Global Change and Mountains: Consequences, Responses and Opportunities - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 112

for fuel-wood and fodder extraction from forests by local people. During
the recent years, the forest ecosystem in the Himalaya have come under
increased biotic stress mainly due to high population growth, rapid
urbanization, industrial growth and tourism development. As a result,
the forest resources have depleted and degraded steadily and signifi cantly
leading to their conversion into degraded and waste lands in many parts of
the region. Besides, construction of road, dams, mining and quarrying, and
extension of cultivation and grazing areas have contributed signifi cantly
towards depletion of forests resources in the Himalaya. Moreover, climate
change have stressed the Himalayan forest ecosystem through higher
temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, more frequent and extreme
weather events, and forest fi res disrupting ecosystem services, depleting
biodiversity and decreasing forest productivity (Singh 2007). These changes
in forest ecosystem are undermining agricultural and food systems, and
increasing the vulnerability of millions of poor people to water, health, food
and livelihood insecurity in large part of South Asia mainly dependent of
subsistence agriculture (Tiwari and Joshi 2012b).
The mountainous province of British Columbia with a forest area of
60.30 million ha, contains as much as 49.20% of natural forests of Canada.
The forests of British Columbia have sustained the economy and culture
of the hundreds of traditional forest-dependent communities across the
province, and the timber they provide has been a driving force of the
provincial economy for more than a century. A broad range of values
are associated with British Columbia's forests—biodiversity, community
stability, gathering, geo-climatic, grazing, heritage, hunting, recreation,
science and education, socio-political, spiritual and aesthetic, timber,
tourism, water, etc. (British Columbia, Ministry of Forests 1995). But,
traditionally, timber has been considered as the only important value of
forests in British Columbia. It has been widely proclaimed that 50 cents out
of every dollar spent in British Columbia is generated by the forest industry.
Even today, with increased emphasis on multiple use and protection of other
values associated with the forests, the timber remains the most important
forest resource, and the commercial forests sector is the dominant user of
this natural resource (Commission on Resources and Environment 1995).
The commercial forestry in British Columbia has disrupted the
fragile ecosystem of the mountain watersheds through reduced water
recharge, increased surface run-off, accelerated erosion, and destruction of
wilderness and wildlife, in the province. The indiscriminate clear cutting
of natural forests over large areas and construction of logging roads for the
transportation of timber from remote forests to main road and rail heads
have promoted the processes of slope failure and mass movement resulting
in massive landslides and mudslides along the fragile mountain slopes. The
effects of poor logging and road building practices are clearly visible along