Himalayan Asia Research Articles

Water security in Himalayan Asia: first stirrings of regional cooperation?

The challenges of freshwater cooperation and the links between the global policy agenda and national water management are more obvious and easier to spell out at a regional level than in the global arena. By analysing how the existing regional regime within Himalayan Asia contributes to the development of international water law, this paper identifies gaps in our current understanding of regional approaches in international law and outlines pathways for addressing them.

The Rising Role of Regional Approaches in International Water Law: Lessons from the UNECE Water Regime and Himalayan Asia for Strengthening Transboundary Water Cooperation

The contribution of regional approaches to the international law of transboundary watercourses is currently being investigated with elevated interest. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) area and Himalayan Asia are two key focus regions for testing new legal approaches and enhancing understanding of how existing regional regimes function and contribute to the development of international water law. The UNECE Water Convention, together with an entourage of hard and soft water instruments, appears to be the most sophisticated legal regime addressing freshwater cooperation. Within Himalayan Asia, where the water crisis is augmenting the already tense political situation, the current state of affairs for implementing a more progressive regional approach is examined. Studying the structurally different and challenging Himalayan context furthers our understanding of hurdles regarding the transferability of regional concepts. This article identifies gaps in our current perception of the role for regional approaches in international water law and outlines pathways for addressing them.

Briefing: Ice, snow and water – impacts of climate change on California and Himalayan Asia

This briefing outlines the issues discussed at an international workshop held in San Diego in May 2009, which focused on the impact on water resources of declining mountain snows and glacier retreat in Himalayan Asia and western USA. The workshop concluded that, because adaptation strategies are locally conditioned, new regional climate assessments are required that link global climate models to local decision making.

Revision of the Genus Rozea (Musci)

Rozea is a small genus of pleurocarpous mosses which occurs in the highlands of Mexico, Central America, northern South America and Himalayan Asia. The species are, at best, ill-defined, and the genus has been overclassified. We recognize R. chrysea Besch. (syn. R. stricta Besch.), R. chrysea fo. andrieuxii (C. Muell.) stat nov., R. chrysea var. bourgaeana (Besch.) stat. nov. (syn. R. schimperi Besch. and R. viridis Besch.) and R. subjulacea Besch. in the Americas. The Asiatic species are R. pterogonioides (Harv.) Jaeg. (syn. R. myura Herz.), R. microcarpa Broth., R. microcarpa fo. elongata fo. nov. and R. kenoyeri n. sp. (from Uttar Pradesh, India). Rozea diversifolia Broth. appears to be a Homalothecium. Rozea roseorum Williams is a Juratzkaea species. Micrographs of peristomes provide evidence that Rozea may have some relation- ship to the hypnoid group of families rather than to the Entodontaceae. Rozea is a small moss genus which occurs disjunctively in the highlands of tropical America, from Mexico to northern South America, and in Himalayan Asia. The species are difficult to define, especially in sterile condition, but the genus is easily recognizable. The plants, in aspect similar to Brachythecium or Orthothecium, are relatively slender and shiny, golden to red-bronze or sometimes (apparently in shade forms) green. Creeping stems are freely branched, and the branches are subjulaceous, ascending and often curved. Leaves characteristically have two well-marked plicae or a single median fold. Leaf margins are revolute, nearly throughout, and serrulate near the apex. The costa is single but sometimes forked. Leaf cells are smooth and linear-rhomboidal in the upper regions but short and broad in two to six rows across the insertion. Alar regions extend downward as short decurrencies which merge with short, broad, hyaline cells of the stem epidermis which strips off with the leaves on dissection. Capsules are erect and sym- metric, with a somewhat reduced peristome of hypnoid structure (Fig. 5-6). The exostome teeth are cross-striolate below. Segments of the endostome which are rather broad and keeled, arise from a fairly well-developed basal membrane. Cilia are lacking or rudimentary. Because of the hypnoid nature of the peristome, a relationship to Entodon seems questionable. Even though Fleischer (1915), Brotherus (1925) and more recent authors, e.g. Mizushima, 1960, included Rozea in the Entodontaceae, it may have closer ties with some of the Hypnaceae with erect capsules and variously reduced peristomes, such as Ctenidiadelphus cylindricarpus (Card.) Bartr. (Fig. 3-4). In its best development the hypnoid peristome has the following features: exostome teeth abruptly tapered, bordered