Dual ecological and socio-cultural fragmentation induced by hydropower dams: case studies from the Greater Himalayan region of India

Abstract

First paragraph: Climate change and biodiversity loss are pressing global challenges (Pörtner et al., 2021). However, as global energy demand continues to increase (IEA, 2021), nations face significant challenges to decarbonization and reaching “net zero” due to trade-offs between the often-competing needs of renewable energy generation and biodiversity conservation. For example, hydropower generates renewable energy (Gibson et al., 2017), yet there are well-documented and severe consequences of dam development for biodiversity (e.g., Zarfl et al., 2019) and people (e.g., Bisht, 2009) due to reservoir creation and disruption of river flows. Despite such potentially damaging ecological and social trade-offs, hydropower currently contributes 70% of global renewable energy and there are at least 3 700 large dams planned or under construction globally (Zhang & Gu, 2023).