Eco Everest Expedition 2008 launches from Everest Base Camp

PRESS RELEASE

Expedition draws attention to climate change threats
and unveils world’s highest photo exhibition

Eco Everest Expedition 2008 launches from Everest Base Camp

Climate change is affecting people around the globe,
and this is especially evident at the top of the world,
around Mount Everest and other great peaks of the
Himalayas. Glaciers are shrinking leaving behind glacial
lakes with massive amounts of water threatening people
and land downstream. The loss of ice and snow heralds
water problems for the 1.45 billion people living in the
great water basins of the Himalayan rivers. This is the
message given by the 11 member climbing team of the Eco
Everest Expedition 2008 when they met at Everest Base
Camp on 18th April to mark the start of their climb with
a traditional Buddhist religious ceremony, called puja.
Dr Schild, Director General of ICIMOD, handed over the
ICIMOD Silver Jubilee flag to Dawa Steven Sherpa, the
leader of the climbing team, to take to the top of the
world. A premier of a photo exhibition, 50 Years of Change
– Glaciers, Landscapes, People and Resilience in the Mount
Everest Region, Nepal is taking place at Base Camp at the
same time. The exhibition includes a unique collection of
repeat panoramas of mountains, valleys and glaciers taken
in the 1950s, and retaken in the past few years. These
photographs demonstrate the changes in the climatic,
cultural and physical landscape of the Khumbu over the
past half century. The exhibition will be unveiled at
Everest Base Camp and will then tour several European
countries.

The Eco Everest expedition is the brainchild of Dawa
Steven Sherpa of Asian Trekking, shocked by his own
experience of ice collapse in the Khumbu ice fall,
and the realisation of the impacts of climate change.
Dawa Steven and Asian Trekking have joined with the
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
– ICIMOD – and the United Nations Environment Programme –
UNEP – in a plan to use the climb to draw the world’s
attention to the problems resulting from climate change
and the need to help the people of the region, and the
world. ICIMOD has been working for 25 years for the
mountains and people of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas, 2008
marks its ‘Silver Jubilee’. The Expedition is one of a
number of events being held to celebrate this milestone.
The expedition will also field test an ecofriendly
approach to climbing, including a ten-point plan that
could be used as a basis for international certification
for environmentally friendly climbing expeditions. The
expedition plans to bring down garbage left by other
groups, and will encourage others to do the same. The
climbing team is being supported by the renowned Japanese
conservationist Ken Noguchi, who is expected to visit the
Everest Base Camp. The expedition is endorsed by world
renowned mountaineers including Reinhold Messner, Conrad
Anker, and Peter Habelar, and is also supported by the
Nepal Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Tourism
Board, and Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Conservation and numerous local, regional, and international
organisations.

Parallel to the climbing expedition, scientific research
is being carried out to monitor glaciers and glacial lakes
in the region and gather information to help communities
and develop early warning systems. A six-member research
team led by Basanta Shrestha of ICIMOD is already in
Khumbu to start the work. A pilot early warning system
will be implemented for Imja lake, one of the fastest
growing lakes in the region, in collaboration with the
Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation
and Keio University of Japan. The scientists have already
carried out investigations to assess the status of Dig
Tsho glacial lake, which had a devastating impact when
it burst in 1985.

A Trust Fund has been set up to support development of
early warning systems, scientific investigations to help
assess risks, monitoring of the melting glaciers, and
removal and disposal of waste in eco friendly ways. Every
climber on the expedition has contributed to the fund and
contributions are now being solicited from interested
individuals and organisations.

ICIMOD’s new strategy focuses on understanding the impacts
of climate change, and finding ways to strengthen people’s
resilience and support adaptation. Says Dr. Andreas Schild,
Director General of ICIMOD: “The changes taking place
currently are alarming, and the time to act is now.” While
climate change is mostly caused by the highly industrialised
parts of the world, the effects are already taking their toll
in the sensitive mountain areas. Climate change needs global
measures of mitigation, regionally focused measures of
adaptation, and targeted measures to strengthen the resilience
of the mountain people. “We want to build up a system of
early warning of risks from glacial lake outbursts. We want
to discuss and prepare measures to strengthen the resilience
and adaptation of people to climate change. This means
livelihoods, conservation of biodiversity, and maintenance
of the landscape as a global heritage. Conservation and
management of water has the highest priority,” concludes
Dr Schild.


For more information, please contact:

Ms Nira Gurung
Communications Officer
ICIMOD, Khumaltar, Lalitpur
Tel: + (977 1) 5003222;
E-mail: ngurung@icimod.org

Mr. Bobby Chettri
Director
Product Development and Marketing
Asian Trekking
Kathmandu
Tel: 4424249, 4426947,
Email: bobby.chettri@gmail.com

• ICIMOD works to support the adaptation and resilience
of mountain people to climate change
• ICIMOD promotes transboundary and international cooperation
for coping with change
• ICIMOD contributes to global awareness of the essential
role that the fragile mountain ecosystems play in the
development of the whole region, and to strengthening
of the global commitment to mitigation
• ICIMOD promotes international solidarity and cooperation –
essential for bridging the knowledge gap in the Hindu
Kush-Himalayan region and providing the sound information
needed to orient strategic decisions for the future

Notes to Editor:

ICIMOD

ICIMOD is a centre where information and knowledge are
exchanged and where innovation, technology transfer, and
effective communications are used to empower stakeholders
in the member countries. Within this mission, ICIMOD wants
to be an open-house of knowledge sharing for initiatives
both from the region and from the world; it is a regional
platform, where policymakers, experts, planners, and
practitioners can meet and exchange ideas and perspectives.
ICIMOD wants to facilitate knowledge transfer across the
region and from providers to users. ICIMOD sees knowledge
-sharing initiatives as a source of inspiration, innovation,
and questioning, and as an opportunity to customise
international knowledge to tailor it to the needs of the
region and to help in the design of future strategies.

ICIMOD focuses particularly on the adaptation of the HKH
region and its mountain population to the changes brought
about by globalisation – in the form of growth, migration
and accelerated communication – and climate change, for
example changing biodiversity, changing precipitation
patterns and higher frequency and intensity of natural
hazards. The holistic approach favours interdisciplinary
problem analysis, design, implementation, and monitoring
of social as well as technical aspects; which includes
the crosscutting criteria of policy, governance, equity,
and gender and mainstreaming information and knowledge
management principles.

The ICIMOD Strategic Framework has identified three
\Strategic Programmes - Integrated Water and Hazards
Management (IWHM), Environmental Change and Ecosystems
Services (ECES), Sustainable Livelihoods and Poverty
Reduction (SLPR) which are interdependent and interlinked.
These three thrusts are supported by information and
knowledge management facilitating knowledge transfer
across the region and from providers to users.

Asian Trekking (P) Limited

Asian Trekking is the one of the largest and most
established and reputed inbound operators in the
Himalayan region. Operating in its 25th year, Asian
Trekking organises Treks and Mountaineering Expeditions
in all regions and nations of the Himalayas. Specialising
in outfitting Treks and expeditions, Asian Trekking is
recognised for its pioneering and innovative work. Today,
Asian Trekking is as dedicated to providing quality
service with a passion as it was 25 years ago.

Asian Trekking has organized over 300 expeditions to the
high mountains of Nepal and innumerable treks and tours
in the entire South Asian region. Currently Asian Trekking’s
activities are prominent in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim,
Ladakh and India.

Our efforts have been recognised by the China-Tibet
Mountaineering Association for whom Asian Trekking
is the official GSA (General Sales Agent) in Nepal.
Asian Trekking is also actively involved in developing
rural communities through tourism and environmentally
friend practices such as using hydro and solar power.

Ang Tsering Sherpa, the founder and chairman of Asian
Trekking is also the president elect of the Nepal
Mountaineering Association (NMA), and the Union of
Asian Alpinist Association (UAAA). He also serves as
the honorary vice president of the International
Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) and is the
Honorary Council of Belgium to Nepal.


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Ms. Nira Gurung
Communications Officer
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Khumaltar, Lalitpur
GPO Box 3226, Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: 977-1-5003222, Ext. 115
Fax: 977-1-5003277
Email: ngurung@icimod.org, info@icimod.org
www.icimod.org