Introduction and Road Map for Impact of Global Changes on High-Mountains - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 22

change as a process that unfolds between interacting pairs of opposing
forces/actors/trends and the reconciliation of which is the aim of recent
thought in the study of social ecological systems. The authors have argued
that mitigation and adaptation can be understood as part of this dialectic
process. As other authors in the earlier chapters have discussed that changes
in the mountainous regions not only impacts population/communities
in the high mountains but also on lowlands. Monreal et al. also make a
case for lowlands for a concerted effort on the part of lowland societies to
support adaptation in mountain regions if for nothing else but their own
self-interest. The authors have looked at the global signifi cance of, and
adaptation strategies for marginal places.
So far the chapters in the topic have highlighted that the mountain
ecosystems are most fragile and sensitive to climate change. Global climate
estimates predict larger temperature rise in the mountainous regions even
under conservative scenarios. Vulnerability of mountainous ecosystems is
much higher because it is a repository of natural resources; water, forests
and biodiversity, also it is home of the most poor people of world who
are primarily dependent on the natural resources for their livelihood.
Climate drivers like precipitation and temperature variability along with
non-climatic drivers make the situation adverse and forces for reactive and
planned adaption strategies. The operators and receptors of the adaptation
are diverse and differ from place to place; hence the purpose of adaptation
should be well defi ned for these regions. Adaptation models, tools and
techniques need greater details of understanding to assess interaction,
opportunities and challenges among available indicators. The chapter by
Joshi et al. reviews available climate change adaptation frameworks and
identifi es their applicability for the Himalayan ecosystems. While Tiwari
and Joshi discussed policies and strategies for adaptation, Joshi et al. have
looked at different models and how information from these models can be
used for adaptation policy making by decision makers. As discussed by
Borsdorf et al., policy makers and decision makers look for information to
make decisions around mitigation and adaptation to climate change, this
chapter provides a comprehensive set of information for decision makers
for developing region specifi c adaptive policy and researchers to analyze
the importance of these, while recommending more models relevant to
adaptive capacity to climate change.
LAWS AND GOVERNANCE
As we all know making laws and regulations is perhaps the easier part, but
implementing them is the hard part (as rightly pointed out by Frangetto ), to
regulate mountains is probably more diffi cult than to climb a high mountain.