Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 10.7 Mountains hold great spiritual value for residents and outsiders alike. Shown here is a
sacrifice to Pachamama (Mother Earth) by native Uros on the Bolivian Altiplano near Lake Titic-
aca. (Photo by C. Stadel.)
In the Andes, the rural hacienda or finca of wealthy urbanites has a long tradition
since colonial time and is seen as a symbol of social prestige and sophistication. Today,
people build second residences in and around ski and golf resorts, and at or near natural
amenities such as scenic river valleys and lakes. Verbier and Davos, Switzerland, Whist-
ler, British Columbia, and Vail, Colorado, are examples of such settlements in Europe
and North America. Indeed, the economic viability of some destination resorts is based
on the sales of real estate to private individuals or groups. The owners visit their second
homes on a periodic basis and form a distinctive social/cultural community that pays
local taxes and feels it has a stake in local issues. Such groups may find themselves
at odds with long-term traditional residents who rely more directly on local natural re-
sources for their livelihoods. A new feature in this context is the emergence of “time
share units,” where clients purchase a certain period of time/year in a chalet or apart-
ment for a period of 20 to 40 years. The semipermanent resident in the classical case
may wish to preserve the amenities that attracted them, while the permanent residents
may wish to preserve their traditional values and livelihoods, which may be dependent
on the use, sustainable or not, of the amenity resources. This type of conflict is common
in western North America (Moss 2006b).
The so-called “hill stations” that developed in India during the British colonial period
are early products of amenity migration to mountain and hill areas that led to semiper-
manent residency and permanent towns and cities of some size. The best known are
located in the southern ranges and foothills of the Himalaya; they include Shimla, Mur-
ree (now in Pakistan), Mussoorie, Nainital, and Darjeeling (Kanwar 1990; Fig. 10.4). All
were established and/or developed in the nineteenth century as retreats from the spring
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