Sustainable Mountain Development - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 619

types in mountains around the world (Kollmair et al. 2005); they now cover more than
5.6 million km 2 of the world's mountains—16.5 percent of the total mountain area out-
side Antarctica (Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al. 2011). Nevertheless, nearly 1 million km 2
of this total is in Greenland National Park, and protected areas have often been estab-
lished where productivity and human use are low (Chape et al. 2008).
For about the first century of the protected area movement, “protection” often meant
that local people were largely excluded from national parks. In some places, including
Yellowstone, the Swiss National Park, the Gorge of Samaria on the island of Crete, and
very often in developing countries, local people were encouraged to leave or were phys-
ically removed when parks were established, and their villages were left to decay or
were destroyed. For some indigenous groups, this led to their near extinction (Higgins-
Zogib et al. 2010). Since the 1980s, there has been increasing recognition that protec-
ted areas cannot be managed as “islands” separate from the surrounding landscape,
and that the customary practices of local people can be complementary to, or even en-
hance, conservation goals (Stevens 1997; Stolton and Dudley 2010). One example is
Thung Yai Naresuan Sanctuary, a World Heritage Site in Thailand, from which local
Karen people were expelled, but later allowed to return (Thongmak and Hulse 1993).
Twenty-first century conservation increasingly takes a wider, regional perspective, em-
phasizing both the conservation of biological diversity and the benefits of protection
for local people (Stolton and Dudley 2010). This is becoming even more important in
the context of climate change; one of many reasons why networks and corridors linking
protected areas are being proposed within, and linking, many mountain regions (Wor-
boys et al. 2010). This shift toward regional approaches means that the management
of protected areas, key species, and their habitats should no longer be undertaken just
by government agencies or organizations focusing on nature conservation (Borrini-Fey-
erabend et al. 2004).
PARTNERSHIPS FOR CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
To ensure the long-term survival of the species, ecosystems, and landscapes within a
particular area, local people—and other stakeholders such as local governments, non-
governmental organizations, private companies, and, in some cases, the military—must
be involved in their designation and management (Borrini-Feyerabend et al. 2004).
Broad stakeholder involvement is a trend in mountain protected areas around the world,
including the Amarakeri Communal Reserve in Peru (Alvarez et al. 2008), Simen Moun-
tains National Park in Ethiopia (Hurni et al. 2008, Fig. 12.11), the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-
Aletsch World Heritage Site (Wallner and Wiesmann 2009), and many mountain bio-
sphere reserves around the world (Austrian MAB Committee 2011). In addition, the
emerging trend of privately managed protected areas should also be noted, as, for ex-
ample, in the mountains of Central America (Chacon 2005), the Sierra Nevada of Cali-
fornia (Balsiger 2010), and the mountains of Catalonia, Spain (Rafa 2004).