Himalayan Biodiversity In The Changing World

Himalayan Biodiversity in the Changing World Pavel Kindlmann Editor Himalayan Biodiversity in the Changing World Editor Pavel Kindlmann CzechGlobe – Global Change Research Centre AS CR Biodiversity Research Centre Na sádkách 7 370 05 Éeské BudØjovice Czech Republic [email protected] ISBN 978-94-007-1801-2 e-ISBN 978-94-007-1802-9 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1802-9 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011937972 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface The Himalayan region has a unique assemblage of flora and fauna. Most of this mountainous region lies in Nepal – a country of great natural beauty and a rich cultural heritage. Nepal has always been a source of great attraction for its beautiful mountains, landscapes, lakes, waterfalls, hillsides and green villages serrated in the form of an endless series of terraces. Although this small country covers only 0.1% of the world’s land area, it hosts 8.92% of bird species, 3.96% of mammal species, 3.72% of butterfly species, 1.87% of fish species and 2.2% of flowering plant species of the world. Many of these are endangered, critically endangered, or even close to extinction due to human impact, including habitat fragmentation and destruction, fuel wood consumption, poaching, livestock grazing etc. Information about the real status of this vast amount of wildlife is, however, very poor, mainly because of the lack of empirical data. Most of the protected areas of Nepal are not easily accessible, and therefore researchers can visit only few of them. Many of the scarce existing data are hidden in local PhD and Master theses, in reports made for various governmental or nongovernmental conservation organizations, or in local journals not covered by the Web of Science (e.g., Trop. Ecol., J. of Bombay Nat. Hist. and others) and are therefore not easily available to the scientific world. Here we aim to fill – at least partially – this gap. We present some results on selected taxa in the Himalayan region (mainly Nepal), pinpoint the threats to their survival and suggest ways how to avoid their extinction. Some chapters are based on graduate research projects – relatively long-term field studies – that were completed with the support of the Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu,