Introduction and Road Map for Impact of Global Changes on High-Mountains - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 27

and ensure the protection of their ecosystems. The author has described
selective local development initiatives but a lot of activities are being
undertaken by millions of Mexicans and people elsewhere in the world
implementing local development strategies on the margin of and in place
of unsatisfactory market-based solutions. They are reclaiming cultural
mechanisms for organizing productive structures responsive to local needs
and strengthening traditional governance organs while creating a new
generation of local cadre concerned with their societies' quality of life and
the health of their ecosystems; in the process, they are transforming market
relations with the outside world, replacing the commercial partners with
fair trade institutions and other 'niche' marketers that protect them against
unequal exchange.
Kaz et al. have discussed the impact of global changes on Canadian
Rockies. In the Canadian Rockies, three major rivers (Fraser River, Columbia
River and Saskatchewan River) provide freshwater to millions of Canadians
for domestic, agricultural, industrial and power generation usage, as well
as for tourism. The authors have looked at two case studies: the Cline River
watershed in western Alberta and the Okanagan River watershed in the
interior British Columbia. In both of these cases, impact of climate change on
the seasonal variation of stream-fl ow is important in agriculture and power
generation, as well as in tourism. The forest industry in British Columbia
will be signifi cantly impacted from the ecosystem redistribution of tree
species, with many of the important conifer species quickly losing their
habitats. A lot more research is required to understand how the interaction
between the changes in meteorological variables under climate change and
those factors which infl uence the biodiversity of the environment and the
nature of human socio-economic activities.
Andean societies have always coped with environmental, economic,
cultural and political changes. Often these exogenous forces have disturbed
traditional livelihoods, required new adaptations, and also changed Andean
landscapes and societies. At times, they also resulted in new economic
outlooks, acculturations, migration patterns and different spatial and
societal disparities. While the various agrarian reforms during the last
half century attempted to achieve a more equitable land distribution and
new opportunities for Sierra farmers in new colonization areas, the current
impact of 'agro-capitalism' and market-orientation has created a situation,
in which wealthy and powerful private and corporate stakeholders are the
winners, with a majority of rural people remaining at the periphery of this
form of development. Within the rural societies an intensifi ed education
and training ( capacitación ) and a mobilization and empowerment of people
to remain 'in control' of their environment, and to fi nd their own forms
of resilience, adaptive strategies and development alternatives, will be
imperative. However, these efforts have to be 'accompanied' and supported