Coronavirus - and its economic fallout - are the biggest danger in most parts of the world this year. But other risks driven by climate change are adding to the pain.

More than 5 million Nepalis work abroad in normal times, in countries from Saudi Arabia and Malaysia to neighbouring India. But with the coronavirus pandemic stealing jobs, many are headed home this year - and looking for some other way to make a living. Most have turned to farming.

Increasingly extreme and unusual weather, however, has brought changing pests into the fields, including not only swarms of locusts but fall armyworm, which is devastating maize crops.

"The crop harvest this year could be very lean and with income sources gone for many people, a majority of families could struggle for food, let alone education and other needs," Arjun Kumar Kakshyapati, the mayor of the municipality of Pyuthan, warned our correspondent Aadesh Subedi.

Pakistan, meanwhile, hopes to boost COVID-19-era jobs by creating its first National Parks Service, modeled on the U.S. agency, and putting young people and local communities to work helping run parks near where they live.

"Local communities have more information and they can manage their own natural resources better. They have better vision," said Muzaffar ud Din, a founding member of the local Shimshal Nature Trust, which helps manage flagship Khunjerab National Park.

Globally, efforts to boost protection of nature - from adopting smarter farming to slashing fossil fuel subsidies and safeguarding forests - could create 395 million jobs and $10 trillion in new business opportunities by 2030, a new World Economic Forum report suggests.

"If we want to build back better we don't have to look back ... (and) be a planet as we were in January 2020," said Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada. "We need to look forward to a whole other reality coming out of the pandemic."

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