Hemanta R. Mishra is Senior NGO
Specialist with the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), Manila, the Philippines.
The views expressed in this article
are the author's own and do not
represent those of ADB.
Five mountain strategies for promoting food, water, environmental and employment security for both highland and lowland populations.
Countries cannot afford to ignore linkages between economic development in the highlands and lowlands - shown here, a market at Guamote, Ecuador (3 000 m), where merchants purchase indigenous products for sale in the lowlands, and local people can obtain products from the lowlands such as clothes and bananas
- FAO/19280/R. JONES
Mountains in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Central and South America are islands of outstanding beauty and rich natural resources in a sea of ugliness - the ugliness mostly stemming from poverty and the social and political marginalization of the mountain inhabitants. Yet as water towers and sites of outstanding biodiversity and natural and cultural resources, the mountains need not necessarily remain islands of poverty, but can be converted into avenues of prosperity. Ecological principles can be integrated with economic development to reduce poverty.
Mountains can provide several opportunities for redressing poverty and achieving sustainable development. They provide and safeguard water supply. They harbour biodiversity, and provide natural products such as timber, medicinal plants and minerals. They provide national and local income through tourism. Their forests help conserve soil and water, maintain the integrity of the ecosystem, prevent mountain hazards and natural disasters such as floods and landslides and (like other forests) regulate climate and serve as carbon sinks.
This article recommends five strategic actions for an integrated land and water management framework to provide food, water, environmental and employment security:
If stakeholders are defined as those who will either gain or lose with any particular policy or programme intervention at any particular site, mountains have primarily two kinds of stakeholders: the on-site users and the off-site consumers (Mishra, 2000). The strategies recommended here, especially the first three, will benefit not only the on-site, highland stakeholders, but also the lowlanders off-site. Promoting the off-site benefits is an important means of obtaining political support for mountain development from people in the lowlands.
Although there is a paucity of empirical data, most of the world's mountain people live below the poverty line. Of the more than 7 million people that dwell in the Andes, most are poor and live under harsh and inhospitable conditions. At least 118 million people struggle to survive using dwindling resources from agricultural fields, pastures and forests in the Himalayas (Denniston, 1993). Of the 18 countries and regions identified by the United Nations as in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, 11 are mountainous (E. Byers, unpublished). Furthermore, both life expectancy at birth and literacy rates tend to be lower in the mountains than in the lowlands of developing countries.
Economic development in mountainous regions lags behind development in the lowlands for a variety of reasons including limited opportunities for education and skill development and consequent dependence on land; migration to the plains and cities; relative economic isolation, partly because of limited access and the high cost of developing infrastructure facilities; and limited investment in the development of technologies appropriate to moun-tainous areas.
As a result, hunger and malnutrition remain chronic in many mountainous developing countries. Food security - the physical and economic access to food for all people at all times - depends not only on the availability of food, but on its affordability. A key strategic inter-vention to ensure food security in the mountains is to provide economic opportunities and avenues for the poor to make more money by low-impact and highly sustainable development programmes.
Physical and economic isolation is a constraint to the livelihoods and food security of mountain people, who are frequently dependent on agriculture - shown here, a farming family in Tajikistan
- FAO/20656/A. PROTO
Countries cannot afford to ignore the intricate linkage between environmental conservation and economic development in the highlands and poverty reduction and sustainable development in the lowlands (Price and Butt, 2000; Messerli and Ives, 1997). Problems such as recurrent landslides, floods and famines in the mountains have adverse impacts on economic and human development in both the highlands and the lowlands. The migration of mountain people to cities in search of a better life not only creates hardships in the areas they left behind, but also exacerbates urban poverty and urban problems. Moreover, food security for people everywhere depends on the conservation of soil and water in the mountains. At least half of the world's population depends on the mountains for water, power, timber, minerals, topsoil and food.
Because of the varying geological, social, economical, cultural and bio-geographical parameters of mountains, many strategic options are site specific. However, the following five strategies would provide opportunities to develop and implement comprehensive land and water management plans. These strategies also link mountain development with poverty reduction through food, water and environmental security.
Mountains are reservoirs for annual renewable freshwater. Yet degradation of watersheds and overexploitation of water have caused major disruption of hydrological cycles. In Asia, for example, many of the earth's greatest rivers such as the Euphrates, Tigris, Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Angara and Yangtze emerge from the mountains, yet the continent faces serious water deficits - both in quality and quantity. One in three Asians has no easy access to safe drinking-water. The shortage is often compounded by seasonal changes in rainfall and lack of proper storage facilities. Misconceived infrastructure projects and mismanage-ment of water resources, coupled with deforestation in the uplands, have reduced river levels and depleted wetlands. The diversion of rivers flowing into the Aral Sea in Central Asia for crop irrigation, starting in the 1950s - which resulted in dramatic shrinkage of the sea, lowering of its water level, salinization and fish mortality - provides a glaring example of mismanagement of inland water. Little seems to have been learned from past mistakes.
Likewise the areas in Asia set aside as protected areas, which are key for conservation of soil and water in these catchments, range from almost zero to almost 6 percent - far from the minimum of 33 percent required to safeguard watersheds (WRI et al., 1998; Revenga et al., 1998).
Water rationing is increasingly common in some countries, despite the proliferation of large dams over the past 50 years. Even though half of the more than 40 000 dams over 15 m high are in China, almost 100 Chinese cities impose some kind of water rationing. The country will reach the water stress threshold - a minimum of 1 700 m3 per capita - within the next two decades. By 2025, India will be water stressed with the per capita availability decreasing from the current level of 2 228 m3 to some 800 m3. The International Food Policy Institute projects that the household and industrial water needs of developing countries will increase by 590 billion cubic metres within the next 20 years. This will require an equivalent to the annual flow of seven Nile rivers (Postel, 1999). The world faces the challenge of resolving how to manage its freshwater resources for industrial and domestic needs without decreasing food production.
Linking mountain conservation with water for drinking, industry and production of goods and services would provide a pragmatic option for reconciling ecology with economics and poverty reduction.
Controlling soil erosion through sustainable crop cultivation practices in the upper reaches of the Lempa River catchment area in Honduras - safeguarding water downstream
- FAO/18884/G. BIZZARRI
Most initiatives linking mountain conservation with water and watershed management have been in Europe, North America and a few developing countries in Central and South America. Costa Rica provides the best example in the developing world of a successful attempt to link highland catchment conservation with lowland water and energy supply using market-based initiatives. Costa Rica's mountains generate one-third of its electricity and almost half of its drinking-water. In 1996 the Government of Costa Rica promulgated an innovative Forestry Law which provides provisions for compensation for environmental services provided by the country's mountain forests. This system is supported by a tax on fossil fuel. Several studies have shown that the people of Costa Rica are willing to pay for sustaining these services and thus recognize the value of environmental services provided by their mountains. In 1997, US$14 million was paid out for such services, resulting in the reforestation of 6 500 ha of degraded land, sustainable management of 10 000 ha of natural forests and the preservation of 79 000 ha of private natural forest. These programmes not only ensure sustained supply of water and energy but also generate local employment and thus redress poverty in both the highlands and the lowlands (Mountain Agenda, 2000).
Another example is from Ecuador. Perched on the slopes of the Andes at 2 850 m, Quito is the capital of one of the least developed countries in South America. Under a collaborative programme between the Nature Conservancy, the Ecuadorian Forests and Natural Areas Institute and Quito's Municipal Sewage and Water Agency, urban users are levied a fee which is used for ecosystem-based conservation of the Quijos, Tumiguina and Blanco rivers and drainage basins, especially the upper watershed (IUCN, 2000).
Combating land degradation is a key to food security. Land degradation is not restricted to the mountains, but it is a particularly serious problem in such rugged terrain. In India, as much as 27 percent of topsoil is affected by severe erosion, mostly in the mountains (ESCAP and ADB, 1995).
Mountain forests in developing countries are under heavy pressure from overharvesting of fuelwood and timber, particularly in the montane tropical and cloud forests. Upland forests in tropical Asia are disappearing fast - witness the barren slopes in the mountains of Luzon in the Philippines - as most of the lowland forests have already been devastated. Damage varies according to the steepness of the slopes, aspects, the extent of forest cover left and soil disturbances from logging techniques. Overharvesting has not only ravaged the mountain ecosystem, but also triggered social tension (e.g. in northeastern India).
Worldwide, some 3 billion people depend on fuelwood as their primary source of energy, mainly for cooking (Sharma et al., 1992). As populations grow, the energy demands of both resident populations and visitors in the mountains will increase. Lack of adequate woodfuel supply or of alternative sources of energy at affordable prices will continue to be an important barrier for sustainable mountain development.
Tourism infrastructure, highways and other development activities have also affected mountain forests. The replace-ment of montane cloud forest by casinos, hotels and golf courses in the Genting and Cameron Highlands of peninsular Malaysia and on Mount Kinabalu in Sabah demonstrates the pressures and impacts of market-oriented economic development.
Forest destruction is linked not only to floods, but also to droughts and famine in the lowlands. Deforestation and land degradation in the highlands, soil erosion, and water-flow reductions and loss of agricultural productivity in the lowlands have been clearly linked (Hamilton, 1987; Bruijnzeel and Bremmer, 1989). However, there is a dearth of global data to elucidate these relationships, partly because of the time lag between the process of erosion in the uplands and the sedimentation of dams, reservoirs and irrigation channels in the lowlands. A few studies have linked land degradation and river-borne sediments with reduction of benefits from dams and hydropower, irrigation and flood control devices, showing that sedimentation effectively limits the life of costly economic infrastructures. The global cost of loss of reservoir capacity is estimated to be US$6 billion per annum (Mahmood, 1987). The loss of water storage carrying capacity of reservoirs in China is estimated to be 2.3 percent (Hu, 1995).
Deforestation reduces rainfall and brings about changes in temperature. As a dynamic and vertical landscape, mountains are more vulnerable to effects of climate change than lowlands. Climate change on mountains engenders risks to human life and property from extreme events such as floods, landslides, avalanches and droughts (Watson, Zinyowera and Moss, 1995). Some of these hazards have been demonstrated by the retreating of the world's glaciers in response to global warming.
Mountains contribute to climate change and in turn are affected by it. Mountains exhibit different altitudinal belts of biota. Any global warming will have severe ecological impacts as the habitats of flora and fauna will shift upwards in elevation to an increasingly small physical stratum, with negative impacts on the population density of flora and fauna. Trees at the timberline are particularly sensitive to climate change. Isolated mountains where there is no opportunity for along-the-range migration will be most severely affected. This will also have adverse impacts in the lowlands.
Mitigation measures may include the establishment of ecological corridors to link existing mountain protected areas with the overall productive landscape (Hamilton, 1997). Forests accrue more sustainable benefits through their role as carbon sinks and custodians of water resources and through their role in controlling flood and drought in the lowlands than through timber extraction (Mountain Agenda, 2000).
Sustainable tourism can be a key instrument to redress poverty in remote mountain areas - shown here, a camp in the Gokyo Lakes region of Nepal
- S.K. NEPAL
Spiritual and aesthetic values are an integral part of sustainable human development. Mountains include many of the world's most important sites of religious, cultural and spiritual significance (Bernbaum, 1990). It is in part this cultural heritage - together with the natural landscape - that attracts the tourism trade in mountains around the world, making tourism a key source of employment and livelihoods.
Tourism is the world's largest industry with an estimated output of US$3.4 trillion and employment of 212 million people. It is also the world's fastest growing industry; it is estimated that it will employ 338 million people and have an output of US$7.2 trillion by 2005 (Price, Moss and Williams, 1997).
There is a growing recognition that tourism can be a key instrument to redress poverty in remote mountain areas (Sharma, 2000). For example, it is said that one mountain tourist in Nepal provides employment for five people, mostly the poorest and women in remote and isolated mountain regions (Mishra, 2000). Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area Project has demonstrated that tourism generates income particularly for women and disadvantaged groups (Mishra, 1989; Gurung and De Coursey, 1994). The success of tourism as a tool for economic development depends, however, on the control of negative environmental impacts.
Mountains are home to many species of high value for pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. Some of its endemic species are the ancestors of modern agricultural crops. Half of the world's 90 000 species of higher plants in the Neotropics are found in the montane zone (Churchill et al., 1995). The total number of plant species in the Himalayas alone is estimated to be over 25 000. In addition, the forests and grasslands in this region are estimated to harbour 75 000 species of insects and invertebrates and more than 1 200 species of mammals and birds. A single mountain - Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia - is estimated to have 4 000 to 4 500 plant species (Hamilton, 1997). Mountains are ecological islands of endemism because of their isolation and verticality. For example, 13 percent of the tundra flora on Mount Peaktu, located between the People's Republic of Korea and China, occurs only on this particular peak (Jenik, 1997).
Although there is a paucity of market-based data on the economic significance of mountain biodiversity, it is clear that the diverse biological resources in the mountains are important contributors to livelihoods and food security. In Yunan, China, as many as 550 species of medicinal plants and hundreds of species of food plants are traded by the mountain people, who still maintain strong traditional knowledge (Pei, 1996). In Nepal, at least 510 species of medicinal and aromatic plants, mostly from mountain forests, are used for human consumption (Mishra, 1998).
The value of non-wood products from the mountain ecosystem could be more fully realized, particularly in the tropical montane forests. Gaps in scientific research have induced inconsistencies in policy and practices on conservation and sustainable use. Policies governing the harvesting of medicinal plants have sometimes hindered the income-earning potential of mountain communities (Olsen and Helles, 1997). These constraints need to be reversed.
Bridging mountain conservation with food, water and environmental security entails many challenges. One problem is how to conserve and manage dwindling mountain resources in a sea of conflicting practices of resource consumption and land use. Agriculture, forestry and tourism are both problems and solutions. How can traditional practices and cultural values be integrated with modern conservation philosophy and market-driven modalities? How can the needs of all stakeholders be fulfilled when all seek preferential treatment?
The degree of involvement of both highland and lowland stakeholders dictates the success or failure of national and donor agendas for poverty reduction and sustainable development (Mishra, 2000). The cost of conserving the mountain ecosystem has most often been borne by the on-site stakeholders, while most of the benefits of the ecological services provided by the mountains are accrued by the off-site stakeholders and the global community at large. However, isolating the needs of on-site users from the vested interests of the off-site-consumers will neither be politically pragmatic nor result in a sustainable programme. Socio-economic and ecological issues of highland and lowland ecosystems are interlinked.
A key challenge is to provide tangible incentives to on-site users for protecting the water sources. Such incentives could include direct compensation in the form of payment for or "rental" of ecological services from the revenues generated by hydropower, drinking-water and irrigation schemes. The people who live in the mountains are the custodians of the mountain environment. How they use or abuse the mountain habitats influences not only themselves, but also the people of the lowlands. Thus it would be in the interest of all to provide incentives to mountain people to conserve and manage the catchments wisely.
The second challenge is to internalize the costs and benefits of ecosystem services that the mountains provide to both the highland on-site users and the lowland off-site consumers in forms or modalities that they will understand and accept. Modalities adopted in Costa Rica, Ecuador and several developed countries in Europe provide some of the best-practice examples.
The third challenge is to leverage the natural and cultural heritage into cash income and cash economy to provide food and shelter and meet other basic human needs. Ecologically and culturally sensitive tourism can provide income to the poor and is thus key to food and environmental security.
The five strategic actions identified here are both desirable and feasible. They are also politically palatable and economically viable.
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