Welcome to the Mountain Forum Online Library! This Library is a collection of material focused on sustainable mountain development issues in an electronic form. It was established in 1996, with members of the Forum contributing academic articles, abstracts, features, reports, theses, bibliographic references and web resources, amongst others.

About the Library

The resources in the Library are of several types, and include full-text documents, bibliographic references, periodicals, and reference material. Each of these can be accessed by using the relevant links on the left of this page. The material in the Library is mostly in English, with some in French, Spanish and Russian as well. We hope to build the non-English language content considerably.

We encourage visitors to use the Library to its fullest potential, both by seeking out relevant material as well as by contributing their own material to the Library. You can contribute material by clicking here. It is this spirit of sharing which has given the Library its depth, and we hope that this will continue in the years to come.

New Features

All full-text documents have been formatted in a standard manner and are available for downloading in MS Word or PDF formats
All full-text documents carry mandatory information to provide credibility to the document
Key words have been added to each full-text document to give you more efficient search results
Abstracts of full-text documents are provided where available

Contact the Library

If you have any questions, or have any problems in accessing or contributing material, please contact us at:

Tel: +977-1-500 3222
Fax: +977-1-500 3277
Email: library[at]mtnforum[dot]org

Latest additions to the library

Alien plants in the Australian Alps - Frances M Johnston; Catherine Pickering;

The influence of accessibility, local institutions, and socioeconomic factors on forest cover change in the mountains of western Honduras - Jane Southworth; Catherine M. Tucker;

Changing milk production trends in Peru: Small-scale highland farming versus coastal agrobusiness - Thomas Bernet; Steve Staal; Thomas Walker;

Mountain agriculture in the Hindu Kush–Himalaya: A regional comparative analysis - Pradeep Man Tulachan;

Labor markets and migration in Nepal: The case of workers in Kathmandu Valley carpet manufactories - Elvira Graner;

Towns in the Alps: Urbanization processes, economic structure, and demarcation of European functional Urban Areas (EFUAs) in the Alps - Manfred Perlik; Peter Messerli; Werner Bätzing;

Endogenous development in Swiss mountain communities: Local initiatives in Urnäsch and Schamserberg - Sabine Mühlinghaus; Samuel Wälty;

Endogenous development in Austria's mountain regions: From a source of irritation to a mainstream movement - Thomas Dax;

Decentralization and community development: Strengthening local participation in the mountain villages of Kyrgyzstan - Kalyan Pandey; Yuri Misnikov;

Decentralization, rural poverty, and degradation of uplands in Central America - Ian Cherrett;

Promoting popular participation: Lessons to be learned from the Bolivian decentralization process - Rubén Ardaya S; Laurent Thévoz;

Agricultural development in Ningnan County: Government–community interaction to promote technology: An interview with Mr. Gao Jianwen, Chairman, Steering Committee of the People's Congress of Ningnan County, Sichuan Province, China - Tang Ya;

The regulatory community decentralisation and the environment in the Van Panchayats (Forest Councils) of Kumaon, India - Arun Agrawal;

Mountain meteorology: Fundamentals and applications - Werner Eugster;

The mountain program of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) - Ulrich Lutz;

Implications of land use and land cover dynamics for mountain resource degradation in the northwestern Ethiopian Highlands - Gete Zeleke; Hans Hurni;

Land cover change along tropical and subtropical riparian corridors within the Makalu Barun National Park and Conservation Area, Nepal - Robert J Zomer; Susan L Ustin; Chris C Carpenter;

Phenology and growth form distribution in an Alpine pasture at Tungnath, Garhwal, Himalaya - M C Nautiyal; B P Nautiyal; Vinay Prakash;

An assessment of aboveground net primary productivity in Andean grasslands of central Ecuador - Paul M Ramsay; E R.B. Oxley;

The black tent in its easternmost distribution: The case of the Tibetan Plateau - Angela Manderscheid;

Motivational factors related to improving indoor air quality in rural Nepal - Jens Olav Hessen; Morten A Schei; Mrigendra R Pandey;

GMO-free Alps: An alternative path in technology development? - Markus Schermer;

Development indicators for mountain regions - Hermann Kreutzmann;

The biosphere reserve as living space: Linking conservation, development and research: An interview with Engelbert Ruoss of the Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve, Switzerland - Susanne Wymann von Dach;

The watershed as an organizing principle for research and development: An evaluation of experience in the Andean ecoregion - Ruben Dario Estrada; Joshua Posner;

Experience gained in the research-to-development continuum livestock research for sustainable livelihoods in the east African Mountains - M A Mohamed Saleem;

Agricultural research for development in the Mexican highlands: Collaboration between a research team and campesinos - M C Chávez-Mejía; G Nava-Bernal; L Velázquez-Beltrán; Y Nava-Bernal; J Mondragón-Pichardo; H Carbajal-Esquivel; A M Pedraza-Fuentes; B G Reyes-Reyes; C Arriaga-Jordán;

The scientific world and the farmer's reality: Agricultural research and extension in Kyrgyzstan - Peter Schmidt;

Sustainability in a time of global change: The challenge for research - Christoph Ritz; Thomas Scheurer;

Mountain meteorology: Fundamentals and applications - Martin Beniston;

The tragedy of Khait: A natural dsaster in Tajikistan - Alexander Yablokov;

Soil erosion and sustainable mountain development: Experiments, observations, and recommendations from the Ecuadorian Andes - Carol Harden;

Marginal lands and erosion in terraced fields in the Mediterranean mountains: A case study in the Camero Viejo (northwestern Iberian system, Spain) - Teodoro Lasanta; José Arnáez; Marco Oserín; Luis M Ortigosa;

Tectonically controlled fluvial landforms on the Yaluzangbu River and their implications for the evolution of the river - David Dian Zhang;

Protection of headwater catchments from future degradation: San Miguel River Basin, Colorado - Barbara J Inyan; Mark W Williams;

The historical impacts of hydroelectric power development on traditional mountain irrigation in the Valais, Switzerland - Darren S Crook;

A new typology for mountains and other relief classes: An application to global continental water resources and population distribution - Michel Meybeck; Pamela Green;

The Search for sustainable development in the Himalayas: An interview with environmentalist Raghubir Singh Pirta - Chetan Singh;

Decentralized energy use in mountain regions: Solar-electric stand-alone systems - Petra Schweizer-Ries;

Green electricity from alpine hydropower plants - Bernhard Truffer; Jochen Markard; Christine Bratrich; Bernhard Wehrli;

Hydropower revival in Java's tea gardens: Rising fuel prices promote green energy for green tea - Rolf Widmer; Martin Roth; Marc Hayton; Sven Dernedde;

Of dams and hurricanes: Lessons and recommendations from El Cajon - Christoph Lehmann;

Hydropower for energy in Nepal - Shaligram Pokharel;

Reconciling conservation with sustainable development. A participatory study inside and around the Simen Mountains National Park, Ethiopia - Johan Holmberg;

Non-timber forest products in Uganda. Spatial tools supporting sustainable development. - Olivier Cottray; Lera Miles; Adrian Newton;

Protected areas and biodiversity: An overview of key issues - Kalemani Jo Mulongoy; Stuart Chape;

Commercialization of non-timber forest products: Factors influencing success. Lessons learned from Mexico and Bolivia and policy implications for decision-makers - Elaine Marshall; K Schreckenberg; Adrian Newton;

Managing agrobiodiversity: Farmers' changing perspectives and institutional responses in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region - Ben Campbell;

The partial influence of Norway spruce sands on understorey vegetation in montane forests of the Bavarian Alps - Jörg Ewald;

High mountain ecosystems and landscape degradation in northern Norway - Jörg Löffler;