A team of 14 CA members affiliated with a Parliamentary Action Team on Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (PAECD) participated in a climate change impact study visit in Mustang from 21 to 23, September 2009. We visited Muktinath, Kagbeni, Jomsom, Marpha, Tukche and Kobang VDCs of Mustang District. This was our second study tour for the purpose. First time, we visited Chitwan for the same purpose in February 2009 and shared the findings through a press meet. A list of the team members is presented at the end of this statement.

Mustang is a representative district of Nepal's Himalayan region where growing climate change impacts have been reported both by media and researchers. The visit was organized with and objective of taking first hand information of climate change impacts on local environment and livelihoods in Mustang. The visit provided us a unique opportunity to enhance practical knowledge that would help us making informed decision on climate change in future policy dialogues including constitution drafting process and Government program.

Our study visit have directly witnessed the multiple impacts of climate change in the mountain and our direct interaction with the locals helped us to understand the issues and problems faced by the locals.

We, the study team members, felt that climate change has already affected people in remote parts of the country where communities are finding hard to manage changing weather patterns, growing incidence of extreme weather events such as frequent droughts and floods, break out of crop diseases, livestock diseases and conflicts over water sharing. The team has convinced that there is urgent need of climate change adaptation program to support the efforts of local communities who are struggling hard to cope with the unwarranted changes taking place in the region.

We are determined to raise the issues of climate change impacts at all level of policy debates including parliament, public forums, government policy processes and media. We felt that the issues of climate change are urgent and need to give a top priority at local to national levels.

We believe that very little or no practical and scientific knowledge on Climate Change and its impact on Mountain livelihood among CA members should be changed and the climate change concerns should be reflected in constitutional policy dialogues.

Key observations Winter snowfalls have changed from regular feature to rare events leading to decline of snow deposits, and exposing black rocks of high mountains where permanent snow cover used to be a key feature. Warmer and dry winter and high temperatures have devastated apple farms in lower part of the Mustang. Quantity and quality of apple productivity have declined sharply. Clay roofed houses have been weakened by unusual intense rains where such phenomena did not exist. These houses were designed to manage snowfall only. Water sources are drying up. Killing of livestock particularly goats has suddenly increased due to diseases linked to unusually dry and warmer weather. Most of the traditional crops have suffered new types of diseases while the warm weather crops and vegetables are being successfully farmed. Wild fires have emerged as a major contributing factor for deforestation and degradation. Due to receding glaciers and permanent snow line as well as intense road links in Mustang have threatened sustainability of trekking tourism.

Ways forward

• Mustang specific local resources and opportunities like minerals, herbs and natural energy potentials (coal and gas) should be explored in the context of adaptation needs.
  
• Needs of climate change adaptation program to support local efforts of sustainable sectoral development particularly livestock, apple farming, snow and water harvesting etc.
  
• Promotion of snow and water harvesting technologies could help reduce water stresses.
  
• Conservation of local forest and plantations still serve a viable option to protect soil erosion and water conservation.
  
• National wild fire control policy and wildfire control mechanism should be enacted.
  
• Local development such as road constructions should not hamper tourism and trekking.
  
• The practice of using firewood for cooking and heating among camps of security forces, local businesses and local households should be immediately replaced by available alternative fuel saving technologies like gas, kerosene, improved cooking stoves, biogas plants and solar cookers.
  

Finally, from both visits, it is clear that Climate change has already been felt in mountain and plains in Nepal and is required urgent actions to adapt the new situations. We urge Nepal government to formulate effective policy and plan to tackle climate change. We urge international communities especially rich and industrialized countries to help country like Nepal to cope climate change and to support our sustainable development.

Acknowledgement:

We would like to offer our sincere thanks to all those without whom the visit would not have been possible, particularly: Forest Action for organizing the visit; NTNC-ACAP for hosting programs and seminars; UK embassy for providing financial support. Similarly we are grateful to local people and organizations for their generous support, hospitality and cooperation throughout our visit. Especial thanks to Hon Chandra Bahadur Gurung, MP from Mustang for his kind support.

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