The Manual, produced and tested by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) with UNEP-WCMC, provides practical approaches to include environmental management for a full range of ecosystem services in plans and actions for sustainable development. It presents six steps and supporting information for working at individual sites and wider landscapes.

Central to its approach is a practical method for understanding and working with the environment as an ecosystem. This is achieved through producing easy-to-understand descriptions of current and desired ecosystem functioning to supply ecosystem services. The Manual also helps site managers to analyse and address natural resource management problems, such as reduced water supplies, declining populations of species, or the spread of invasive species, and to identify options to increase environmental resilience to climate change.

Following a training session on the Manual, a participant from Himachal Pradesh Forest Department concluded:

“I now see the forest as an ecosystem, not just as timber, and can use this in planning management with local communities.”

The Manual is illustrated to support the ecosystem management work of ICIMOD and its partners in the eight countries of Hindu Kush Himalaya, but it is of wider relevance across terrestrial environments of the world.

The Manual can be downloaded here 

For more information and training in the use of the Manual please contact Yi Shaoliang,  and Philip Bubb