Coping strategies against climate change among transhumance pastoral communities in Nepal Himalaya

Proponent: Lila Nath Sharma, Independent Researcher Project implementation period: 8 months Project implementation dates: March – October 2010 Project location: Gorkha district, central Nepal Description: Concentrated in two remote villages in central Nepal, the project aims to conduct research on the topic of how migratory pastoral Gurung communities in Nepal perceive changes in climatic conditions, how the variation in climate has influenced their activities connected with herds management, how grazing resources have changed during the past 20 years and what adaptive measures have been taken by the herdsmen in response to the changes they have noticed.

Gurung are one of Nepal’s indigenous peoples whose main source of livelihood is transhumance grazing. Inhabiting rugged mountain terrains, they move Yak, Chauri, sheep and goat from village grasslands to high altitude meadows via the forest before the onset of the monsoon. There is an intricate interaction between monsoon, agriculture, mountain communities and the migration of herds from village to pasture and back to the villages. Transhumance pastoralism is closely associated with economy and culture, local ecological conditions, resource availability and measures of climate. Their pastoral activity is highly impacted by time of rainfall, season of agriculture in village, persistence and melting period of snow in rangelands, availability of water bodies near grazing spots. These factors which influence their pastoral activities are subject to be influenced by recent changes in climate. Lila believes these pastoral communities are influenced by changes and such communities have some kinds of strategies to cope with, and present study aims to study this.