of animal species including river dolphins, woodpeckers and hornbills, langurs, snow leopards and more. The concluding section offers perspectives and templates for conservation, sustainability and stability in the HKH, including citizen-science projects and a future challenged by climate change, growing human population, and global conservation decay. A large assemblage of field and landscape photos, combined with eye-witness accounts, presents a 50-year local and wider perspective on the HKH. Also included are advanced digital topics: data sharing, open access, metadata, web portal databases, geographic information systems (GIS) software and machine learning, and data mining concepts all relevant to a modern scientific understanding and sustainable management of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region. This work is written for scholars, landscape ecologists, naturalists and researchers alike, and it can be especially well-suited for those readers who want to learn in a more holistic fashion about the latest conservation issues.
Contents:
Preface
Part 1. Landscapes
1. Mountain Landscapes and Watersheds of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) and Their Biogeography: A Descriptive Overview and Introduction for 18 Nations in the Anthropocene
2. The Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) Region in the Modern Global and Climate Context: Major Weather Systems, Monsoon, Asian Brown Clouds (ABCs), Digital Data/Models and Global Linkages of Telecoupling and Teleconnection all Affecting Global Human Well
3. From the Mountains and Glaciers Down to the Rivers to the Estuaries and Oceans: Another Sad Tale of 18 or so Rivers
4. The Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) in the Global and Marine Context: Major Estuaries, Coast-Scapes, Ocean Coupling, Seawalls, over 2 Billion People and Global (Food) Security
5. A View from Space on Poyang Lake: What We Can Already See and What It Means
6. Effective Poyang Lake Conservation? A Local Ecology View from Downstream Involving Internationally Migratory Birds When Trying to Buffer and Manage Water from HKH with 'Modern' Concepts
7. The Future of Biodiversity in the Changing Watersheds of Kashmir Himalaya, Pakistan: Conservation Challenges and Opportunities 15. Settling the Terror of Your Mind with the Deities: About Fear, Anxiety, Inherent Chaos and Self-Doubt in Hind Kush-Himalaya Expeditions and Associated Research
Part 3. Real-World Policy, Conservation Management of Wildlife, Habitat, and Biodiversity Data
16. The Relevance and Significant Role of Mid-elevation for the Watersheds and Biodiversity Conservation in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya: The Case of Nepal in the Anthropocene
17. Nature and Landscape Governance in Royal Times: Experiences from the Shah and Rana Regimes in Nepal Re-assembled from Literature and Interview Data
18. Swallows and Sparrows in the Human Street-Market Interface of Urban Nepal: Towards a First Open Access GIS Data and Model Inference on the Role of Religion and Culture in Bird Distribution
19. Pallas's Cat in Annapurna, Nepal: What We Know Thus Far and What Is to Come
20. Status of Otters in Nepal: A Link with Ancient Waterways and People
21. Wildlife Diplomacy and Gifting in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya Region: A Chronological History and Opinion of Nepalese Literates
22. Birds of Nepal: Their Status and Conservation Especially with Regards to Watershed Perspectives 23. A Governance Analysis of the Snow Leopard, Its Habitat and (Digital) Data: Who Owns Charismatic Animals and Who Drives and Uses the Agenda for What?
24. The Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP): Towards a Success Story in Landscape Feature and Watershed Conservation Management
25. The Forgotten Data: A Rather Short but Deep Story of Museums and Libraries in HKH and Similar Information Sources in Support of the Global Biodiversity Information System (GBIF.org) and Model-Predictions for Improved Conservation Management
26. A Rather Short Story of Shared GIS Data Layers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: State of the Art, Justifications and Urgent Suggestions for a Sustainable Global Data Governance with Open Access and Open Source Coming to the Rescue
27. Insect Pollinators, Threats For Survival and Ecosystem Service: An Outlook From Hindu-Kush Himalaya Region
28. A First High-Resolution Open Access Data and Open Source GIS Model-Prediction for the Globally Threatened Sarus Crane (Antigone antigone) in Nepal: Data Mining of 81 Predictors Support Evidence for Ongoing Declines in Distribution and Abunda
Part 4. A Fresh Look and Successful Templates for HKH: 'Business as Usual' Is Dead 39. Small and Effective NGOs as a Role Model for Bigger Success: The Global Primate Network (Now 'Third Pole Conservancy')
40. When Micro Drives the Macro: A Fresh Look at Disease and its Massive Contributions in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya
41. Water in Mongolia: Sources, Uses and Issues, with Special Emphasis on Mining
42. Good Citizen Science Experience Downstream of Everest Helps Monitor Status of Wetland Birds
43. A Citizen Science Experience: Green Youth of Lumbini (GYL) Promoting Globally Threatened Bird Species (Cranes/Storks) and Holistic Landscape Conservation in the Lumbini Region of Nepal, on the Ground as well as with Social Media
44. When Governments Cannot Do It Anymore and When Capitalism, Neoliberal Policies and Globalization Get Imposed Without Democracy: Self-Organization in the HKH Region Beyond E. Ostrom and Facebook
45. Quo Vadis HKH? 'Sustainable Development' as a Horror Scenario while Climate Change, Human Population Increase and Global Conservation Decay are on the Rise Further
Index. 8. Towards a Landscape Perspective of Diseases in Plants: An Overview and Review of a Critical but Overlooked Ecology Issue in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region
9. Showing True Change of the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region Through the Power of Photo Monitoring as a Visual Memory of Change
10. A First-Hand Narrative Account on Tibet's Paper Parks: How China's Greenwashing in Tibet Flies Under the Radar
11. Forestry Management in Nepal: An Example and a Review of Growth & Yield
Part 2. Concepts, Cultures, Religions and the Mind
12. What It Is Like to Be a Land-Locked Nation: Some Discriminatory Examples and Details from National Watersheds of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya Under the Neoliberal 'Free Market' Participation Paradigm
13. Ethnobiology and Indigenous Regimes in the Conservation of Species, Watersheds, and Landscapes: Experiences and Evidences from the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Nations for a Global Application
14. Spirituality Beats It All: A Quick Conservation Overview, Self-Organization and the Great Value of (Indigenous) Religions for Hindu Kush-Himalaya Landscapes, Its Geo-Parks, Species, Ecological Processes and Watersheds