Conditional cooperation for mitigating effects of climate change in rural Nepal

Abstract: Due to the climate warming effects the glacier lakes of the Khumbu has started to form and grow in size and the natural moraine dams give poor support to the expanding lakes. In order to find out how much the sherpa people wants to contribute to build the safety measures that can protect them from the effects of a glacier lake outburst flood this paper investigates their willingness to contribute with work time. The work time can be used to work on strengthening the dam and settlements along the upper Dudh Kosi river. The willingness to contribute was investigated to see if it is affected by others contribution and if the contribution levels varies with socioeconomic variables such as income, perceived risk level and gender. The finding of this paper is that the willingness to cooperate amongst the sherpas of the upper Dudh Kosi river basin increases with others contribution.