The Glacier Trust is a small charity who enable climate change adaptation in Nepal’s remote mountain villages. We are working to enable climate-smart, organic agriculture and agroforestry.

Climate change is having a devastating impact upon glacial retreat. While the problems caused by this are faced worldwide, they are felt in a very acute way in rural mountain communities in Nepal where water shortages, unpredictable weather, erosion and landslides, rising temperatures, soil degradation and influxes of insect pests are affecting the livelihoods of the local people.

In September 2022, Ioan, James, Jonnie, Mark, Mike and Ross will take on the massive, physically gruelling challenge of climbing Mont Blanc to support The Glacier Trust in their work. By climbing on Europe's fast-disappearing glaciers, the team will gain a real sense of how dramatically the glaciers are retreating and the impact that this has on all of us but particularly on people in developing countries and who have depended upon, and lived in harmony with, these glaciers for thousands of years.

The problem

In many parts of Nepal, where climate change driven temperature rises are leading to water shortages and influxes of insect pests, farmers are adapting by increasing their use of chemicals to protect and enhance their fruit and vegetable crops. These are mal-adaptations to climate change. They have serious health impacts for farmers, consumers and wildlife.

Farmers are making heavy use of chemical insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers, despite knowing its impact on soil, environment and human health – this high use has had an effect on soil acidity, and causes environmental and ecological degradation.

The farmers are using dangerous chemicals right from the initial stage of germination through to harvest, especially on vegetables, which are largely sold to urban centres, including Kathmandu.

There are clear dangers to health from consuming produce carrying heavy traces of chemical residue. The impacts on farmers and farm labourers is even worse, they consume the vegetables, but also come into direct contact with potentially carcinogenic chemicals on a daily basis.

The solution

Over the next three years, building on the success of our newly created Agro Forestry Resource Centre, we are planning to establish three ‘Model Organic Villages’ to demonstrate that climate change can be adapted to without having to resort to the dangerous misuse of chemical insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers.

The target villages, in poor, higher altitude areas are keen to improve their livelihoods in sustainable, organic and climate resilient ways. Preliminary work to establish the villages as ‘Model Organic Villages’ has already begun.

By raising £10,000 the CHX Mont Blanc team can enable us to directly support more than 260 people living in 50 households to adopt organic farming practices.     

There are potentially thousands of indirect beneficiaries of this project too. Produce grown in the Model Organic Villages will give the population of neighbouring villages the option to consume healthy organic fruit and vegetables. Local wildlife will also benefit and, by improving farming methods, the long-term health of the soil will be secured.

Thank you so much for your support in helping us tackle the impacts of climate change in Himalayan communities.

Ioan, James, Jonnie, Mark, Mike & Ross

http://theglaciertrust.org/