Prelude: Mountains in an Uncertain World* - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 7

Photo 1 Nepal Middle Mountains. In places the Kakani ridge landscape has been so completely
engineered by human hands through generations that no vestige of 'untouched nature'
remains. This is a dry season view of bari (rainfed) terraces. We came to resent so-called Western
experts characterizing such beautiful landscapes as wilful destruction of the environment by
'ignorant' peasants (1980).
many instances, they represented a marvel of landscape stability engineered
under extremely diffi cult circumstances.
In the 1970s it was even predicted by the World Bank and other
authoritative agencies, that all accessible forest cover in Nepal would be
eliminated by 2000. We termed this alarmist process, for convenience,
the 'Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation' and devoted all
available research capacity at our disposal to determine the facts, eventually
exposing its projections to exaggeration and misguided emotion.
The combined activities of the United Nations University, IGU, and
International Mountain Society led to close contact with Maurice Strong who,
in 1990, was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference