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Issue 14: February 2002

War, exploitation and pollution threaten
mountain ecosystems, says UNU expert

The degradation of mountain ecosystems – home to 600 million people and the source of water for more than half the world's population – threatens to seriously worsen global environmental problems including floods, landslides and famine, according to an analysis by United Nations University.

Climate change, pollution, armed conflict, population growth, deforestation and exploitative agricultural, mining and tourism practices are among a growing list of problems confronting the "water towers of the world," prompting warnings that catastrophic flooding, landslides, avalanches, fires and famines will become more frequent and that many unique animals and plants will disappear.

While several of the world’s mountain areas are in relatively good ecological shape, many face accelerating environmental and cultural decline brought on in part by government and multilateral agency policies too often founded on inadequate research.

At the start of the U.N. International Year of Mountains 2002, the European Alps and the Himalaya-Karakorum-Hindu Kush chain (stretching from the borders of Myanmar and China across northern India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan) were deemed the most threatened mountain ranges in the developed and developing worlds respectively.

UNU Rector Hans van Ginkel says the International Year of Mountains is an opportunity and invitation to the scientific community to foster better, more effective aid and development policies by improving the world’s understanding of environmental and other problems facing mountain regions.

"Mountain ecosystems are essential to the well-being of the global environment.  Yet there is a serious problem of widespread over-simplification of mountain-related issues and a tendency to try to solve problems that are not properly defined," says Dr. van Ginkel. "At best, this means wasted effort and funds. At worst, it can cause even more damage to these fragile ecosystems."

At U.N. House in Tokyo, UNU activities to mark the International Year of Mountains 2002 include a public forum Jan. 31, an international symposium on Mountain Ecosystems February 1, and a photography exhibition.

Dr. Jack Ives

Mountains and highlands are found on every continent, cover about a quarter of the Earth's land surface and are home to 10% of the world's people.  Another 40% live in adjacent medium and lower watershed areas; thus more than half the global population is directly or indirectly dependent on mountain resources and services, the foremost being water for drinking and home use, irrigation, hydro power, industry and transportation.

Each region features a complex array of strengths and problems, making it impossible to generalize about global approaches to mountain-related issues.  "It is possible to generalize, however, about the absolute lack of information needed for effective policy formulation," according to Dr. Jack Ives, senior advisor to UNU and a mountain ecology expert.

"What data policy makers do rely on often relates to mountain ranges in the developed world, inappropriately applied to developing countries.  Notions based on scant scientific data are accepted as truths.  For example, while there are serious problems in the Himalaya, massive deforestation has not occurred across the entire mountain system.  Such misinformed assumptions have led to simplistic, and often counter-productive, remedies.”

In addition to gathering and sharing more and better data and information worldwide, there is an urgent need to strengthen capacity in developing country mountain areas in such studies as meteorology, hydrology, ecology and soil sciences, says Dr. Ives, a professor at Canada's Carleton University.

“These must be firmly linked as well to the human sciences – anthropology, social science and human geography,” he added.

“The management of mountain regions and watersheds in a way that embraces and integrates many sciences is a key to success. Another is the promotion of alternative livelihood opportunities for mountain people in developing countries, to alleviate the poverty at the root of so many of their health and environmental problems.”

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