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Glaciers’ contributions to people, nature’s values, and coping strategies in the Indian Himalaya

Johansson, Emma LU ; Islar, Mine LU orcid ; Shah, Mayank LU ; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik ; Subramanian, Sahana LU and Margiotta, Carmen LU (2025) In Ecology and Society 30(4).
Abstract

High-altitude regions are highly vulnerable to impacts of climate change because the retreat of glaciers and snow impacts ecosystems, local livelihoods, cultural practices, and values. Although glacier change is widely documented within the natural sciences, limited focus has been given to the lived experiences of emerging challenges in changing glacier environments. We used a mixed methods approach to quantitatively and qualitatively explore and map glaciers’ contributions to people and identify patterns of change in the Indian Himalayan Regions of Ladakh and Uttarakhand, as well as local impacts and coping strategies. We found that glacier retreat undermines glaciers’ contributions to people, particularly for providing water, but also... (More)

High-altitude regions are highly vulnerable to impacts of climate change because the retreat of glaciers and snow impacts ecosystems, local livelihoods, cultural practices, and values. Although glacier change is widely documented within the natural sciences, limited focus has been given to the lived experiences of emerging challenges in changing glacier environments. We used a mixed methods approach to quantitatively and qualitatively explore and map glaciers’ contributions to people and identify patterns of change in the Indian Himalayan Regions of Ladakh and Uttarakhand, as well as local impacts and coping strategies. We found that glacier retreat undermines glaciers’ contributions to people, particularly for providing water, but also impacting culture, including spirituality and sense of place, and the environment, including local ecosystems, fauna, and flora. Glaciers were seen by local communities to sustain important instrumental (for food production), relational (for existence), and intrinsic (for biodiversity) values. The ability to diversify livelihoods and purchase power are perceived as important factors to cope with change, and subsistence farmers and herders are identified as vulnerable groups to glacier change. Our findings point to a conceptualization of glaciers not merely as physical entities and indicators of climate change, but also as indicators of the intricate and reciprocal relationships between people, nature, and culture. Operationalizing diverse values of nature in decision making requires acknowledgement of different needs, purposes, capacities, epistemologies, and knowledge systems of multiple actors. Examples show that there are discrepancies between how values of nature are currently framed and how they are manifested and experienced on the ground, which underscore the importance of adopting context-sensitive frameworks.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
climate change, ecosystem services, Himalaya, India, nature’s contributions to people, plural values
in
Ecology and Society
volume
30
issue
4
article number
32
publisher
Resilience Alliance
external identifiers
  • scopus:105024205685
ISSN
1708-3087
DOI
10.5751/ES-16633-300432
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d1b12c18-9b13-4cc4-94c3-a847889bd85e
date added to LUP
2026-02-13 13:28:57
date last changed
2026-02-13 13:29:05
@article{d1b12c18-9b13-4cc4-94c3-a847889bd85e,
  abstract     = {{<p>High-altitude regions are highly vulnerable to impacts of climate change because the retreat of glaciers and snow impacts ecosystems, local livelihoods, cultural practices, and values. Although glacier change is widely documented within the natural sciences, limited focus has been given to the lived experiences of emerging challenges in changing glacier environments. We used a mixed methods approach to quantitatively and qualitatively explore and map glaciers’ contributions to people and identify patterns of change in the Indian Himalayan Regions of Ladakh and Uttarakhand, as well as local impacts and coping strategies. We found that glacier retreat undermines glaciers’ contributions to people, particularly for providing water, but also impacting culture, including spirituality and sense of place, and the environment, including local ecosystems, fauna, and flora. Glaciers were seen by local communities to sustain important instrumental (for food production), relational (for existence), and intrinsic (for biodiversity) values. The ability to diversify livelihoods and purchase power are perceived as important factors to cope with change, and subsistence farmers and herders are identified as vulnerable groups to glacier change. Our findings point to a conceptualization of glaciers not merely as physical entities and indicators of climate change, but also as indicators of the intricate and reciprocal relationships between people, nature, and culture. Operationalizing diverse values of nature in decision making requires acknowledgement of different needs, purposes, capacities, epistemologies, and knowledge systems of multiple actors. Examples show that there are discrepancies between how values of nature are currently framed and how they are manifested and experienced on the ground, which underscore the importance of adopting context-sensitive frameworks.</p>}},
  author       = {{Johansson, Emma and Islar, Mine and Shah, Mayank and Gómez-Baggethun, Erik and Subramanian, Sahana and Margiotta, Carmen}},
  issn         = {{1708-3087}},
  keywords     = {{climate change; ecosystem services; Himalaya; India; nature’s contributions to people; plural values}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  publisher    = {{Resilience Alliance}},
  series       = {{Ecology and Society}},
  title        = {{Glaciers’ contributions to people, nature’s values, and coping strategies in the Indian Himalaya}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-16633-300432}},
  doi          = {{10.5751/ES-16633-300432}},
  volume       = {{30}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}