Najam on Water, Climate, and Community in Nepal’s Conservation Model
In an article for the Nepali Times titled People, naturally, Dr. Adil Najam, Pardee School Dean Emeritus and President of World Wildlife Fund International was interviewed by Ghana Gurung of WWF Nepal during his visit to Chitwan in December. Set against the Chitwan National Park, Nepal’s Himalayan river systems reveal how climate change is increasingly a water crisis, linking melting glaciers, fragile ecosystems, and human livelihoods. Here, intensifying floods and dry seasons are reshaping one of South Asia’s most important conservation landscapes.
Throughout the interview, Najam emphasized the need to address climate, biodiversity, and water as a single, integrated challenge. “Climate in the age of adaptation essentially becomes a water issue,” he said, warning that fragmented approaches overlook how nature actually functions. Water, he stressed, is becoming a frontline climate concern not only for Nepal but globally.
Despite these pressures, Chitwan stands out as a conservation success story. Nepal has nearly tripled its tiger population, restored rhino numbers, and achieved near-zero poaching—progress driven largely by collaboration with local and Indigenous communities. Najam highlighted community-led conservation and women-run homestay cooperatives as evidence that environmental protection and economic development can reinforce one another. “Conservation and people do not need to be contradictions,” he noted.
Looking ahead, Najam argued that meeting today’s planetary challenges will require deeper partnerships, integrated ecosystem thinking, and meaningful engagement with young people. Nepal’s experience, he suggested, offers a model for building climate resilience rooted in community leadership—demonstrating that lasting environmental solutions depend as much on people as on policies.
The full article can be read here.
Adil Najam is Dean Emeritus and Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He served as the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies from 2014-2022. He is also a former Vice-Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Read more about Najam on his Pardee School faculty profile.