Air pollution is a major environmental and public health concern in the HKH region. Increasing urbanisation, industrial activities, transportation growth, and biomass burning, along with other sources of pollution, contribute to rising concentrations of air pollutants such as PM2.5, ozone, and black carbon, which adversely affect human health, agricultural productivity, and climate.

HI-REAP focuses on improving the analysis and use of air quality and emissions data in national governments and policies by:

• Supporting the development and implementation of the robust, actionable, and evidence-based National Clean Air Strategies well aligned to the regional issues to normalise regional disparities in clean air actions in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and Himalayan Foothills (IGP-HF) member countries
• Promoting science-policy and finance dialogues for south-south knowledge exchange and enhanced collaboration for air quality management in the IGP-HF and the HKH region
• Working towards the development of a voluntary platform for regional cooperation in the IGP-HF region
• Promoting regional harmonised approaches and standards for air quality
• Co-developing and managing air quality and emissions dashboards and air quality management tools, and conducting action research to identify potential mitigation measures
• Working towards the development of a decision support system for the IGP-HF region to foster evidence-based policy planning and implementation
• Implementing capacity development activities (data analysis, handling air quality equipment, implementing action plans) for better air quality management

Rangeland management: In Bhutan and Nepal, we are restoring degraded rangelands to deliver multiple benefits, including supporting pastoral livelihoods, enhancing ecosystem health, and maintaining rangeland biodiversity. We generate evidence through experimental trials, use participatory planning, and build the capacity of government institutions, pastoralists, and other key stakeholders. This work informs inclusive rangeland management policies that balance ecological restoration of rangelands with the livelihoods of herders' community.

Climate Resilient Agriculture: We are promoting agroecology-driven climate resilient agriculture to address the growing climate vulnerabilities that threaten mountain agriculture and food security. This approach is sustainable, locally adapted, and inclusive. We work to strengthen the capacity of local institutions, government agencies, and stakeholders to scale these resilient practices. We have Community Learning Centres (CLCs) that serve as learning hubs, informing local farmers about low-cost, environmentally friendly farm technologies.

Bioeconomy: We also identify bioeconomy as a Nature-based Solution (NbS) to foster sustainable development and resilience in mountain communities. We support nature-based enterprises from Nepal and Bhutan through capacity building of young entrepreneurs to innovate green business. In Bhutan, bioeconomy is promoted through access and benefit-sharing policies to promote inclusive and equitable economic benefits.

Across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), freshwater springs are a lifeline for thousands of rural and urban communities. They provide critical water supplies, sustain river base flows, support biodiversity, and hold important cultural and spiritual significance. However, many springs that once flowed reliably are now drying up or showing a decline. This creates serious challenges, particularly for women who are primarily responsible for water collection and raises concerns over water quality due to contamination.

In response, we are scaling up springshed management as an NbS to ensure sustainable water security, maintain ecological balance, and enhance climate resilience.

Our key activities include:

• Building capacity of local government agencies, thinktanks, and other key stakeholders in gender equality and social inclusion (GESI)-responsive springshed management.
• Evidence-based piloting and testing GESI-responsive revival of springs for water security and climate and biodiversity co-benefits.
• Scaling of GESI-responsive springshed management across the HKH through supporting enabling policies, government flagship programs and plans to integrate springshed management approaches, and generating quality evidence.

The HKH region is highly vulnerable to climate-induced disasters like floods, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), drought, landslides, and avalanches, with an increasing tendency for a hazard to trigger cascading events.

In this context, NbS offer a cost-effective, inclusive, and ecologically sustainable approach to disaster risk reduction (DRR), drawing on the power of natural ecosystems to mitigate hazards, improve water management, enhance biodiversity, support livelihoods, and enhance disaster resilience.

Our work implements nature-based disaster risk reduction through a holistic approach. We focus on breaking down barriers to inclusion for all community groups and fostering broader societal well-being, going beyond just tackling immediate hydrometeorological disasters.

Mountain communities face considerable challenges, including increasing climate vulnerability, biodiversity loss, and economic migration. Identifying new flows of climate and development finance is essential to help them meet these urgent adaptation needs.

Our work focuses on bridging the gap between science and investment. We help mobilise local innovation and entrepreneurship through initiatives such as the Hindu Kush Himalaya Innovation Challenge for Entrepreneurs in partnership with the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), driving scalable solutions that address ecological, market, and value chain challenges across the region, and connect these solutions and business cases to concrete investment pathways for scaling. We support the mobilisation of climate finance for the adaptation needs of our Regional Member Countries (RMCs) through capacity building, technical support, and proposal development support for global climate funds. Through our HKH Investment Working Group for Resilient Mountains, we support that critical resources are channelled to where they are needed most, in partnership with development partners and climate finance players.

The Himalayan Resilience Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP), an ICIMOD project, aims to build a more cohesive and enabling environment for greener, more inclusive, and climate-resilient development pathways across the region. We achieve this by creating strong policy recommendations and fostering the institutional and investment conditions necessary to scale new solutions.

We focus on fostering regional cooperation and collaboration for policy influence and investment towards scaling NbS and air pollution solutions. This is expected to lead to wider adoption of NbS, a strong knowledge repository of HKH-specific NbS and the demonstration of GESI-responsive NbS interventions in three priority sectors: water, air, and disaster risk reduction.

We also work with RMCs to advance the mountain agenda on thematic areas like the Global Goal on Adaptation and Loss and Damage and contribute to the objectives of global conferences such as the UN Climate Change Conference and UN Biodiversity Conference (COPs). Our support to RMCs on taking forward the COP agenda, enhancing their capacity to tackle climate issues, and accessing the fund for responding to Loss and Damage.

Additionally, we coordinate various scientific assessments to address specific gaps identified by countries. Based on the findings, we organise science-policy-finance dialogues – key to strengthening the science-policy and practice interface. The resulting recommendations and action points from the dialogues are relayed to government counterparts to inform policy actions and amendments. We engage key policy stakeholders, like the ministries and the parliamentarians, to validate and support these actions from multiple approaches.