Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
In recent years, while tourism and adventure among the high places
have continued to fl ourish, a new approach defi nes the ambitions of those
working hard to protect and preserve our mountain world. It might now
be characterized, rather prosaically, as 'applied research'.
In the late 1960s concerns about environmental deterioration were
beginning to surface from within various international agencies and non-
governmental organizations. World-wide collaboration began to appear,
especially following the United Nations 1972 Stockholm Conference on
the Human Environment. A fl ashpoint was reached with the International
Geographical Union's 1968 decision to recognize Carl Troll's contributions
to mountain geography; he was granted his 'personal' Commission on
High-Altitude Geoecology. The United Nations Educational, Scientifi c, and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) quickly perceived the utility of Troll's
IGU commission for the development of its own mountain project within
the new Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme; MAB Project 6 was
launched in 1973 as a “study of the impact of human activities on mountain
ecosystems”. The IGU commission's name was subsequently changed
to 'Mountain Geoecology and Sustainable Development' 1 and many of
its objectives were incorporated into the newly created United Nations
University project: 'Highland-Lowland Interactive Systems' in 1978. 2
The quarterly journal Mountain Research and Development was founded
in 1981 by the International Mountain Society. Its mission statement
emphasizes the rapid progression from predominantly academic mountain
research into the international political arena as 'applied mountain
geoecology'. It called upon all of us, “to strive for a better balance between
mountain environment, development of resources, and the well-being of
mountain peoples”. Today, this message is more important than ever.
The few of us involved at the onset of the current mountain political
agenda felt we were voices crying in the wilderness. As the movement
for appropriate development gained strength, however, it soon faced a
quandary. At the beginning of the 1970s, the world's news media were
suddenly infl amed with alarmist reports relating primarily to the Himalaya.
The mountain paradigm of the day quickly became entrenched. There was
an insistence that rapid population growth amongst 'ignorant' Himalayan
farmers was leading to massive deforestation and construction of unstable
agricultural terraces on steep slopes (see Photo 1). It was assumed that
monsoon downpours were washing away these foolhardy constructions and
were causing countless landslides and catastrophic fl ooding and siltation
across Gangetic India and Bangladesh.
The beauty and scrupulously managed terraces of Nepal's Middle
Mountains have been the object of criticism by many agency 'experts' as
contributing to the Himalayan devastation. We were astounded by such
prejudice and ignorance. Our UNU team quickly came to realize that, in
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