Governance and Laws of Mountains - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 168

It is useful to analyze situations in which the use of the mountains is in
risk and trying to use these lessons learnt as a warning to prevent further
damage to mountains and its ecosystem, or to solve existing confl icts in
the particular hill scenarios.
The focus of this chapter is on governance and laws in mountains—to
deal with the real situation of mountains particularly in Brazil, as an example
on how to obey limits of nature in mountains, instead of destroying its
ecosystems. The chapter has four sections contributed independently by
various authors.
The fi rst section describes the contribution of International and National
Law in the fi eld of mountains. It shows how regulation is proportional
to recognized environmental functions and services of the hills, mounts,
mountains and ranges. Although the law has been passed in Brazil
regarding Forest Code but it still neglects many requirements proposed
by the environmentalists. A very interesting suggestion is to have a global
international accord designed specially to protect mountains. However in
the absence of such a global accord or treaty, at least some national rules
and laws are important, such as the Brazilian provision of 'permanent
protection areas' which also include mountains.
The second section of this chapter examines the Alpine Convention as
a model for protecting transboundary areas of mountains. The efforts of
protection are also analyzed by looking at what international organizations
and research networks have been working on in relation to mountains.
After this analysis, a socio-environmental perspective is presented which
describes the ecological risks and disasters in hillsides and mountainous
areas in Brazil as problems faced by some section of population living under
vulnerable conditions in the mountain regions.
To illustrate that it is feasible to avoid damage in mountain areas, 'The
Precautionary Principle' in Practice in Brazil demonstrates that it is possible
to protect ecosystems and population, from both natural incidents (such
as landslides) as well as accidents caused by changes in mountain regions.