Introduction and Road Map for Impact of Global Changes on High-Mountains - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 29

warming. Water stored in glaciers and in forested watersheds is expected
to decrease in the future, thereby putting under stress the wellbeing of the
regional population and ecosystems and, the population downstream which
depends on these rivers. To cope with these threats the regions of NOA and
Cuyo should take decisive and timely steps to increase their adaptability
and resilience to a changing climate. As explained by the authors, in view
of the foregoing each of NOA and Cuyo regions will need to implement
context-specifi c policies of adaptation and mitigation to the extent of the
expected climate change impacts. Most of those would be in line with recent
conclusions from a relevant meeting of Latin American countries. 2
Just like GLOFs are increasingly becoming a concern in the areas
where glaciers are melting (discussed by Manfred et al. earlier in the topic),
mudslides are posing a huge challenge on hill/mountain sides as well. This
becomes even more complicated when there are people illegally settled
on these slopes. The authors in this chapter have looked at some technical
issues such as stability of the slopes and social and environmental issues
such as eroded hill sides, unplanned and illegal inhabitation of the fragile
land in unstable housing, and socio-economic conditions of immigrants in
urbanization process that lead to the disasters and its consequences. The
authors have also looked at the way zones should be demarcated to mark
the most risk-prone areas and how a monitoring system should be set up
to save lives (at least till integrated plans can be put into place to prevent
such disasters).
Conclusion
Mountain's ecosystem support about one-tenth of the human population.
Mountains not only support the people living on it but also people on
plains—since all the rivers originating from mountains carry water
and sediments downstream supporting agriculture, fi sheries and other
livelihoods in addition to providing drinking water. Mountains are
important part of global water cycle (since they store water in the form of
snow or glaciers) and also centers of biological diversity.
As can be seen from the case studies, global changes are impacting
mountainous ecosystems and livelihoods/lifestyles, economy and social
structure of the communities. It is imperative that governments develop
mitigation and adaptation strategies for these communities. As discussed in
the various chapters in the topic, mountain environments have been deemed
essential to the survival of the global ecosystem in Chapter 13 of Agenda
21 , the outcome document of the Rio 'Earth Summit' in 1992; by seven
UNGA resolutions—including one in 2013; and by The Future We Want , the
outcome document adopted at Rio+20 in 2012. However, the revised Zero
Draft of the Sustainable Development Goals (new goals that will replace the