The International Workshop on Koshi River Basin Transboundary Project was held in Sichuan province of China from Aug. 24 to 27, 2010.

International Workshop on Koshi River Basin Transboundary Project

The workshop was held by the Chinese Committee on International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development（ICIMOD）and the project group on “Geo-Surface Processes and Regional Adaptation to Climate Change in Himalaya Region”. It attracted over 30 experts from home and abroad. Prof. DENG Wei, director of Chengdu Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment （IMHE）, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. OUYANG Hua, programme manager of Integrated Water and Hazard Management of ICIMOD delivered speeches respectively at the opening ceremony.

During the workshop, the experts had an in-depth discussion on relations between floods and climate change, glacier and glacial lake change, land use and land cover change, biodiversity and its relations with climate change, and regional socio-economic development in Koshi basin.

Dr. Garrett Kilroy, the transboundary project’s coordinator from ICIMOD, commented on the research in Koshi basin and outlined the Britain-sponsored program of Ecosystems Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA).

After two transboundary investigations and three workshops, the experts have obtained preliminary knowledge and statistics for the ecosystems in Koshi basin. More collaboration is expected to promote collaborative research in that area.