People in the Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 509

FIGURE 10.13 Managed village forest areas and temple forests in the Beas River valley, Kullu-Manali,
Pir Panjal Himalaya, India (photo by J. S. Gardner) and traditional fuel-wood gathering in the
Chimborazo region, Ecuador (inset; photo by C. Stadel).
Mountain streams, rivers, and lakes generate floods of various types. This fact, plus
the tendency for rivers to be focal points of settlement and transportation, produces
a confluence of high hazard and elevated vulnerability of people and property which
translates into high risk of disaster, and thus requires a high degree of cooperation at
all scales from the local to the regional and international.
Vegetation and Wildlife
Plants, animals, fish, and birds are useful and central to the lives of mountain people. As
discussed in Chapters 7 and 8, mountain areas are notable for their biological diversity,
which reflects relationships with all other environmental factors, and with people. The
diversity is driven by the altitude-based differentiation of ecosystems and the multitude
of topographic niches. The relationships between people and vegetation have produced
impacts through the harvesting of trees and other plants, alterations of plants and their
habitat for agriculture and animal husbandry, introductions of new species, and habitat
changes resulting from the growth of settlements, construction, and other forms of re-
source exploitation. For long-term mountain residents, the ecological complementarity
and exchange relationships provided by vegetation and ecosystem diversity have been
a basis for survival (Rhoades and Thompson 1975).
Under natural conditions, forests are or were extensive in many tropical and tem-
perate mountain regions (Hamilton et al. 1997). They provide important products and
services locally, serve as hydrological regulators regionally, and continue to provide im-