THE INTERVENTION OF TECHNOLOGY IN MOUNTAIN AREA

THE INTERVENTION OF TECHNOLOGY IN MOUNTAIN AREA S
Strategies for Developing Fresh Approaches and Mainstreaming of Local Innovations in the Asia Pacific Region
(February 5- March 4, 2001)

Synthesis of an Electronic Conference of the Asia-Pacific Mountain Network (APMN)
by Sudhirendar Sharma

Introduction

Contemporary society is characterised by a growing dependence on technology, from which it finds little escape. So much widespread has been its coverage
during post-industrial era that technology per se has reached diverse geographic locations and varied socio-economic settings around the world. It is, however, another matter that the social and economic benefits which technology has helped bring about have been counterbalanced by the environmental and social problems that it has helped create. Yet, the society hasn’t found any alternatives to its addiction.

With technology being the in-thing, answers to the problems of technology are being sought from within the realm of technology only. The obvious question, however, is: can the very source of a `problem’ be the source of a `solution’ too? In short term, however, it does offer solutions. Interestingly, it takes time before the negative impacts of any technology intervention get realised. And this time gap provides an opportunity to the technologist to reduce the negative impact in the next generation of products and services.

Shockingly, however, the technology that offers solutions fails to provide remedies for its consequent negative impacts. Even if it is hard to quantify, technological interventions have had their influence on mass scale poverty, rise in migration, increased unemployment and social conflicts. Yet, no one can escape from it as technology has made inroads into our socio-cultural fabric. We use machines to communicate, to entertain, to travel and to produce commodities. Despite there being a dark side to it as well, technology has been legitimised as a panacea to human development.

Widespread realisation of the dark side of technology has led to an understanding that unless corrective actions are taken now, Oswald Spengler’s prophetic words will come true. After Germany’s defeat in the war in 1920, Spengler had warned in his Decline of the West that `Faustian man will be dragged to death by his own machine.’ Similar expressions by other well-known names like Aldous Huxley and George Orwell continue to guide techno-minds to bring about change before it is too late.

Recent international discourses on current environmental crisis have voiced their concern for developing eco-friendly technologies and socially acceptable approaches for technology introduction and adaptation. This clearly indicates that there is a need to integrate technology with other disciplines of social science and humanities, to say the least. After all, no one would like technology to bring about environmental degradation and social chaos.

Technology and Mountains

In the context of the mountain areas, technology alone has proved to be a dominant precursor to mountain degradation. Ever since the colonialist rulers first exploited the mountain areas (especially the Hindu-Kush) for commercial interests, the cycle of destruction has continued to worsen by the day. Roads and rail networks in the mountain areas became symbols of development that eventually helped in extraction and transportation of raw materials. Subsequent independent states have continued on the destructive path laid by their predecessors.

The net impact of such interventions has been on the sustainable life-support systems in the mountains. People of the mountains achieved sustainable lifestyle by strategically rotating diversity, both physical and biological, to counter environmental risks and uncertainties. Micro-climatic variations helped them harvest a variety of crops from small-scattered fields at various altitudes – and at different times in a year. In addition to crops, trees and other environmental resources played an important safety function against environmental stresses and exogenous shocks.

In addition, it is interesting to note the manner in which rural communities in such hostile environments created local institutions, collectively managed and held on common property to ward off risks. Thanks to exogenous developmental interventions, social institutions and the sustainable life-support systems that they helped nurture have been eroded. The direct impact of all this is reflected in the migration of able-bodied mountain people to the plains – for gainful employment and a secure future.

Migration clearly indicates the failure of the intended development initiatives in the mountains. Furthermore, the development efforts have helped engineer confrontation between local people and development elite at different levels. At places, it has taken violent turn. Non-governmental interventions in the fields of renewable energy, drudgery reduction, employment generation, better health, education and sustainable agriculture have brought respite to the growing social tension. However, despite the best of project designs and the commitment of the implementing agency, a majority of these projects have not been fully successful in reversing the trend.

This offers a challenge as well as an opportunity. The challenge is to create a favourable environment for policy change. The opportunity relates to designing strategies for developing fresh approaches that count on local innovations and peoples’ wisdom.

Developmental Context

Recent reports from donor agencies documenting the failure of projects over the past twenty years indicate that the process of development has not been successful in bringing about desired change in the lives of the poor. In per cent terms, disparity has increased and so has the gap between the rich and the poor. Development thinkers contend that the promoters of development are themselves to blame. Infrastructure development as a process, technology intervention as a tool and economic growth as an indicator do not seem to have worked out.

Policies and communities in most of the world’s mountains are strongly influenced by lowlands and urban areas. With the interests of these outside forces being largely economic, a sustainable future for these communities is never guaranteed. On the contrary, ideas and technologies developed in the plains are transported to the mountains without any regard to their adaptability and suitability. This has been the trend ever since post-industrial era started developing technologies without any regard to their social adoption. Unless the technology itself is pro-people and pro-poor, its introduction within a socio-cultural context will not work for peoples’ benefit.

The proliferation of hand pumps and piped water supply, for instance, clearly demonstrate what a well-meaning technology without due regard to associated socio-ecological factors can do. These were installed on the assurance that potable water availability in the courtyard of the house will reduce drudgery of collecting water from distanced sources by mountain women. However, since the sources were not protected or rejuvenated these gadgets have failed to live up to their promise.

However, in doing so, the technology of water supply distanced communities from their original water sources. List of such failed technological interventions is growing. Failures outnumber successes when it comes to technology intervention in the mountains – be it potable water, renewable energy, soil conservation, forest protection, slope stabilisation, crop husbandry, horticultural production, and enterprise development. Yet, these are significant positive stories on technologies and lessons to be learnt and mainstreamed into the development process in the mountains.

Objectives

However, the task is to dwell on the issue of technologies in its entirety in the mountain context. To facilitate a broad-based discussion on the issue an electronic conference was conducted with the aim of addressing the following objectives.

1. To contribute to the ongoing debate on the impact of technology intervention in diverse agro-climatic zones in the mountains across the world and the facilitating policy environment.

2. To bring together positive experiences and showcase innovative approaches that helped reduce the negative impact.

3. To identify local innovations, both technologies as well as institutional structures, which can be mainstreamed in diverse agro-climatic zones across the mountains.

4. To provide concrete policy recommendations on what mountain research and academic institutions must focus on; what donors should look forward to support; how local technological innovations can be mainstreamed, and what new approaches for community based programmes can be followed.