What is MoChWo ?

Mountains are a part of global biodiversity repository and play vital role in maintaining global ecosystem and supporting millions of people. Mountains possess a large variation in landscape features and also act as global water towers. Similarly, mountains offer a ‘niche or comparative advantage’ at operational levels such as medicinal herbs, tourism and hydro power. In the meantime, they are the most vulnerable to the effect of global change. Data suggest that mountain communities are among the poorest and most affected by development programs that are not tailor-made for mountain conditions. Furthermore, the cascading effects of climate change on water resources and biodiversity have severe consequences on local livelihoods, and consequently result in a downward spiral of poverty. The mountains, as a whole, require tailor-made solutions based on mountain-specific research and knowledge. Therefore, Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences (KIAS) is organizing a series of international conferences on Mountains in the Changing World (MoChWo) to create a forum for exchanging scientific knowledge on mountain-specific research among scientists, decision makers (bureaucrats and politicians) and development practitioners.