PI: Eklabya Sharma

Team: Rajkamal Goswami (Arunachal Pradesh), Sarala Khaling (Khangchendzonga Landscape),  Saloni Bhatia (Trans-Himalaya). 

Project AMP-Himalaya is funded by Rural India Supporting Trust (RIST) within the strategy of The Himalaya Initiative (THI) co-financed by Conservation International and Global Conservation.  The project focuses on ‘Conserving Biodiversity, Restoring Landscapes and Fostering Human Well-being in the Indian Himalayan Region’ and the goal is “biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation halted and reversed in the project locations”. Three key areas prioritized to achieve the goal in the IHR are:

1) Assessment, Monitoring, and Conservation of Biodiversity

2) Restoration of Multi-functional Landscapes

3) Nature-based Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Resilience.

Integral to these priorities are: the creation of digital knowledge commons to accelerate participatory management and local stewardship; strengthening human resources through training programs for local youth leaders and enhanced environmental educational opportunities; and creating conditions for developing/implementing multi-level mountain-specific policies that prioritize biodiversity conservation and natural resource management at scale.

The project is being implemented in 3 distinct landscapes located in 3 states and 1 union territory of IHR namely: the Khangchendzonga Landscape covering the Darjeeling hills of north Bengal and Sikkim state; the Trans-Himalayan Landscape represents a high dependence on rangelands with agro-pastoral and pastoral systems in Ladakh; and Arunachal Pradesh with largest, greenest, ethnically diverse and most biodiversity rich landscapes.