Aspects related to climate change and other drivers of change in the Salween and Mekong basins and in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of the Upper Brahmaputra River Basin are being researched under the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP). The work is a joint effort by Chinese partners and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Four years into its five-year implementation period, focus within HICAP is changing toward synthesising the programme’s outputs. Partner institutes in China — Asia International Rivers Center (AIRC)/Yunnan University; Chengdu Institute of Biology (CIB); Ecological Environment Protection Research Center, Yunnan Institute of Environmental Science;Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), including Centre for Mountain Ecosystem Studies (CMES); Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR); Social Development Institute,Sichuan University and  Women and Development Research Centre (WAD), Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences (YASS) – are leading the synthesis process for deliverables under HICAP in China, and have already developed a number of articles stemming from HICAP research in Chinese.

The HICAP China Synthesis Writeshop held at the Asian International Rivers Center (AIRC) of Yunnan University in Kunming China, 15–16 August 2016 brought together twenty-one authors and researchers from ICIMOD and partner institutes in China, and two editors from the Advances in Climate Change Research, the official journal of the Beijing Climate Center. The workshop served as a positive direction towards consolidating knowledge generated from the different components of the programme in a cross-cutting manner.

The writeshop, organised by ICIMOD and Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), provided HICAP partners a platform, to foster a rich discourse, aimed at promoting the publication process by discussing outlines, drafts, and exchanging information and views between authors and editors.

Through dedicated workshop sessions, editors from the Advances in Climate Change Research, shared requirements and procedures for publishing a special column in the journal.

Over the two-day period, participants finalised outlines of eleven different articles geared toward four thematic chapters in the special column, decided on chapter leads and contributors and agreed upon a timeline on deliverables.

A special column of articles on HICAP work in China is planned for release by the end of 2016 and will add to the climate change discourse in China. Knowledge products generated from the process serve as a basis for policy engagement and awareness-raising and are the foundation for future research by partner institutes in China.

Share