Journal article
The future security of the planet's growing human population rests in great measure on the mountain watersheds of the world. Yet no part of the environment is so badly neglected by the policy makers in this wide ranging overview.
Mountains make up one fifth of the world's landscape and are home to at least one tenth of the world's people. An additional 2 billion...
In many societies mountains are seen as sacred places. As such, they can have a significant impact on the cohesion of local cultures and on the conservation of the environment.
Sacred mountains highlight the key role that culture plays in influencing how people regard and treat the environment as the highest and most central values and beliefs of societies and traditions around...
The problem of forests in the world may be summarized as follows. Firstly, both the quantity and quality of forests is declining. Secondly, the security of the supply of goods and services from forests is under threat. And finally, there are welfare losses borne at household, local, national and global levels due to decline of and the insecurity in the supply of goods and services from the...
Tourism and travel is the world's largest industry. It employs a tenth of the world's workforce and has an output of US $3.4 trillion. Mountains once visited only by climbers and pilgrims, have not escaped the tourist crowds. Today tourism forms the basis of the economy of many mountain regions, with uncertain consequences.
The era of mass tourism in the mountains...
As population grows and water becomes evermore scarce, the ecological protection of mountains becomes evermore vital. There are calls for a new awareness by the people of the plains of their debt to the mountains and their inhabitants.
Planet Earth is able to distinguish itself as the living planet because of the existence of water on its surface. But easily accessible freshwater...
The sustainability of rural development initiatives (including forestry) depends greatly on the capacities of the institutions involved, the relationships among them and their relative power. Therefore a strategy to foster pluralistic approaches to rural development should focus on building the capacities of those who have typically been marginalized by development strategies and discussions...
This article presents interpretations of forest conflicts in the upper Yaque del Norte watershed of the Cordillera Central as voiced by those with the greatest stake, the rural residents themselves. Their perspectives seldom find a forum despite the fact that it is they who actually live and work in the communities affected by the current debate. The article does not presume to speak for...
A unique part of West Virginia's natural heritage is bursting into life in the Allegheny Mountains. In the rest of the state, spring is well underway, but in the high elevation wetlands, frost may still cover the ground as the earth wakes. Cold air drainage from the surrounding slopes collects in these high basins, known as "frost pockets". Many plants and animals that normally...
For nearly 20 years one woman has been battling to restore the elaborate Inca Canals in the Peruvian Andes, which once supported a thriving population of farmers. All over the Peruvian Andes, beautifully engineered Inca-built irrigation canals once distributed water to elaborate terrace systems. In turn, the terraces oases of cultivation on the precipitous and other wise barren mountain slopes...
Since the 1980s, local participation has been used as a tool in many rural development and resource conservation programmes. In order to motivate community participation, diverse economic incentives are used. Not all these income gains, however, are compatible with conservation. Some at the cost of the limited and fragile mountain resource, therefore have exerted increased pressures on natural...
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