Over the past years, we have witnessed progress across the world when it comes to recognising and responding to the shared threats of climate change. From the Paris Agreement to various national and regional green new deals, countries have prioritised climate action in their political agendas and developmental programmes. These plans and targets can be scrutinised and criticised for their potential to deliver substantive climate action, but the discourse and public consciousness are undoubtedly headed in the right direction. However, the COVID-19 pandemic – with its deep and cascading impacts rippling across the global economy – could upend such progress as countries seek to recover by any means possible.

For Nepal, the pandemic comes on the back of the devastating 2015 earthquakes. Environmental policies have taken a backseat to growth targets in the country’s road to recovery. The post-earthquake “build back better” mantra has focused on infrastructure rebuilding and cash transfers, overlooking existing inequalities, ineffective public sector services, ailing economic sectors, and climate change impacts, all of which leave us vulnerable to an array of disasters and setbacks. Worryingly, the same growth-oriented recovery seems to be on the cards for dealing with the disruptions caused by the pandemic. We need to shift tracks to address longstanding issues with our economy and approach to development. And as climate change remains at the heart of our problems, now and into the future, any path to recovery needs to be a green one.

Impacts on people and nature

The 2015 earthquakes were a major shock for Nepal, but the country’s history is replete with climate-induced disasters. Nepal is ranked among the top five for climate-change related hazards and is the 20^th most multi-hazard prone country. As glaciers melt, temperatures rise, and ecosystems degrade, the frequency and magnitude of climate-induced disasters increase, impacting the environment, economy, and society. The 2017 floods, for instance, caused the deaths of 160 people, affected around 1.7 million, and led to an estimated Rs 7.2 billion in losses in the agriculture sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded this constant stress on the economy and ecology. Agriculture, tourism, and remittances – the major sources of economic growth accounting for 24 percent (2019), 8 percent (2018), and 26 percent (2019) of the country’s GDP, respectively – have been hit the hardest. Farming, especially commercial and semi-commercial farming, also took a big hit due to transportation restrictions and marketing issues. As of August 2020, about 23 percent of households were found to be food insecure, and about 9 percent of households had lost their livelihoods. An estimated 800,000 people working in the tourism industry have been impacted, while remittances dropped sharply by 12 percent in 2020. As such, economic growth is projected to decline by 2.3 percent compared with the previous fiscal year, and around 31.2 percent of the population is at risk of falling into extreme poverty. To make matters worse, floods and landslides during the 2020 monsoon took 348 lives and impacted 23,478 households across the country.

The lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Nepal has also exerted pressures on the environment. Human intrusion into protected areas has increased significantly since the start of the lockdown in March 2020. There have been increased incidences of animal poaching inside and outside of protected areas, possibly linked to financial insecurity during the pandemic. The illegal logging and harvesting of natural resources has been alarmingly increasing. The impacts on both nature and people have increased inequities and further marginalised already-vulnerable communities.

A green recovery

The country has responded to the COVID-19 crisis through fiscal and monetary measures focusing on immediate health and safety measures, food distribution to reduce livelihood impacts, and economic support to severely affected firms. However, these measures are temporary fixes and do not aid long-term recovery. Moreover, they do not address underlying climate- and environment-related issues and associated disasters and vulnerabilities. The environment must be central to the post-COVID recovery plan. A green recovery is the need and opportunity of the hour in Nepal.

A green recovery plan should integrate nature, climate, and development to ensure sustainable growth. A recovery plan that pushes nature-based solutions will not only help immediate recovery but also strengthen key sectors – such as organic agriculture, nature-based tourism, niche mountain products, green entrepreneurship, renewable energy, and ecosystem-based adaptation. This will help build resilience to climate change-related risks and disasters.

A green recovery would entail a holistic, inclusive, environment-friendly approach encompassing key sectors. We need concerted policy attention on organic agriculture and smallholder farming in Nepal. Smallholder farming needs to be supported and its products diversified by supplying subsidised agricultural inputs, ensuring greater access to markets and finance, and guaranteeing insurance for climate shocks and other disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic. It is particularly interesting that family farms proved to be more resilient than commercial farming systems during the 2015 earthquake and the pandemic. Such farms also ensure the use of abandoned land, youth engagement (particularly migrant returnees), and the promotion and conservation of indigenous seeds and local food systems. For example, ‘jholmal’ – a bio-pesticide and nutrient supplement – contributes to improving plant health and productivity, and also promotes the use of traditional knowledge and practices in maintaining soil and plant health.

We can also promote nature-based tourism at the community level through avenues such as homestays and bird ecotourism at the transboundary scale – supporting livelihoods while conserving nature. We can also restore and conserve ecosystems by investing in protected area management and building on our success in community forestry. This could halt illegal harvesting and poaching and build resilience by creating green jobs and generating income at the community scale. Similarly, we can promote green enterprises and their niche mountain products, from high-value non-timber forest products to medical and aromatic plants and other agro-commodities such as tea and large cardamom. These enterprises need policy support – capacity building, improving market linkages, and introducing digital services – to ensure sustainable and equitable socioeconomic and ecological benefits.

Likewise, subsidies to renewable energy, especially in transportation and cooking, would decrease the country’s dependency on fossil-fuels and fuelwood. We can revise the increased tax on electric vehicles and invest in related infrastructure and services to promote cleaner transportation, such as the construction of charging stations. We can also invest in green and blue infrastructure and proper waste management systems, especially in urban areas. Investment in blue infrastructure at different scales would help address the water scarcity that plagues the country. For example, restoring and conserving natural springs can help rural households become resilient and open up different livelihood possibilities. Likewise, an enabling policy environment is needed for green infrastructure such as parks and urban forests. This would increase green spaces and clean air and increase infiltration and water-holding capacity of urban areas.

Ecosystem-based adaptation could also be promoted to increase flood and landslides resilience in both rural and urban areas. Nature-based solutions such as bio-engineering measures and springshed restoration and management should be promoted. We could help communities at risk of annual flooding by widening the implementation of the Community-Based Flood Early Warning System (CBFEWS) and strengthening communication networks between upstream communities and downstream receivers of flood early warning information.

In this green path to recovery, it is of utmost importance to ensure the meaningful participation of youth, women, and marginalised groups for sustainable growth and equitable outcomes. A fair and inclusive green recovery would not only help conserve important ecosystems and biodiversity, securing Nepal’s future, but also make communities – urban and rural – more resilient to challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the author

Dr. Sunita Chaudhary has been working as Ecosystem Services Specialist at The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)