Economic changes and increase in population are threatening the ecology of the northern
mountains. Elaborate
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Abstract
This paper addresses a number of issues related to current and future climatic change and its
impacts on mountain environments and economies, focusing on the “Mountain Regions” Chapter
13 of Agenda 21, a basis document presented at the 1992 United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, and the International Year of the
Mountains (IYM) 2002. The awareness that mountain regions are an important component of the
earth’s ecosystems, in terms of the resources and services that they provide to both mountain
communities and lowland residents, has risen in the intervening decade. Based upon the themes
outlined in the supporting documents for IYM, this paper will provide a succinct review of a
number of sectors that warrant particular attention, according to IYM. These sectors include
water resources, ecosystems and biological diversity, natural hazards, health issues, and tourism.
A portfolio of research and policy options are discussed in the concluding section, as a summary
of what the IYM and other concerned international networks consider to be the priority for
mountain environmental protection, capacity building, and response strategies in the face of
climatic change in the short to medium term future.
1. Introduction
In June 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, Rio de
Janeiro) addressed a range of issues pertaining to sustainable development as a means of reducing
human-induced environmental stress, in a document referred to as Agenda 21. Chapter 13 of this
program is exclusively devoted to mountain regions and, for the first time, an official and explicit
recognition that mountains and uplands are a major component of the global environment has
emerged. Chapter 13 sets the scene by stating the role of mountains within the global ecosystem,
and expresses serious concerns related to the decline in the general environmental quality of many
mountains. A summarized version (UN, 1992) of Agenda 21/13 reads:
“Mountains are important sources of water, energy, minerals, forest and agricultural products
and areas of recreation. They are storehouses of biological diversity, home to endangered species
and an essential part of the global ecosystem. From the Andes to the Himalayas, and from
Southeast Asia to East and Central Africa, there is serious ecological deterioration. Most
mountain areas are experiencing environmental degradation.”
Significant orographic features occupy close to 25% of continental surfaces (Kapos et al., 2000)
and, although only about 26% of the world’s population resides within mountains or in the
foothills of the mountains (Meybeck et al., 2001), mountain-based resources indirectly provide
sustenance for over half. Moreover, 40% of global population lives in the watersheds of rivers
originating in the planet’s different mountain ranges.
Mountains also represent unique areas for the detection of climatic change and the assessment of
climate-related impacts. One reason for this is that, as climate changes rapidly with height over