On 9 February 9, 2021, the project titled “Developing Nature-Based Solutions for Nepal Following a Nexus Approach towards Sustaining Forestry, Water Resources and Livelihoods” was launched during an on-line kick-off workshop. It was participated by all the project team members from UNEP, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (China), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), President Chure Terai Madhesh Conservation and Development Board, Ministry of Forests (Nepal), Tribhuvan University(Nepal), Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China), and partner from the USA.

This project is funded by the joint programme of UNEP and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The core of this research will examine the mechanism of coupling and interactions among the three components of forestry, water resources, and livelihood nexus at multiple scales, so as to provide a national science-based assessment of adaptation and mitigation strategies in Nepal with Nature-Based Solutions scenarios.

At the launch workshop, the project co-principle investigator, Director of UNEP-IEMP, Dr. Linxiu Zhang congratulated the joint team efforts for this cutting-age research project on NBS. She emphasized on the complex and importance of the nature and human development interaction in this NBS study, and the value of scientific support for NBS related policy in Nepal and beyond. She also mentioned some good foundations to be built upon, including the GEF funded UNEP project implemented on Ecosystem based Adaptation in Nepal, as well as the good regional partnership with ICIMOD.   

The project co-principle investigator Prof Lu HAO gave a full presentation on the project overview and implementation plan in the next 5 years. Mr. Rajan Subedi from Tribhuvan University presented their good capacity and plans for implement this project in Nepal. Core topics including joint capacity building, study area setup, and further fund raising were well discussed. 

This project highlighted the climate, ecosystem and livelihoods nexus approach. And its piloting in the mountain regions with the NBS concept will contribute to the UNEP Climate Ecosystem and Livelihoods flagship programme, and the nature and climate actions in the UNEP Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2025.