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The Earth’s environment is continuously subjected to various stresses through natural processes and human interference. With the rapid industrialization and population growth that the 20 century has experienced worldwide, however, humankind has added a new dimension of stress to the global environment in general, and mountain regions in particular. In some instances, environmental degradation is inevitable because of the basic requirements of human populations, particularly where those are growing rapidly; in other cases, environmental damage is a direct result of mismanagement and over-exploitation of natural resources (Beniston 2000). The sensitivity of a given mountain region to changes in environmental conditions depends largely upon the climatic, geological and biological features of the region considered. Changes in these controlling factors, particularly through direct human interference or indirect effects such as climatic change, may have significant impacts upon numerous mountain environments.

In 2000, the Task Force on Forests in Sustainable Mountain Development of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) published a state-of-knowledge report (Price and Butt 2000). The terms of reference for the Task Force recognized the need for such a report, deriving from four linked trends:

The main argument of this paper is that changes in the formal and informal institutions that govern natural resources in mountain regions of northern Thailand have been critical for environmental changes, livelihoods and sustainability. Over the past decade, there have been new insights from interdisciplinary research on how societies interact with environmental changes in mountain regions. These have underlined the importance of institutions as both causes and responses to environmental change, and how institutions themselves arise from the way environmental and sustainability problems are constructed. In this chapter, these more general findings will be illustrated primarily through examples from recent and ongoing research in the mountain region of Northern Thailand. Taken together, these various studies challenge long-held beliefs about what constitutes problems in environmental change and sustainability, underline the need for a better understanding of cross-scale interactions, and point the way towards a more open and accountable science in support of sustainability.

Uplands, mountains, or highlands are both biogeographic and cultural terms that refer to mountainous areas, their biological components and agricultural practices (Sajise and Baguninon 1982). In public perception, mountain regions are often associated with geographical and socio-political peripheries, due to their often remote locations, their higher proportion of ethnic minorities, their landuse and livelihood practices, and their political status. The preamble to Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 states the importance of mountain ecosystems as follows:

Traditional mountain societies are characterized by their close interconnection with nature and natural resources. They depend upon natural resources and biodiversity for their sustainable livelihood concerns (Ramakrishnan 1992a; Ramakrishnan et al. 1994; 1996). This linkage with nature and natural resources extends beyond the economic realm; social, cultural and spiritual dimensions also play a significant role (Ramakrishnan et al. 1998). Traditional mountain societies have a holistic view of the ecosystem and the social system. This relationship with nature is based on coexistence rather than competition, which results in agricultural strategies that are adapted to the natural environment and the sustainable use of natural resources. The result of this relationship is a set of institutional arrangements that evolved towards ecological prudence. The ultimate objective is the sustainable use of natural resources through compromises between environmental risks on the one hand, and productivity concerns on the other.

Many mountain environments are experiencing increases in population density and are undergoing rapid intensification of human land uses, such as recreation, resource extraction, agriculture, and housing. One consequence of increasing human impact is the alteration of nature reserves, many of which are in mountain regions. While nature reserves are generally well-protected within their borders (Bruner et al. 2001), evidence is mounting that many reserves are nonetheless losing native biodiversity (Newmark 1987; 1995; 1996; Woodroffe and Ginsberg 1998; Brooks et al. 1999). A contributing factor is the conversion of surrounding habitats for agriculture, logging, settlements, and other human activities (Sala et al. 2000). We suggest that human land use activities outside the boundaries of reserves both affect and are affected by nature reserves, so that the true system boundaries span far outside the designated boundaries (Fig. 1). In this review, we examine the complex interactions among socioeconomic systems, land use, biophysical factors, and biodiversity within and around reserves and point out research needs.

High nature value (HNV) farming areas are regarded as farmland where there are intimate relationships between farming practices and biodiversity and where the continuation of those farming practices is essential for the maintenance of this biodiversity value (e.g. Bignal 1998; Luick 1998; Ostermann 1998; Webb 1998; Zervas 1998). By the mid 1990s, there was a growing recognition that particular farming systems (many of them in mountainous areas) were important in maintaining nature conservation value over much of the wider European countryside, but it was also recognised that there was little information available on the range of such systems being practised across Europe. To redress some of this imbalance, the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) funded a pilot study of nine European countries: Greece, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom (Beaufoy et al. 1994; Bignal et al. 1994b; Bignal and McCracken 1996a,b; 2000).

This essay deals with the repercussions of rapid economic globalisation for mountain environments and communities in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region. The subject, despite its importance, has not received systematic attention beyond the protests and debates by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and others (Roy 1997). We present the information and understanding generated by a recently concluded exploratory study on the subject supported by the Mac Arthur Foundation (Jodha 2002). After discussing the key features of the rapid economic globalisation in the HKH region, we examine how mountain-specific conditions (mountain specificities), such as fragility, inaccessibility, diversity, and marginality, interact with the globalisation process. We identify the risks and opportunities created by globalisation for mountain areas and communities. The prognosis that derives from our discussion is supported by emerging evidence from selected mountain areas of China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Jodha 2002).

Key problems in mountain areas and at highland-lowland interfaces are largely related to human impact in these fragile ecosystems and may be intensified by the indirect effects of human activities in surrounding lowland areas. On the positive side, mountain regions are the world’s freshwater reservoirs; they are important areas for agriculture, have resources that can be exploited for mining and tourism, and exhibit great biodiversity within small areas. The combined effects of various key problems in a mountain area can lead to a so-called “mountain syndrome”; most mountain systems show key symptoms of this syndrome or have the potential for their development (NCCR North-South 2000). The syndrome concept, developed by the German Advisory Council for Global Change (WBGU 1996), provides a framework for focused research. Its basic assumption is that typical clusters of ecological, social and economic problems or symptoms can be identified in specific regions of the world, such as mountain areas. These typical problem clusters are called “syndromes of global change” and are seen by WBGU (1996) as representative, specific functional patterns of non-sustainable development. Given this assumption, the syndrome concept allows primarily for integrated, situation-specific differentiation of global change.

The Upper Ewaso Ng’iro North river basin, which drains the north-western slopes of Mount Kenya in central Kenya, epitomises the African highland-lowland system. Extending over a vast region (15,200 km), it encompasses an extreme eco-climatological gradient that ranges from the glaciated peaks and indigenous forests of Mount Kenya to the semi-arid and arid land of the lowland plains (Fig. 1). The mountain forms a great natural asset in terms of water resources with plentiful rainfall (1500 mm/yr) supplying perennial rivers that radiate lifelines to the dry lowlands below. Thus, Mount Kenya is one of the major “water towers” (Liniger et al. 1998b; Liniger and Weingartner 2000) in Eastern Africa. Increasing pressures on the mountain from population increase and agricultural development have the potential to endanger this asset and cause conflict between upstream and downstream water users (Hurni et al., this volume). Rapid population growth has attained levels as high as 7–8% per annum (Kiteme et al. 1998). Migrants initially moved to the lower mountain slopes, attracted by good soils, high rainfall and proximity to rivers and transport, but latterly, forced by the pressure for land, they have settled on the dry plains, extending the migration zone into marginal areas for production (Kiteme et al. 1998; Liniger et al. 1998a).