Monitoring Desk
Dr Pema Gyamtsho has taken over as the new Director General of the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
He has succeeded Dr David Molden at his retirement from the position last month.
Dr. Gyamtsho brings to the position Cabinet-level leadership experience in environmental management, having served the Royal Government of Bhutan for over three decades in areas deeply relevant to ICIMOD working at the science-policy-practice interface in natural resources management and planning; rural development; agriculture; forestry; livestock and food production; rangeland management; livestock development; participatory approaches; research and extension institutional building; climate change and environmental protection; biodiversity conservation; and organic farming, according to a statement of ICIMOD.
Between 2002 and 2006, he served at ICIMOD, initially leading efforts in policy and partnerships and then for the regional rangeland management work.
Dr Gyamtsho is the first Director General of ICIMOD who hails from the region.
After taking over as Director General ICIMOD, Dr Gyamtsho expressed his excitement about and commitment to work towards achieving the mission of ICIMOD for mountains and people of the Hindu Kush Himalaya.
“ICIMOD’s mission to enable sustainable and resilient mountain development for improved and equitable livelihoods through knowledge and regional cooperation and its vision of men, women, and children of the Hindu Kush Himalaya enjoying improved well-being in a healthy mountain environment are important to me individually as a person from the HKH myself but also important collectively for all of us as it represents work that contributes to a positive and prosperous future for the region,” he added.
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD, set up in the year 1983, is a regional knowledge development and learning centre serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.
