You have full access to this open access chapter. The United Nations recognized the importance of mountain ecosystems, both for conserving biological diversity and for sustaining humanity, in Chap. More generally, ecosystem diversity, species diversity, genetic diversity, and functional diversity all play key roles in the ecosystem services that benefit people and communities well - established.
China, e-mail: J. Xu cgiar. Chettri icimod. Ram P. China, e-mail: r. Amanat K. You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF. The mountain ecosystems of the Hindu Kush Himalaya HKH are diverse with one of the highest diversity of flora and fauna providing varied ecosystem services to one fourth of humanity. At least new species— plants, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, two birds, and two mammals, and at least 61 invertebrates—have been discovered in the Eastern Himalaya between and , equating to an average of 35 new species finds every year.
The HKH has numerous seeds of good practices in conservation and restoration of degraded habitat along with community development which need upscaling and out scaling.
These participatory and community-based approaches have had large ecological, economic, and social positive impacts. Substantial degraded forest areas are regenerating, as decentralized practices reverse deforestation trends.
Local communities have gained institutional space to decide for themselves on issues related to forests, income, inclusion, and social justice. Global and regional drivers of change on biodiversity and ecosystem loss are prevalent and increasing in the HKH. These drivers include land use and land cover change, pollution, climate change, invasive species, solid waste, habitat degradation, and overexploitation of resources, among others, impacting biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human wellbeing.
