Global Change and Mountains: Consequences, Responses and Opportunities - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 93

Global Change and Mountains
Globalization and climate change are interrelated and interdependent
drivers of global change. However, global change studies in mountains so
far dominated by climate change, and the impact of globalization have not
received the desired focus (Kohler and Maselli 2009, Borsdorf et al. 2008,
Jandl et al. 2009). Climate change has long-term impacts on ecosystem
services both in mountains and their downstream, and the process of
globalization also exerts a sharp impact on ecosystems and an even more
severe effect on the socio-economic landscape including agriculture,
population structure and its dynamics, as well as the urbanization and
marginalization of peripheral mountain communities (Borsdorf et al. 2010).
The ongoing global discussion on responses at different spatial scale that
might take place under the processes of future global change is generally
focussed on fragile environments, such as the Arctic, coastal regions and
mountains (ACIA 2004, IPCC 2007a,b). Mountains consisting of a vast
repository of a variety of ecosystem services and goods constitute one of
the most fragile environments on the planet and are considered as being
highly sensitive to global change (Diaz et al. 2003).
The drivers of global change and the process of transformation in
mountains are highly complex and multifaceted; hence the understanding
of current responses and projecting future changes in these ecosystems is
exceedingly diffi cult (Loeffl er et al. 2011). People living in mountain areas
are exposed to a series of environmental and non-environmental stressors
which are interconnected and have serious implications on the livelihood
and quality of life of mountain communities. These stressors include
population growth and processes of socio-economic development which
are linked to increasing demand of goods and services and globalization
that leads to depletion of natural resources, such as, land, water, forests,
minerals and biodiversity (ICIMOD 2010). The global change is referred
to the changes caused by both natural and anthropogenic processes and
encompass, among other factors, climate change, land-use cover change,
industrialization, urbanization, and changes in atmospheric chemistry
(Goudie and Cuff 2002). Becker and Bugmann (2001) have categorized global
environmental changes affecting mountain ecosystems into two groups:
(i) systemic changes that operate at a global scale (such as climate change)
and (ii) cumulative changes caused by processes at a local scale but that
are globally pervasive (such as land-use cover change).
The environmental and economic changes and their impacts are parts
of invariable processes operating in the mountain environment. However,
during the recent years, the magnitude and rate of these changes and their
impacts on natural and social systems have become severe with serious
consequences for the sustainability of mountain communities as well as