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Nepal recently experienced a simultaneous occurrence of both drought and flooding, underscoring the urgent need to address the impacts of climate change, particularly in relation to loss and damage (L&D). In this context, ApEx recently organized a roundtable involving climate stakeholders to delve into topics such as L&D, disaster risk reduction, government initiatives, partnerships for addressing L&D, and the role of youth in climate awareness and action. Excerpts:

Embrace climate change as an opportunity

Manjeet Dhakal, climate change expert

Historically, our focus has been primarily on the effects and impacts of climate change, often as a means to attract foreign aid. Yet, we have not been educated about an alternative perspective—a viewpoint that regards climate change as not only a challenge but also an avenue for economic benefits. Fortunately, recent years have witnessed increased dialogue, discussions, media coverage, and research on various aspects of climate change, which is undoubtedly a positive shift.

In Nepal, the cornerstones of our economy—agriculture, remittances, tourism, and hydropower—have all borne the brunt of climate change. While the effects on agriculture, tourism, and hydropower are widely recognized, we have not been adequately informed about its potential impact on remittances. These remittances contribute roughly 23 percent to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Notably, around 80 percent of our migrant labor force heads to the Middle East and Malaysia, regions experiencing significant temperature increases compared to the global average. Consequently, our assessment of loss and damage should not be limited to our borders but should extend to encompass consequences beyond our political boundaries.

Necessity of scientific research

Pradip Khatiwada, disaster risk management expert

Numerous scientific studies have examined rainfall patterns and the global temperature rise, both contributing factors to instances of loss and damage. L&D is commonly categorized as economic, affecting livelihoods and property, and non-economic, encompassing issues like loss of life, health problems, psychological distress, displacement challenges, as well as damage to biodiversity and cultural heritage. While economic L&D is frequently discussed, the non-economic aspect has not received adequate attention. Therefore, conducting scientific research to evaluate our circumstances is essential. This research aids in anticipating and mitigating disaster impacts, bolstering our self-reliance. Additionally, communicating research findings effectively to vulnerable communities minimizes disaster-related risks.

While a 1.5°C temperature increase might not significantly affect certain countries, it’s a significant concern for Nepal due to its susceptibility to snowmelt-triggered flash floods and related problems. Unlike the sturdy mountains in Europe, our mountainous regions are delicate and vulnerable, warranting our concern.

Educate local communities on climate change

Bharati Pathak, community forest expert

Indigenous communities have played a pivotal role in revitalizing community forests nationwide, contributing significantly to mitigating climate change effects, including loss and damage. However, these communities possess only a basic understanding of climate change consequences such as floods, landslides, and droughts. The discourse on this matter has largely been confined to urban centers and the privileged class, leaving those directly dealing with climate change aftermath with limited awareness. Thus, extending knowledge-sharing initiatives to rural regions is imperative.

While we have actively participated in 27 Conferences of Parties (COP), do local communities truly comprehend the nature of COP, its discussions, and the resulting agreements? The absence of involvement from those at the forefront of climate change impacts casts uncertainty on our ability to achieve climate objectives.

In an environment where information is scarce, misinformation and disinformation thrive. This is evident in local communities’ understanding of carbon trading, where they sought compensation for only a few trees.

Collaborative efforts for climate action a must

Hari Prasad Sharma, Under secretary, Ministry of Forest and Environment

Nepal’s vulnerability to climate change must be comprehensively assessed, including the degree, severity, and exposure of its impact. With about 68 percent of our land featuring slopes greater than 60°, our susceptibility to climate effects is heightened. Moreover, roughly 30 percent of our land lies at altitudes exceeding 2,500 meters, amplifying its sensitivity in sustaining livelihoods. Thus, our geographic circumstances render us particularly vulnerable.

Though climate change policies exist, practical execution is paramount. Policies often resemble wish lists; our focus should shift towards translating them into actionable steps through meticulous implementation. Given the global move towards cooperative decision-making, addressing climate change necessitates a collective approach. Embracing contemporary methods is crucial to effectively combat this issue.

Allocating resources to educate and foster climate change understanding from a young age is essential, as the youth represent future catalysts for change.

Climate change transcends data

Shrichchha Pradhan, climate activist and Miss Nepal World 2023

Nepal’s cultural practices, adaptability to environmental challenges, and community-driven sustainability efforts offer valuable lessons for the global community. By studying and adopting these practices, societies worldwide can take meaningful strides toward addressing climate change, embracing zero-waste lifestyles, and nurturing sustainability. Entrepreneurship within the climate change realm presents an opportunity yielding multiple benefits, including educating the youth on climate intricacies, promoting sustainable practices, and zero-waste principles.

Understanding climate change extends beyond data; it holds a deep emotional dimension impacting local communities, especially in remote areas. These communities daily bear the brunt of climate change, experiencing its far-reaching consequences in ways statistics cannot capture. Their close connection with the environment has traditionally granted them a profound understanding of nature’s patterns. However, recent unpredictable changes from climate change have disrupted this traditional knowledge. Thus, engaging with these communities and providing targeted education about changing consequences is crucial.

Loss and damage as a moral imperative

Adelle Thomas, lead author of IPCC Reports

Loss and damage (L&D) lacks a universally agreed definition within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signifying different meanings for different groups. Nonetheless, L&D generally refers to negative climate change impacts that occur despite mitigation and adaptation efforts.

L&D is often categorized as economic or non-economic. Economic L&D entails quantifiable negative impacts, such as rebuilding infrastructure post-floods or agricultural revenue loss due to drought. Non-economic L&D includes impacts challenging to assign monetary values, like trauma from tropical cyclones or community loss due to displacement.

Both extreme events (heat waves, storms) and slow-onset events (sea-level rise, ocean acidification) contribute to loss and damage.

After the restoration of democracy in 1990, investigating corruption scandals and major crimes through high-level probe panels has been a recurrent practice in Nepal. These panels have ostensibly yielded reports advising government action, yet these documents have largely remained hidden from the public eye, and their recommendations conspicuously unheeded.

In some disconcerting instances, these very panels have appeared to function as protective shields for high-profile individuals entangled in corruption and other ignoble scandals.

This prompts a glaring question: why form such so-called high level probe commission and to what end? Also, what is the point of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the constitutionally mandated body meant for probing corruption cases?

On Wednesday, political parties represented in the Federal Parliament decided to form yet another high-level panel, this time to investigate all known and unknown gold smuggling incidents. The decision is connected with the gold trafficking incident that took place via Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu last month. 

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police is tasked with the investigation of the case, but the main opposition, CPN-UML, looks askance, insisting on a separate high level commission for a fair inquest. The party resorted to obstructing the parliamentary proceedings to press its demand, and the ruling coalition parties led by CPN (Maoist Center) eventually relented.     

Prominent legal figure and former Supreme Court Justice Balaram KC has emphatically criticized this cross-party consensus, deeming it a grievous misstep that threatens to establish a harmful precedent. He says formation of a high level probe commission must be reserved in the case of an unprecedented and complex incident. “Gold smuggling is not a new event in the annals of crime that have taken place in Nepal.”

KC fears that this approach of forming high level probe commissions might be applied to even minor issues in the future. And since this time-honored practice has repeatedly failed, he casts doubt on the prospects of this fresh commission diverging from its predecessors.

The latest agreement to create a new commission comes with the appointment of a sitting judge to lead the inquiry. The commission, formed under the legal purview of the Commissions of Inquiry Act of 1969, is slated to commence its operations on 22nd September.

Section 3 (3) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act provisions that the Judicial Council will recommend a sitting justice to lead the commission. Section 4 of the Act elaborates on the commission's functions, duties, and powers. 

As per the Act, the commission can be given more authority if required. According to Section 5 (a), if the commission has reasonable grounds to believe that any item or document pertinent to the investigation is in possession of a person or situated in a specific place, it can conduct searches, adhering to prevailing laws. The commission can authorize a gazetted officer to execute searches and, if located, seize relevant items or documents, or procure full or partial copies of such documents.

The commission also holds the prerogative to penalize non-compliance with its directives or extend clemency.  Notably, the commission's mandate pertains not only to gold smuggling through Kathmandu airport but also encompasses a separate case involving the illicit transportation of gold concealed within e-cigarettes. In the latter case, former Home Minister and Vice-chairman of CPN (Maoist Center), Krishna Bahadur Mahara, and his son Rahul have been implicated. It was revealed in the investigation carried out by the CIB of Nepal Police that the father-son duo had repeatedly held telephone conversations and met the Chinese national involved in gold smuggling.

The formation of this commission, operating under the imprimatur of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, vests it with considerable jurisdiction. Beyond influencing policy matters, the commission possesses authority to conduct rigorous investigations, encompassing inquiries, depositions, and searches relating to gold smuggling offenses. Earlier, the ruling parties, particularly the Maoist Center, was reluctant to form the inquiry commission, fearing its authority to summon even high-ranking officials, including the prime minister and ministers, for statements.

The Maoist-led coalition government had to acquiesce to the demand for a powerful commission to probe the gold smuggling case, after the opposition UML and primary coalition partner, Nepali Congress, pressed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. 

UML and Congress are not pleased with the arrest of their senior leaders and former ministers—Top Bahadur Rayamahi and Bal Krishna Khand respectively—in connection to another case. Now with one of the Maoist senior leaders implicated in the gold smuggling incident, UML and Congress want the prime minister to take strong action, even if that means arresting his own party leader.  

These developments have also engendered a palpable schism between the coalition partners Maoists and Congress. However, skeptics argue that the latest commission formed to investigate the gold smuggling incident will not bear any fruit. As history has borne witness, a litany of investigative commissions has been convened to scrutinize diverse incidents and irregularities, without any action.

These encompass tragic occurrences like the Dasdhunga accident and the Royal Palace massacre, as well as inquiries into procurement discrepancies, medical supply mismanagement, land allocation issues, and the procurement of wide-body aircraft. Despite the painstaking efforts of such commissions, the ultimate fate of their reports has invariably been obscurity.

However, retired police officer Hemanta Malla Thakuri contends that the prudent course would be to constitute high-level panels following the culmination of Nepal Police investigations. 

“While police investigations are primarily concerned with criminal dimensions, multifarious bureaucratic and political intricacies necessitate a broader investigative ambit,” he says.

In a democracy true to its name, the Parliament (the legislative), one of the three principal organs of the state, makes laws. Elected representatives voice concerns of the public in its hallowed chambers and make the other organ of the state, the executive, address them. Well-informed, engaging and enlightening discussions on every matter before it, including draft laws, make these chambers truly representative of the will of the people. Parliamentary debates in India and the United Kingdom, for example, show how the lawmakers hold their governments to account. 

The judiciary has a very important role to play in a democracy. As the final interpreter of the Constitution, it checks the constitutionality of laws and keeps a tab on the government and the parliament from a moral high ground. More often than not, our own judiciary has shown how to do it. If its precedents are not enough, there are enough lessons to learn from the immediate neighborhood and beyond on how to tame a regime seeking to trample on civil liberties.   

A constant judicial vigilance is necessary in a functioning democracy. This is also because the executive even seeks to bring the judiciary under its ambit through some sort of parliamentary control by violating judicial independence. The parliament often exhibits the tendency to do the bidding of a majority even at the expense of the larger interest of the public and the country it is supposed to serve, under pressure from the government of the day, in a blatant violation of the letter and the spirit of the charter.  Who knows this better than the Nepali people, mute spectators to spectacles where a ready majority raises its hands automatically in support when a whip-wielding executive seeks to enforce its will in an audacious breach of the principles of separation of powers as well as checks and balances?

In young democracies in particular, the parliament often becomes a special-purpose vehicle designed to serve the executive and other powerful vested interests instead of taking them to task. This becomes easy when the opposition and the ruling parties come together to serve vested interests. The people pay the price when the executive seeks to move ahead by ignoring the concerns of the opposition raised in the House and the latter obstructs it in its desperate bid to have its way.

Recently, the main opposition obstructed the Parliament for days on end calling for a high-level commission to investigate a recent case of a huge gold consignment concealed in brake shoes passing through a high-security Tribhuvan International Airport. Before that, the party had obstructed the Parliament over the Prime Minister’s remarks about a transporter’s ‘great efforts’ toward elevating him to the coveted position. The opposition has every right to ask difficult questions and seek answers from the government, but is the House obstruction an effective way to hold the government accountable?  

Notably, opposition parties other than the main opposition have accused the main opposition CPN-UML, Nepali Congress and the CPN (Maoist Center) of holding the parliament hostage to fulfill vested interests. Secretive talks between the leadership of the three major parties ‘magically’ ending House stalemates suggest some comfy arrangements. ApEx has repeatedly raised the issue of the troika turning the Parliament into a rubber-stamp of sorts through its extensive coverage, as part of efforts to make democracy deliver.

Indeed, the leadership of the three parties could have done so much for the people grappling with challenges like rising market prices, shrinking job opportunities, endemic corruption, instability and calamities that are becoming more and more disastrous due to development activities undertaken with scant regard for the carrying capacity of the terrains. Their disastrous performance in a difficult situation will not be lost on a people they claim to be serving, day in and day out.  Neither the government nor the main opposition nor any other force has the right to hold the legislative organ of the state hostage in its desperate bid to fulfill its overt or covert interests. 

Sadly, even the Speaker and the President, the guardian of the Constitution, have appeared helpless in the face of repeated deadlocks. Summing up, all entities that constitute the parliament should learn lessons from repeated obstructions and make every effort to ensure its smooth functioning. The sovereign body has some crucial legislations pending, including those related to transitional justice and money-laundering. It’s time the parliament moved ahead with a sense of urgency and made up for the lost time.

Amidst the rugged expanse of the Tsum Valley, where the ancient mountains embraced the sky, a journey of discovery and wonder unfolded. Our official program led us to this hidden sanctuary, a place where the land whispered secrets of serenity, and nature painted its most vivid hues. As we ventured into the heart of Tsum, the landscape revealed its treasures—a rich tapestry of wildlife and vegetation, each thread woven by time and nature’s hand. Among the enchanting array of creatures, the Snow leopard prowled with graceful majesty, its spotted coat a testament to survival against all odds. Musk deer and Himalayan Thar roamed freely, while the Blue sheep adorned the steep cliffs with their agile presence.

Overhead, the skies wore a canvas of avian brilliance, with over 110 species of birds weaving melodies through the air. Butterflies danced on the breeze, and hidden among the rocks were the secretive reptiles, their existence as ancient as the hills themselves. Yet, the valley’s wonders were not limited to its inhabitants alone. A symphony of plants flourished, a testament to nature’s artistry. With approximately 2000 species of plants, the landscape was alive with color and purpose. From the wise Yarchagumba that crowned the alpine meadows, its aphrodisiac allure a legend whispered among the winds, to the humble medicinal herbs like kutkee and Chiretta, the valley’s embrace was one of healing and growth.

Tsum’s rhythm of life resonated in cycles of agriculture and herding, a harmonious dance with nature’s heartbeat. Fields of wheat swayed in the breeze, an offering of sustenance nurtured by the hands of generations. Buckwheat and oilseeds followed in its footsteps, and the sun kissed the land, vegetables and fruits unfurled their vibrant colors, a promise of nourishment.

Yet, challenges lingered like shadows. Climate change, like a silent specter, tested the valley’s resilience. Delayed rainfall and prolonged droughts bore witness to a changing world, altering the pulse of life that has sustained this place for eons. As the snowline shifted and pests increased their presence, the people of Tsum found themselves adapting, searching for balance. Amidst the challenges, a spirit of preservation bloomed. The valley’s strength lay not only in its natural beauty but in the hearts of its people too. A community bound by Tibetan heritage, their dialect spoke of a lineage that has weathered time’s storms. Trails adorned with Chortens and Mani walls whispered of faith and devotion. And amidst it all, a determination to safeguard their culture, to protect the land that cradled them.

In this tale of resilience, a narrative of change and continuity intertwined, as the Tsum people faced each sunrise with courage. They collected Yarchagumba, not just as a source of income but as a thread that connected them to their roots. Ecotourism emerged as a beacon of hope, empowering the youth with skills to bridge traditions and modernity.

Through the lens of their journey, the Tsum valley illuminated the fragile balance between man and nature. Challenges, like clouds, will come and go, but the valley’s heart will beat on, echoing the spirit of adaptation, the melody of resilience, and the symphony of life living in harmony with the Earth.

The author is a graduated agriculturist from TU currently working at Forest Action Nepal as researcher