Building Agroforestry-based Adaptation plans for Resilient floodplains (BAGAR)

Nepal is highly vulnerable to climate change and multi-hazards, mainly regular monsoon floods and climate-induced unpredictable flooding. Adaptation measures are urgently needed in the river basins, which are hot spots of ecosystems and ecosystem services that sustain the climate-sensitive livelihoods of marginalised communities. Sedimentation has rendered floodplain lands uncultivable causing food insecurity and loss of livelihood opportunities, especially for women and marginalised groups. The two project areas are in Marin municipality, in the mid-hills, and Gadhimai, in the lowlands of the Bagmati river basin. These areas are representative of dozens of similar municipalities in the region. These marginalised groups have little say in local governance processes, compounded by a system of informal land tenure. Although mandatory, the municipalities have not yet developed formal or inclusive land use plans.

Building Agroforestry-based Adaptation plans for Resilient floodplains (BAGAR) will focus on the regeneration and sustainable management of floodplains in Nepal’s Marin and Gadhimai Municipalities of the Bagmati river basin. The plans will be developed collaboratively with the vulnerable local communities and focus on agroforestry that promotes native fodder species useful for regulating various ecosystem services and can serve as livestock feed for the community smallholder farmers. This will achieve social and environmental benefits in flood risk reduction and create opportunities for growing fodder and food, which could withstand frequent flooding. These plans will serve as models for scaling out riparian restoration and sustainable floodplain management to many other interested municipalities.