Sustainable Mountain Development - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 610

While mountain people derive some benefits from the exploitation of exportable
mountain resources, managerial and financial control of that exploitation and the neces-
sary transport infrastructure remain outside the mountains. Given the distance of most
mountain areas from national capitals, most governments either ignore them or treat
them as “security zones” where the livelihoods and well-being of mountain people are
among the lowest priorities for investment. Yet modern communications very effectively
develop the perception among mountain people that they live in less attractive condi-
tions than do urban dwellers—even if their situation is improving according to HDI or
HPI criteria. They send their best-educated children to the cities, both for their own
sakes and to send remittances home, yet this increases their despair and brings greater
awareness that their quality of life is relatively lower.
One apparent solution is to partially or wholly abandon traditional activities and take
up new ones that provide cash incomes. In some cases, these have been green revolu-
tion crops, which often do not provide yields or incomes that are as reliable as tradi-
tional varieties. More unfortunately, as discussed in Chapter 11, while mountain areas
are not the most appropriate for many commercial crops, some provide the best con-
ditions for the cultivation of drugs, including cannabis, coca, and opium, the most im-
portant at the global level (Fig. 12.5). Cannabis (also called marijuana or hashish) is
cultivated in mountain areas around the world, with the single most important produc-
tion area being the Rif Mountains of Morocco. Most of the world's coca is grown in the
“white triangle” of the Andes, in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. Afghanistan produces 85
percent of the world's opium (UNODC 2010). In the resulting illegal economies, moun-
tain people again provide the resources from which external forces primarily benefit
(UNODC 2010; Libiszewski and Bächler 1997). Intensive drug cultivation is associated
with deforestation, erosion and declining soil fertility, and intensified local conflicts over
land resources (Steinberg and Taylor 2007). This gives local criminals or warlords the
opportunity to provide “security” in exchange for a share in drug earnings. Mountain
people are thus doubly victimized: first, by local gangs and traffickers, who aim to main-
tain or increase their stake in the drugs business; and second, by national authorities
and the international community at large, which aim to eradicate drug production at
the source. It is difficult to find out how drug money is invested, but much finds its way
into the legal economy—for example, in the construction or real estate sectors (Shanty
and Mishra 2007). As a result of this double pressure, the social, cultural, and economic
fabric of local communities often breaks down (Starr 2004).
FINDING A BALANCE BETWEEN DEPENDENCE AND INTEGRATION
When mountain people have low incomes and/or quality of life, or when there has been
a breakdown in their societies, the driving forces are usually not local, but extern-
al—typically at the national level. Consequently, a shift toward more sustainable devel-
opment primarily requires critical decisions at this level, which need to focus on the
linkages between mountain and lowland areas (and their centers of power) and on the
particular potentials of mountain areas (Grau and Aide 2007). From their analysis of
mountain regions mentioned above, Parvez and Rasmussen (2004) conclude that sub-
stantive national economic growth is a necessary prerequisite to developing the moun-
tain regions of any particular country. A growing national economy means that the gov-