The catastrophic flood along the Nepal-China border that killed more than 1,400 people and left nearly 6,000 people missing devastated communities and infrastructure, and renewed questions about how Himalayan countries prepare for environmental hazards that can unfold rapidly and cross-national borders.

For University of Michigan researcher Rajiv Ghimire, those questions connect to a challenge he has studied in Nepal for years: Climate adaptation may be shaped by national policies and scientific expertise, but ultimately it has to work in the places where people experience environmental change in their everyday lives.

Ghimire, a lecturer at U-M’s School for Environment and Sustainability, and Arizona State University’s Netra Chhetri examined Nepal’s Local Adaptation Plans of Action, or LAPA, to understand how local knowledge can be incorporated into formal climate adaptation, and what happens when communities are given a role in deciding how to respond.

Their study, published in Ecology and Society, suggests that some of the most useful starting points for climate adaptation may already exist within communities. But turning that knowledge into effective policy requires money, institutional support and attention to who gets to participate in local decision-making. This work is also a part of a special feature in progress on Everyday Adaptations to Climate Change, which has a collection of 15 articles that Ghimire contributed as a guest editor.

Study: Challenges and prospects of Local Adaptation Plans of Action (LAPA) initiative in Nepal as everyday adaptation (DOI: 10.5751/ES-13630-270428)

Read the full press release on the Michigan News website.