HighARCS has completed a detailed multidisciplinary situation analysis of highland aquatic resources, focused on values, livelihoods, conservation issues and wise-use options at five sites in Asia:
Factors assessed included the following:
- Biodiversity and ecosystem services, including provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services
- Livelihood strategies of households dependent on ecosystem services derived from highland aquatic resources, in particular poor, food-insecure and vulnerable people, will be assessed within a sustainable livelihoods framework and opportunities to enhance such livelihoods assessed
- Institutional features , including local, national and international policy and legislation, trajectories of change, stakeholder values associated with highland aquatic resources and areas of conflict will be assessed
Stakeholder participation was critical to ensure new knowledge is accessible for collective decision-making and development of policies for the equitable use and conservation; methods and indicators for participatory monitoring and evaluation of ecosystem services and biodiversity were developed.
Action plans have been formulated with stakeholders to:
- monitor the health of highland aquatic resources,
- develop and promote wise-use, and where necessary livelihoods diversification
- enhance poor livelihoods and conservation,
- integrate sustainable and wise-use, livelihoods diversification and conservation with watershed management priorities throughout the region
Action plans are being implemented by stakeholders at four sites displaying high biodiversity in Asia and the ecosystem, livelihoods and institutional impacts assessed through participatory monitoring and evaluation. Best practices aimed at conserving biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem services will be communicated to potential users to promote uptake and enhanced policy formulation.
