Sustainable Mountain Development - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 618

Protected Areas: Linking Conservation and Development
BIODIVERSITY HOT SPOTS
Many of the most biologically diverse parts of the Earth are in mountain areas, one
reason that the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological
Diversity approved a specific Programme of Work on Mountain Biodiversity in 2004
(Anonymous 2004). Globally, 25 of the 34 world centers of greatest biodiversity, or
biodiversity hot spots recognized by Conservation International (Mittermeier et al.
2005) are wholly or partly mountainous. Most are in or include tropical mountains:
the Atlantic forest of Brazil, northern Borneo, the eastern Andes, the eastern Him-
alaya-Yunnan region, and Papua New Guinea. Many secondary centers are in Mediter-
ranean areas—which have the greatest number of tree species outside the tropics—as
well as arid mountains, parts of the Rocky Mountains, and Central Asia (Barthlott et al.
2005).
As discussed in Chapters 7 and 8, many factors combine to create these high levels
of biodiversity, including endemism: in particular, steep altitudinal gradients and op-
portunities for movement along corridors—or, conversely, isolation—and evolution over
geological time (Fig. 12.10). A further set of factors leading to the high biodiversity
of mountain ecosystems derives from human activities. While lowland areas have been
cleared and cultivated for centuries, if not millennia, extensive parts of mountain areas
were largely left alone because of the steep slopes and less attractive conditions for ag-
riculture.
For instance, in Europe, mountains can immediately be recognized on a map of biod-
iversity hot spots (European Environment Agency 2010). The Alps, for example, host
about 4,500 vascular plant species, more than a third of the entire European flora, of
which about 15 percent are endemic (Ozenda and Borel 2003). However, human activit-
ies are not only a major reason that Europe's mountains have high levels of biodiversity
relative to adjacent lowlands, but also a cause of high biodiversity within them. As in
other mountain areas around the world, centuries—even millennia—of human activities
including grazing, burning, irrigation, and the selective harvesting of species have had
major influences on both flora and fauna, as, for instance, in New Guinea, where there
is a strong relationship between biological and cultural diversity (Stepp et al. 2005).
The continuation of such long-established practices is often essential not only to ensure
the maintenance of these anthropogenic ecosystems and their constituent species, but
also to preserve cultural heritage and food, soil, and water supplies for both mountain
and downstream communities (Körner et al. 2005).
PROTECTED AREAS
Mountain areas have been a principal focus of the protected area movement since it
began in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1864, the federal government of the United
States gave the Yosemite Valley to the State of California as a park, and in 1872, de-
clared Yellowstone, in the Rocky Mountains, as a “public park” it is generally considered
the first national park (Foresta 1982). Many of the other early national parks around
the world, including Banff in Canada and Tongariro in New Zealand, are also in moun-
tain areas. Since the 1980s, protected areas have been one of the fast-growing land-use