Himalayan Climate Change and Ethnobotany

The Himalayas are experiencing the most drastic global climate change outside of the poles with temperature increases of 5-6^oC, 20-30% increase in rainfall, and melting of permanent snows and glaciers. These affect peoples’ health, agriculture, and livelihoods in a many ways including diseases, pests, crops, water, and annual cycles. These also affect peoples’ cultures and cosmologies. We have established a trans-Himalayan Ethnobotany project in Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Nepal to document the effects of climate change on alpine plants and peoples’ use of them. Data show that alpine plants, including a majority of medicinal plants important to Tibetan and other traditional medical traditions, respond to climate change depending on elevation, precipitation, and biogeography and that people perceive, adapt to and mitigate climate change in creative ways from which the world can learn. We are now collecting repeat data after 7 years in Tibet. These data are contributing to international efforts to address climate change by including indigenous perspectives in policy formation (UNFCCC, CBD, UNESCO, and FAO).