IUCN has been working in the state of Himachal Pradesh for last three years under the National Mission of Himalayan Studies (NMHS) project ‘Coping with Uncertainties: Building Community Resilience and Ecosystem Based Adaptation to Climate Change in the Indian Himalayan Region’. The project was implemented in Phojal Watershed located in District Kullu to address critical impacts of climate change on water, energy, livelihoods, and biodiversity, as well as to build climate resilient strategies for improving ecosystem and communities dependent on these ecosystem for their lives and livelihood.

As part of this engagement, IUCN organised a state-level workshop in Himachal Pradesh at the Hotel Marina in Shimla on 14 March 2020 to present the learnings and successes from the implementation of the project in Himachal state. A total of 36 delegates participated in this workshop representing different state government departments, research institutes, professional consultants, industries and environmental NGOs viz. Forests and Environment Department, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh; Himachal Pradesh Council for Science Technology and Environment (HIMCOSTE), Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Department of Environment, Science and Technology (DEST), Himachal Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (HPSRLM); World Wide Fund (WWF) among others.

Dr. Vivek Saxena, Country Representative, IUCN India Country Office, welcomed all the delegates and gave an overview of IUCN and its different ongoing projects. The workshop was addressed by Dr. Savita, IFS, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), Govt. of Himachal Pradesh as the Chief Guest and Dr. S.S. Samant, Director of HFRI; Dr. Surjeet Singh Randhawa, Principal Scientific Officer of HIMCOSTE; Dr. Suresh Atrri, Principal Scientific Officer-cum-State Coordinator of Himachal Pradesh Knowledge Cell on Climate Change of DEST as the Special Guests of the event.

The technical sessions of the workshop deliberated on IUCN initiatives in Indian Himalayan Region, pesenting details of the project work in various sectos supporting climate change adaptation in Himachal Pradesh followed by a panel discussion on strengthening actions for tackling climate change challenges through policy inititiaves which take into consideration the mountain ecosystem perspective.

The need for synergy on collective actions for implementation, and linking indigenous practices & traditional knowledge with modern science on managing natural resources were some key recomendations. Following the formal closing of the workshop, IUCN extended a vote of thanks to all the participants for making the workshop more substantive and a success.

For more details about the project, please visit the link in this article above.