As lead authors of the IPBES Nexus Report - ‘Assessment Report on the Interlinkages Among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health,’ ICIMOD’s Sunita Chaudhary, Biodiversity lead and Abid Hussain, Economies Lead, share eight critical points for addressing interconnected challenges on biodiversity, water, food, health, and climate in the Hindu Kush Himalaya.
With its towering peaks, amazing landscapes, unique cultural heritage and religious significance, the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region is one of the must-see travel destinations in the world. Tourism is considered both as a revenue-yielding activity and a conservation programme – providing livelihoods and a channel for protecting and regenerating fragile mountain ecosystems.
Before COVID, some Regional Member Countries (RMCs) of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), such as Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan, hosted around 0.3 million, 1.2 million, and 1.8 million international tourists, respectively. Post COVID, international tourists’ arrival in India reached 18.89 million, while Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan saw around 145 thousand, 1.19 million, and 1 million, respectively. The higher tourism growth indicates a great recovery trend from COVID.
Challenges faced by the HKH tourism industry
This lively tourism industry is at the forefront of the changing climate. Increased temperature melts ice and snow at faster rates, resulting in floods inundating communities, while decreased rainfall and seasonal disruption are drying up springs and the groundwater table. The combined risks of too much and too little water are changing the ecosystems and the loss of intangible cultural assets. The very fabric of the HKH tourism industry is being either washed away in debris and mud, or the visitors, hosts, and natural aesthetics are being affected by the reduced water availability.
In countries such as Bhutan, Pakistan, and Nepal, communities are constantly facing disaster-induced life-threatening and economic risks, displacing them or abandoning the places/villages altogether. These countries saw an increase in outmigration from rural to more urban areas. Beyond threatening lives and livelihood security, this scenario also disrupts the labour workforce, not to mention the loss of community vitality in the rural regions of the HKH.
In the offing: climate-proofing tourism in the region
These challenges in the mountain tourism industry in the HKH warrant the introduction of innovative sustainable tourism development, particularly in areas of regenerative and climate-friendly tourism, highlighting policy, practice, and collaboration. As a response, ICIMOD initiated the climate-proofing mountain tourism landscape concept through a two-pronged approach – field school and policy development. These approaches are connecting communities to policy, where lessons and experiences from the field inform policy development.
The field school: bridging knowledge and practice
The field school raises awareness and explores different dimensions of ecological, social, and governance, intending to mainstream regenerative and climate-friendly practices. It enhances community involvement and empowerment in tourism development by improving their capacities (decision making and skills) to host mindful travellers, strengthening green tourism product and service linkages, and valuing and preserving the heritage (natural and cultural), while anchoring initiatives to address the impacts of climate change in the tourism industry.
This approach is integrated in the policy practice, where regulatory guidance, policy briefs, and learning resources (curriculum and training manuals) are co-developed to address challenges or provide the enabling environment for enacting or sustaining regenerative and climate-friendly tourism practices.
Field schools in Kagbeni and Dhakarjhong
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), together with the National Trust for Nature Conservation – Annapurna Conservation Area Project (NTNC-ACAP), Varagung Muktichhetra Rural Municipality, Nepal Tourism Board Gandaki, and other partners, initiated and pilot tested the field school in Kagbeni and Dhakarjhong villages of Lower Mustang’s Varagung Muktichhetra Rural Municipality from 24 to 29 June. The initiative engaged communities in identifying environmental, climate, social, and economic challenges, assessing their impacts on lives and livelihoods, and defining potential solutions. Using a mix of presentations, transect walks, focus group discussions, and workshops, the field school generated recommendations for safeguarding biophysical systems, promoting agro-tourism, strengthening local economies, and enhancing business operations to build resilience. This was followed by a policy writeshop in Pokhara, aimed at promoting the villages as open climate schools for regional learning exchange and informing policy decisions through integrated planning and action. The activity brought together over 30 participants representing diverse community segments, governments, researchers and academics, community members, media, and technical and non-governmental organisations, from Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan. This multi-level engagement enabled participants to learn, share insights on common challenges, and explore potential collaborations on climate-proofing the region’s tourism industry.
“Kagbeni and Dhakarjhong, part of Lower Mustang, offer oasis-like settlements in a sea of desert arid mountains dotted with unique natural features, historical and multiethnic communities. Lower Mustang is a gateway to the Upper Mustang and covers nearly half of the famous Annapurna Trekking Circuit and a pilgrimage route with Muktinath Temple as an auspicious place of worship for both Hindus and Buddhists. It is a bustling tourism site in a fragile mountain ecosystem at the mercy of a changing climate; this place is a perfect site for pilot-testing the two-pronged approach in climate-proofing the HKH tourism industry.”
Kagbeni is an established tourism destination in Lower Mustang. Located at the crossroad between two rivers – Kag Kola and Kali Gandaki, the confluence, where the two rivers meet, is an important site for Hindus offering Shraddha (a Hindu ritual for deceased ancestors) in honour of their dead parents. Centuries–old castle, hosting active community settlement, warrior camp, and monastery, dot the area, making it a living cultural and heritage site.
For the past 15 years, Kagbeni has registered decreasing snowfall, with the past three winters without snowfall. At the tip of these is the 13 August 2023 flood, which destroyed most infrastructures and remapped Kagbeni’s topography.
On the other hand, Dakharjhong is part of the trans-Himalayan region of Nepal, located at the edge of a cliff, 8.5 kilometres from Kagbeni. It lies close to the known trekking trails of Jomsom to Upper Dolpa. It is an old settlement of an Indigenous Tibetan-origin ethic group. It showcases skilfully compacted rammed earth and stone traditional houses, backdropped with a view of towering snow-capped Nilgiri mountain and hills. A budding tourism destination in the Lower Mustang, the community offers agro-ecotourism and cultural immersion experience with a great potential to develop, Nepal’s first climate resilient destination.
The community relied on snow-fed water sources and was new to frequent rainfalls. The community had not experienced snow for the last three years and is now receiving intense rainfall. Increasing frequency and intensity of rainfall have enhanced the risk of destroying and damaging the mud-packed roofing of traditional houses. Also, given the geophysical characteristics of the area – arid mountain with compacted loose soil, the village is prone to soil erosion and landslides.
An important exercise of the field school is the use of digital technology, especially the documentation of geographic information data, which is overlaid with the bio-physical, structural, agro-ecosystem and community vulnerabilities, and provision of key recommendations, for informed decision making by communities.
Policy development: laying the enabling environment
The policy writeshop in Pokhara, from 30 June to 3 July 2025, became more than just a technical gathering; it was a platform where communities from all three countries could reflect on the future of tourism in their mountain regions and chart practical ways forward, in the form of a policy document and curriculum/training manuals. Drawing on the lessons of the Mustang field school, participants sat together to rethink what enabling policy really means when communities, ecosystems, and economies are all at stake.
For Nepal, the conversation was rooted in the urgency of revising and reforming existing policy. The team called for streamlining coordination between federal, provincial, and local levels through a ‘One-Door System’ to cut bureaucratic delays, while also investing in stronger tourism data systems to inform decision-making. At the heart of their vision was developing local policy that enables the strengthening and scaling up of community-based regenerative and climate-friendly tourism initiatives that empower women, youth, and marginalised groups, supported by multi-level and multi-stakeholder collaboration in fragile destinations.
Pakistan, meanwhile, placed climate resilience at the centre of its agenda. The devastating floods of recent years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan underscored how vulnerable tourism infrastructure is to climate shocks. The country’s recommendations focused on embedding disaster preparedness into tourism planning, from enforcing climate-smart building codes to installing early warning systems in high-risk areas. Pakistan also emphasised the need for inclusive tourism councils where women, youth, and indigenous communities have a seat at the table. Unlocking climate finance and engaging the private sector through green certification and partnerships were seen as vital steps to build a more resilient tourism economy.
Bhutan’s reflections, in contrast, centred on bridging the gap between its globally admired ‘High Value, Low Volume’ model and the realities on the ground. Despite ambitious visions of regenerative tourism, the country still struggles with skills mismatches, weak eco-certification standards, and persistent waste management issues. The recommendations from Bhutan, therefore, leaned toward strengthening professional training, introducing a robust national eco-certification system, and embedding digital monitoring tools to track visitor flows and ecosystem health. Equally important was the call for stronger multi-stakeholder governance, where government agencies, civil society, and private operators share responsibility for managing trails, services, and waste.
Although each country’s priorities reflected its own context, the writeshop created a sense of shared regional momentum. Participants recognised that the HKH’s landscape, its cultural circuits, and its ecological vulnerabilities are deeply interconnected. From cross-border tourism initiatives like the Buddhist Trail to shared learning on training curricula and community-driven tourism, the writeshop made it clear that building an enabling policy environment is not just a national task; it is a regional responsibility. Together, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan are laying the foundations for a tourism sector that regenerates ecosystems, empowers mountain communities, and secures a climate-resilient future for the region.
A critical mass for regional work in climate-proofing the HKH tourism industry
The three RMCs galvanised important bilateral and regional collaborations from the field schools and policy writeshop exercises, which include:
- Bilaterals: Nepal and Pakistan agreed to an academic exchange programme focused on tourism industry policy and governance, with allocated funding from Nepal’s Tourism Board. This collaboration will co-develop an academic and student exchange program. A proposal is also in the pipeline for submission to the Pakistan Ambassador in Nepal for review and potential endorsement for both countries to co-implement.
- Regional: Shared challenges and opportunities among the three RMCs were captured and could catalyse a broader collaboration, with an initial pitching of organising an informal regional network of mountain tourism stakeholders. The three RMCs’ representatives expressed interest in collaborating along this line.
In October, ICIMOD as regional knowledge hub, convenor and facilitator, will again host regional event for communities to discuss the key next steps on the agreed collaborations between countries, substantiate on the proposed regional network of mountain tourism stakeholders and cascade pilot testing of the existing recommendations on how to develop context-specific guiding manuals in the region.