Social, Ecological, and Landscape Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, mountains are repositories of biological and cultural diversity, crucially contributing to the global ecosystem. Asia’s high mountain ranges are increasingly being referred to as the Third Pole; they make up a large landscape covering over 10 countries in the Mid Latitude Region (MLR). With varying topography and climatic conditions, the Third Pole is a key provider of ecological and socio-cultural diversity and essential ecosystem services to over 2 billion people, and there is rich biodiversity in the mountains and downstream areas. The mountains in the Third Pole hold the third largest reserve of water worldwide, which is also exceptionally fragile and vulnerable to both natural and human drivers of change. Global environmental and climate change, human land use, as well as socio-economic and policy drivers continue to strongly influence ecological interactions and their long-term capacity to deliver essential ecosystem services.

Under such conditions, global environmental climate change is emerging as an overwhelming challenge that is rapidly changing landscapes and leading to the degradation of ecosystem services. This directly impacts the quality of human wellbeing and biodiversity. These changes are felt most severely in mountains. The specific impacts of climate change include i) the rapid melting of glaciers, ice, and snow, which are not only critical sources of water, food, and energy for communities that live in harsh mountain landscapes and downstream areas, but their melting also greatly reduces habitat for endangered snow leopards, sympatric carnivores, and prey by reducing snow cover; ii) the increased frequency of floods from glacial lake outbursts, which destroy agricultural land, infrastructure, settlements, and hydropower plants and causes deaths; iii) increased competition for resources such as water, grazing land, etc., between alpine herder communities (plus their herd) and snow leopards and associated biodiversity, leading to intensified conflicts in which both humans and biodiversity are negatively affected; iv) the release of black carbon locked in snow, ice, and glaciers, thus contributing to carbon in the atmosphere. These challenges require urgent interventions if we are to safeguard socio-ecological resilience and guarantee essential ecosystem services for all generations to come. However, efforts to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of global environmental and climate change are not adequate due to remoteness and harsh conditions, the lack of technical and financial support, and the lack of scientific information to guide policy and programs. Unless scientific information becomes available, snow leopards, wild prey, their habitat, including snow cover, associated biodiversity, and herder livelihoods may decline. This Special Issue will consider research findings on land, biodiversity, and humans and their livelihoods under changing climate scenarios in mountains and downstream areas, including coastal areas.

This Special Issue will compile compelling research papers that focus on climate-change-induced changes in land, biodiversity, and humans and their livelihoods and their impact on mountains and downstream areas.

• Livelihood vulnerability assessment;
• Land use and land cover change; 
• Human wildlife conflicts and the role of climate change;
• Climate-related disasters and its impact on food, water, energy, and ecosystems; 
• Social perception of climate change and effective local adaptations;
• Appropriate technology for improving adaptation to climate change and disasters.

Prof. Dr. Sonam Wangyel Wang
Guest Editor

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• climate change
• 3rd pole
• mountains
• vulnerability to climate and disasters
• land use
• water, food, energy nexus