Dolakha and Sindhupalchok districts (located between coordinates: 85.445 and 86.546 and 27.471 and 28.173) comprise a part of a recognized wider and transboundary Sacred Himalayan Landscape that straddles the Bagmati Province of Nepal and Torsa Strict Nature Reserve of Bhutan. The landscape (defined here as the two districts, not the broader transboundary landscape referred to by the same name) is covered entirely by mountainous areas, with an elevation from 732 meters (at Sitali of Dolakha district) to 7134 meters (Gaurishankar of Dolakha district). For that reason, the area has a tropical to alpine climate and related ecosystems.

Agriculture is the major economic sector in the landscape with the vast majority of households (up to 80 considering it the main source of livelihood and more than a quarter of land area used for agriculture production (data source: District profiles). For example, in Dolakha, 79.92 percent of the economically active population (considered to be those over 10 years of age) are involved in agriculture, forestry and fishery. Major crops are rice, corn, wheat, millet, etc. However, vegetables (e.g., potato), dairy (including yak cheese), meat (chicken, mutton) and fruit (mainly citrus; Nepali hog plum or Lapsi, kiwi) production are also significant sources of income for the people in the landscape, mainly due to proximity to market (i.e., Kathmandu).

Forests contribute to livelihoods through water regulating services and supplying forest products such as forage and fuelwood, which are used for agricultural production. In addition, timber and non-timber forest products (e.g., black cardamom, coffee, handmade Daphne paper, essential oil, and briquette) from the forests in the landscape (particularly from community forests) contribute to the livelihoods of local people and provide a resource for local development. The area supplies a large share of softwood timber from private forests to the market, for making plywood and furniture. Likewise, the landscape also supplies stone, slate, sand, and pebbles for construction as far away as Kathmandu.

The area is considered the powerhouse of Nepal, supplying a third of total hydroelectricity generation. 666 MW out of 1924 MW are produced from the projects above 1 MW that are granted a license. Hydropower is also a significant source of jobs and investment in the local economy.

Multi-stakeholder coordination efforts are currently not strong in the landscape, mainly due to the new federal structure which dismantled or weakened earlier multi-stakeholder platforms such as District Forest Sector Coordination Committees, and new mechanisms are yet to be effective. However, there remain multi-stakeholder bodies at the village and municipal levels. Similarly, at each district, there is a District Coordination Committee (DCC) to undertake coordination between village bodies and municipalities within the district.

The landscape is among the most vulnerable areas to climate impacts in Nepal. The landscape is experiencing decreasing monsoon and post-monsoon precipitation by 4mm – 6mm per year. However, the number of extremely and very wet days is reported to show a decreasing trend by up to 0.9 days per year (each of them). Likewise, the same assessment showed increasing maximum annual temperature by 0.07-0.09oC per year and decreasing the annual minimum temperature by up to 0.02oC per year. Similarly, warm days are reported to show an increasing trend with an increase of 1.1-2.0 percent increase of days. The area has a very high disaster risk profile, being the most landslide-prone districts in Nepal. Sindhupalchok has a very high landslide hazard ranking, while Dolakha similarly has high landslide hazard risks. Both Dolakha and Sindhupalchok are considered landslide-prone hotspots. The landscape has a very low flood hazard, however. The impact of climate-induced disasters is relatively high in Sindhupalchok and low in Dolakha, and both districts have very high sensitivity to climate change and moderate adaptive capacity index. For the aforementioned reasons, both districts in the landscape have very high climate vulnerability. Sindhupalchok has a very high, and Dolakha has a high, baseline risk index, which indicates the potential of high impacts of climate-induced disasters.