Monsoon Asia as a Key Region for Future Earth

Abstract:

The Asian monsoon climate system underpins the ecosystem services on which the livelihoods and wellbeing of billions of people depend. In the past several decadeds, human activity has been increasing industrial pollution, land-use change, and greenhouse gas emissions in the region and is leading to changes in monsoon patterns that may significantly harm social and economic development in the this region. Monsoon Asia contains a complex mosaic of social and ecological systems developed through a long history of human interaction with nature. Many customary but large-scale systems of resource management, such as paddy-rice, agro-pastoralist and agro-forestry systems, have contributed to agro-biodiversity and maintained intensive food production, employment opportunities and community livelihood over long periods of time. The combined effects of globalization and climate change, however, are threatening ecosystem productivity throughout the region. Monsoon Asia is experiencing significant transformation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Most extensively, forest disruption and conversion has continued in developing countries, particularly those of the tropics since the late 20th century. Multiple scale and transnational analysis is required to determine the specificity of such trends and whether they reflect gross reduction or displacement of forest resource use and degradation to other countries or regions. Over-extraction of surface and subsurface water sources and pollution, diversion and obstruction of waterways have significant negative impacts on ecosystems and human populations at local, regional and continental scales. The Tibet-Qinghai Plateau and all the mountain ranges that surround it provide the highest and most extensive highland in the world and contain the largest glacially stored fresh water (snow and ice) outside of the Arctic and the Antarctic . Here, I emphasize the importance of the monsoon Asia as a key regionfor global sustainability of the human beings. In this context, The scientific and political collaboration among all the countries of this region as part of SDGs and Future Earth programme, is crucial for the future of our planet earth.