Nepal: Focus on Pro Public

introducing Prakash Mani Sharma

At Friends of the Earth Nepal (aka Propublic), we are seeing the devastating impact of climate change caused by global warming right here on our doorstep.

The Everest (Sagarmatha) National Park, home to the Himalayas, is a unique and irreplaceable landscape – undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places on earth. Yet many of its glacial lakes are in grave danger of catastrophic flooding, as the mountain glaciers high above them steadily melt away – according to recent EC studies, at the rate of 15 metres a year. Should any of the glacial lakes burst its banks, that would result in a human, environmental and economic disaster, threatening thousands of local inhabitants and their homes and livestock, as well as rare animals such as the snow leopard and panther and the country’s hydropower plant facilities. Nepal’s tourist industry, its principal source of income, would be irreparably damaged and if the glaciers were eventually to disappear completely in a few decades time, so too would our fresh water supply.

People power

A couple of years ago, Friends of the Earth Nepal decided to take matters into our own hands. In 2004, we presented a petition, drawn up with the International Climate Justice Programme, to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Paris asking that the Sagarmatha National Park be placed on the List of World Heritage Sites In Danger, along with a handful of other sites in Belize, Peru, Canada, the US and Australia.

The petition was submitted in person by a group of record-holding Everest climbers including Pemba Dorjee Sherpa and Temba Tsheri Sherpa. Reinhold Messner, Sir David Attenborough and Sir Chris Bonnington gave us their support, and Sir Edmund Hillary also joined the pettioners and spoken publicly of his concern for the future of the Himalayas.

By being entirely driven by the public rather than government, our petition is a ‘first’ and demonstrates the weight of feeling here about the damage being inflicted on our landscape. Damage which, ironically, has not been created by ourselves, but by the greenhouse-gas emitting actions of companies and countries elsewhere in the world. Nepal may be very rich in natural resources but economically it is very poor. The people and the government here are helpless to deal with the problem alone. Remedial work needs to be carried out by the richer nations – and specifically by those whose activities have caused the problem in the first place.

Our children’s children

What we hope to achieve with our petition therefore is not only the funding of remedial measures by UNESCO members, including the introduction of a sophisticated drainage system for the lakes, but also a cast-iron commitment to cut carbon dioxide emissions. In 2006, our petition was sent to the General Assembly of UNESCO member states, and the next General Assembly meeting in summer 2007 will hopefully mark a turning point for us.

All those countries which have signed up to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972 – and that includes the US - have a legal obligation to transmit World Heritage Sites to future generations. It’s a legal commitment as well as a moral one. It’s as simple as that.

Legal eagle

the highs...
“I feel very fortunate to work on environmental issues and particularly climate change as I feel it’s the biggest environmental threat of our time. I do think that our efforts are making appreciable difference. Our UNESCO petition has led the World Heritage Committee to conduct a study on the impact of global warming on the cultural and natural aspect of a number of world heritage sites.”
and the lows...
“I feel frustrated when I don't see a serious and positive response from developed countries regarding the problem of global warming and, in some cases, their denial of climate science. It does make me discouraged at times - but never enough to give up.”

I became involved in environmental issues through my work as a lawyer. I started out as a corporate lawyer but then, in 1989, took on a case against a marble company whose quarry operations were severely damaging the local landscape. At that point Nepal had no environmental law but I argued in the Supreme Court that there should be a ‘right to life’ enshrined in our constitution: if companies are polluting then they are taking away that right to life. An environmental law was duly introduced and, encouraged by this development, I decided to found ProPublic in 1991 as an independent non-profit civil society organisation committed to the cause of public interest and citizens’ rights.

We now have 172 staff working in 12 offices throughout Nepal on a wide range of issues involving environmental justice, gender equality, good governance and anti-corruption. The team comprise environmentalists, women’s rights activitists, lawyers, journalists, engineers and economists.

Propublic was originally an associate of Friends of the Earth and is now a full member. It’s very good to be part of a big global network, to feel you’re one of the family.

Turning wrongs into rights

What drives me personally is my sense that mankind has done so much to mess nature up that we are responsible for mitigating these problems as much as we can. Rivers can’t speak for themselves; trees can’t speak for themselves. We have to speak for them.

As a lawyer, I feel it’s my responsibility to help. That’s why my next goal is to take legal action against all the profit making institutions who are contributing to the global warming, such as power and automobile companies, to force them to compensate for the harm their operations have caused and to pay for mitigation cost.

Support the work of Friends of the Earth Nepal

Support the appeal to build an eco-home office building in Kathmandu.

Find out more about the work of ProPublic .

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