People in the Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 519

Mountain forests have a productive function for timber and nontimber products as well
as protective functions such as watershed, biodiversity, and cultural preservation, bal-
anced ecosystem regulation, and hazard mitigation. Thus, mountain forests generate
livelihoods that far exceed those generated by tree harvesting alone. In many mountain
areas, most notably the Alps, numerous smaller-scale community, private, and state
forests are being managed for multifunctionality and sustainability in which tree har-
vesting is only one of several livelihood activities.
Trade and Artisan Livelihoods
Trade and artisan work have long been important sources of livelihood in mountainous
regions. Valleys and passes, through which goods and people flow, have placed moun-
tain people in the position of middlemen linking economies in and beyond all mountain
regions. In the Alps, passes such as Spliigen, Gotthard, Brenner, and Bernardino have
been trade routes for millennia, linking the large commercial centers of northern Italy
(Bologna, Venice, Florence, Milan, Genoa) with those of Central Europe (e.g., Augs-
burg, Nuremberg, Munich). Other examples are the trans-Himalayan trade routes link-
ing lowland India and China with Central Asia and the Tibetan Plateau (Rizvi 1999;
Fuchs 2008). Trade, whether within the mountains or beyond, is usually based on com-
plementary needs, and therefore the geography and diversity of resources of mountain
areas position them favorably in generating livelihoods as producers, transporters, and
merchants of trade and sale items.
Mountain trade items included artisan goods, especially items made of wood, metal,
and wool. One example is the traditional watch and clock industry in the Jura Mountains
of Switzerland and France and in the Black Forest of southern Germany. Developed over
the years from a small-scale cottage industry, it has become a large, sophisticated in-
dustry with a global reputation and market. The global trade in pashmina and other
wool shawls has grown from cottage industries in the northwest Himalaya of Kashmir,
Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Other examples are the Otavalos or the Salasacas
in Ecuador, and some Quechua and Aymara communities in Peru and Bolivia, which are
well known for their woven textiles (Fig. 10.17).