The devastating 2015 earthquakes in Nepal highlighted the need for effective disaster risk reduction (DRR) in mountains, which are inherently subject to hazards and increasingly vulnerable to extreme events. As multiple UN policy frameworks stress, DRR is crucial to mitigate the mounting environmental and socioeconomic costs of disasters globally. However, specialized DRR guidelines are needed for biodiverse, multi-hazard regions like mountains. Ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) emphasizes ecosystem conservation, restoration, and sustainable management as key elements for DRR. We propose that integrating the emerging field of Eco-DRR with community-based DRR (CB-DRR) will help address the increasing vulnerabilities of mountain people and ecosystems. Drawing on a global mountain synthesis, we present paradoxes that create challenges for DRR in mountains and examine these paradoxes through examples from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes. We propose four principles for integrated CB- and Eco-DRR that address these challenges: (1) governance and institutional arrangements that fit local needs; (2) empowerment and capacity-building to strengthen community resilience; (3) discovery and sharing of constructive practices that combine local and scientific knowledge; and (4) approaches focused on well-being and equity. We illustrate the reinforcing relationship between integrated CB- and Eco-DRR principles with examples from other mountain systems worldwide. Coordinated community and ecosystem-based actions offer a potential path to achieve DRR, climate adaptation, sustainable development, and biodiversity conservation for vulnerable ecosystems and communities worldwide.
1.Colorado State Univ, Campus Delivery 1476, Ft Collins, CO 80523 USA 2.Univ Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA 3.Univ Nevada, Reno, NV 89557 USA 4.Boise State Univ, Boise, ID 83725 USA 5.Univ Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 USA 6.Mt Inst, Himalayan Program, Kathmandu, Nepal 7.UN Food & Agr Org, Rome, Italy 8.Int Ctr Integrated Mt Dev, Kathmandu, Nepal 9.Natl Autonomous Univ Mexico UNAM, Inst Geog, Mexico City, DF, Mexico 10.CNRS, Grenoble, France 11.UFZ Helmholtz Ctr Environm Res, D-04318 Leipzig, Germany 12.ETH, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland 13.Univ Valle Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala 14.Univ N Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 USA 15.Beijing Normal Univ, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China 16.Univ Bern, Inst Geog, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland 17.SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794 USA
Recommended Citation:
Klein, Julia A.,Tucker, Catherine M.,Steger, Cara E.,et al. An integrated community and ecosystem-based approach to disaster risk reduction in mountain systems[J]. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY,2019-01-01,94:143-152