According to even the most conservative estimates, at least half of the world's 6500 languages are expected to become extinct in the next century. While the documentation of endangered languages has traditionally been the domain of academic linguists and anthropologists, international awareness of this impending linguistic catastrophe is growing, and development organizations are becoming involved in the struggle to preserve spoken forms. The death of a language marks the loss of yet another piece of cultural uniqueness from the mosaic of our diverse planet, and is therefore a tragedy for the heritage of all humanity. Language death is often compared to species extinction, and the same metaphors of preservation and diversity can be invoked to canvas support for biodiversity and language preservation programs. The present article addresses language endangerment in the Himalayas, with a focus on Nepal, and presents the options and challenges for linguistic development in this mountainous region.

Ethiopia has the largest mountainous land mass in Africa, with a diverse and complex environment. The peoples of Ethiopia reflect this diversity in their cultures. The integrity and traditional knowledge embedded in these cultures is being eroded through modern education and cultural globalization. Modern education divorces students from the traditional ecological knowledge of their communities, and makes it very difficult for them to reintegrate into their own societies. This process is being accelerated by urbanization. In 1998, the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) began working with school environmental clubs to facilitate interaction between teachers and students, and people in the local student communities who possessed traditional knowledge. We call this project “discovering the value of cultural biodiversity.”

This paper examines the changing conditions, including accelerating environmental degradation and the influence of modernism, and the impact that these are having on Tibetan architecture and the Tibetan building tradition. Examples of architectural design and resource management projects throughout the region are used to explore how the cultural significance of building traditions and environmental resource management can provide a methodology to promote preservation of traditional architecture and the natural environment. The issues examined and solutions explored could easily apply to other rapidly changing mountain regions of the world where the deterioration of natural resources calls for a richer understanding of the connection between environmental and cultural sustainability. The growth of ecotourism as an industry in many mountain regions gives greater weight to the issues discussed.

In Thailand water is widely perceived as an open access resource. It is also common belief that organization of highland irrigation in northern Thailand is characterized by a relatively simple structure, and that local communities are not able to adjust their management practices to new realities. The existence of diverse forms of control, ownership and rights of use relating to water resources is widely ignored. This goes along with a stereotypical and static picture of highland people—and ethnic minorities in particular—as being environmentally destructive and culturally backward. These misperceptions fail to recognize that economic, institutional and social conditions are rapidly changing in the highlands of northern Thailand. These changes bring about a range of cultural and economic adjustments at the local level, which is also reflected in the management of water resources. The present article argues that cultural identities and social norms in the highlands are fluid, that local communities continuously adapt their water management practices to new circumstances, and that the outcomes of this process are not always beneficial to sustainability and distributional equity.

Owing to its physical environment, the upper Min River Basin, situated at an ecological transition belt in China, has long been a place where many ethnic groups have settled; it is also a corridor through which different ethnic groups have migrated from northwestern to southwestern China or vice versa. Apart from its recognized biodiversity, it is also a place of cultural diversity, as an ethno-cultural corridor in China. A number of ethnic groups such as the Qiang, Tibetan, Han, and Hui nationalities and their different sub-groups have lived here for many centuries. The distribution of these ethnic groups follows altitudinal patterns, with the Han and the Hui people living in river valleys, the Qiang at a higher altitude, and the Tibetans at the highest altitudes. This points to their respective historical roles and adaptation to different environments. Given the inaccessibility and geographical isolation of their environment, all ethnic groups have maintained much of their traditional cultures, while some sub-ethnic groups came into being due to recurrent wars and cultural assimilation between groups. At present, with mountain natural resources exploited and mountain areas being greatly developed, many ethnic cultures are threatened with extinction. Much work at both local level and policy level needs to be done to preserve these diversified cultures and the potential for sustainability that they harbor.

Establishment of conservation areas has become a standard strategy for protecting biodiversity. Different categories are distinguished, such as those that aim at enhancing local participation. Although rapid evolution has taken place since the 1970s, stimulating participation still challenges conservationists. Understanding the complex issues impacting on participation is a first step in finding more effective methods of conservation. The present article addresses this issue by contrasting farmer and conventional perspectives on conservation. A differentiation between ecologically oriented biodiversity conservation perspectives and livelihood-oriented resource diversity perspectives is proposed. A case study from western Mexico illustrates both perspectives. The first perspective is based on a dichotomized view separating nature from land use. The second is related to the process of co-production between farmers and nature, which results in landscape diversity. Effective participation requires effective interfaces between both perspectives, recognizing farmers' creative capacities with reference to co-production of biodiversity.

Hundreds of plant species are harvested in the Himalaya and traded at local, regional, and international levels. Recent studies indicate that the annual trade in medicinal plants and related products from the Himalaya amounts to thousands of tons of roots, rhizomes, tubers, fruits, leaves, etc, with an annual value of millions of USD. It is difficult, however, to analyze and understand trade and markets on the basis of available studies, as these do not employ common terminology or methodology. The present paper aims to enhance understanding of the Himalayan plant trade by developing a typology of economic agents. The typology is based on fieldwork conducted in Nepal and India, including interviews with 639 harvesters, 149 traders and 143 wholesalers involved in trade with medicinal plants. These are the 3 main groups of economic agents distinguished. They are further divided into 6 sub-types and 13 specific types. Distinction among economic agents is made on the basis of key features. Basic data on agents are presented. The typology is developed to be applicable across the countries in the Himalayan range.

Much of the Earth is degraded, is being degraded, or is at risk of degradation. Dry Afromontane forests in Ethiopia are one of the ecosystems affected by this phenomenon. This study focuses on assessment of community perceptions of experiences with, and benefits from, enclosure practices meant to prevent or mitigate land degradation. Communities around Biyo-Kelala and Tiya enclosure areas, in central and northern Ethiopia respectively, were used for the study. The assessment was carried out on the basis of a semi-structured questionnaire survey and focus group discussions. Results showed that an overwhelming majority of the people have a positive attitude about enclosures and feel that they have gained benefits. However, people prefer not to ensure private ownership, but favor maintaining the existing communal (village level) management system instead. This demonstrates that groups emerge to manage common property when they live close to the resource. Yet the issue of benefits and their equitable distribution among community members was found to be the basis for developing a sense of security for ownership and hence the success of enclosures. The other finding was that rehabilitation of deforested lands provides economic benefits by supplying raw material to meet the local demand for wood, reducing the pressure on the remaining forests and supplying various non-timber products. Nevertheless, it is not possible to design a national model for the management of this practice: the design of management rules is specific to a particular locality.

Planning for recreational activities in protected areas involves an understanding of multiple and complex factors. Segmentation of the recreational supply and demand in natural areas, together with identification of the main conditioning factors of recreational use, are useful for park management. In this study, the recreational supply (trails) and demand (visitor characteristics), as well as some other features of a recreational system, were typologically studied in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park (Lleida, Spain). Through the application of a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (when dealing with demand) and Cluster Analysis (when dealing with both supply and demand), 4 groups of visitors and 3 groups of trails were identified. A positive relationship was observed between the difficulty of the trails and the visitors' educational level, sex, and time spent in the park; and a negative relationship between trail difficulty and the age of the visitors, conservationist perceptions, and demand for accommodation (hotels, mountain lodges, etc). Visitors who were inclined to take either the easiest or the most difficult trails (about 65% of all visitors) showed group characteristics with the greatest differences. Suggestions for managers of protected areas are discussed, including direct application of information generated by this approach in the recreational management of the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park and other natural areas.

The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive index system based on remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques to evaluate the status quo of ecological security in the farming–pastoral zone of northern China, for the purpose of facilitating sustainable development in ecotone regions. Taking a typical transitional piedmont region with farming–pastoral production mode as a case study area, the region's present ecological security situation was evaluated by constructing an index system with 3 types of indicators. These indicators were: 1) vegetation growth, measured by the decadal difference in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI); 2) change in landscape patterns, measured by the deviation of present from potential landscapes; and 3) severity of soil erosion, measured by organic matter content in topsoil. Data for the indicators, derived from RS images, historical maps, field surveys, and archival materials, were all mapped with the aid of a digital elevation model (DEM), according to their conjugation relationships. The results were obtained by classifying different combinations of elements in an index matrix of 3 indicators by means of mapping. The final results show that nearly the entire study area was in a condition ranging from somewhat insecure (SIN) to insecure (INS), with an average score of 3.46 in a 5-grade range, indicating declining ecological security. The situation was better in the farming–pastoral district. The whole region needs to adjust its production modes to learn from practices in the farming–pastoral district, in order to alleviate deterioration and improve ecological security in the region.

Dramatic changes are taking place in the glacier-covered high mountains of Africa. The glacial area on Mt Kilimanjaro is now only half as large as it was in the 1970s. The Tyndall Glacier on Mt Kenya, which retreated at approxi-retreated at approximately 3 m/yr from 1958 to 1997, retreated at about 10 m/yr from 1997 to 2002. Pioneer species such as Senecio keniophytum, Arabis alpina, mosses, lichen, and Agrostis trachyphylla have advanced over areas formerly covered by the glacier. The rate at which this vegetation migrated up the former bed of the glacier (2.1–4.6 m/yr from 1958 to 1997) is similar to the rate of glacial retreat (2.9 m/yr). In the interval from 1997 to 2002, pioneer species advanced at a rapid rate of 6.4–12.2 m/yr, while the glacier retreated at 9.8 m/yr. Rapid glacial retreat has been accompanied by rapid colonization by plants. Pioneer species improve soil conditions and make habitat suitable for other plants. If warming continues, alpine plant cover may extend all the way to mountain summits, and then eventually diminish as trees colonize the areas formerly occupied by alpine plants. Larger woody plants such as Senecio keniodendron and Lobelia telekii, which showed no obvious advance prior to 1997, have advanced quickly since that year.