The Annapurna Climate Conference and Machhapuchhre Dialogue concluded in Pokhara on Wednesday with the issuance of the 15-point “Kharapani Declaration 2026,” focusing on climate risk reduction and environmental resilience in Nepal’s Himalayan region.
Organized under the initiative of Save Our Himalaya First (SOHF) Nepal in collaboration with the Gandaki Province Ministry of Forest and Environment, Pokhara Metropolitan City, Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality, and Annapurna Rural Municipality, the two-day conference brought together local, national, and international researchers, experts, and stakeholders.
The declaration was issued after participants visited Kharapani in Ward No. 2 of Machhapuchhre Rural Municipality, one of the areas worst affected by the devastating Seti River flood of May 2012.
The conference emphasized strengthening community-based forest management to reduce forest fires and climate risks, promoting sustainable forest management, and encouraging the use of biochar and biocompost made from agricultural and forest residues to improve soil fertility and minimize fire hazards.
Participants also called for the establishment of an “Annapurna Climate Disaster Memorial Center” for research and monitoring of climate-induced disasters in the Himalayan region. The declaration further stressed the expansion of weather information centers and early warning systems, the development of climate education at the school level, the preservation of indigenous knowledge, the promotion of climate-friendly agriculture, and environmentally sustainable tourism and infrastructure development.
The declaration highlighted the need for stronger coordination among all three levels of government, educational institutions, conservation organizations, and the private sector to address the growing climate crisis.
Inaugurating the conference, Gandaki Province Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey said the province has increasingly suffered from floods, landslides, droughts, and extreme rainfall due to climate change. He stressed the importance of collective action to protect the region’s globally significant natural heritage.
SOHF Nepal President and conference coordinator DB Nepali said the event aimed to raise climate change as a major concern in the ecologically sensitive Gandaki region.
Around three dozen research and working papers were presented during the conference on the impacts of climate change on weather, forests, water resources, health, tourism, agriculture, biodiversity, and local livelihoods by researchers from Nepal and abroad, including experts from the University of Calgary, Canada.
