Communities that have thrived for centuries in Nepal's rugged mountain environments are facing rapid population declines caused by the outmigration of youths, both males and females in nearly equal numbers, who are sent by parents to distant boarding schools and monasteries for secular and religious education. This paper documents the magnitude of outmigration, migration destinations, migration's impact on the age–sex composition of sending communities, the effect of migration on fertility, and projected trends of population decline and aging. The authors conclude by discussing potential long-term threats to the viability of ethnically Tibetan communities in the Himalayan highlands, including outmigration's effect on agricultural production, the family-based care system for the elderly, socioeconomic inequalities, and human capital.

The mountains in northeastern Thailand cover an area of about 25,000 km², which is about 15% of the region's land surface. Although agriculture is the most important economic activity in the mountains, there has been little previous research on it. This study presents a general description of mountain agriculture in northeastern Thailand, which is shown to be quite different from the better-known agriculture in Thailand's northern mountains. The northeastern mountains are diverse in environment, culture, and land use. Mountain agriculture is also diverse at the crop level. Field crops remain the main source of income, but in recent years, rubber has become increasingly important in some areas. Specialty crops (eg grapes, strawberries, exotic flowers, and temperate vegetables) generate high income and serve as a magnet for tourism, but they are grown in only small areas in a few favored locations. Poor-quality soil, seasonality and variability of rainfall, scarcity of surface water, broken terrain and steep slopes, insufficient supply of land, land tenure insecurity, limited possibilities for mechanization, high cost of transportation, and competition with foreign imports are the main constraints on development. However, promotion of specialty crops and agritourism offer some potential for mountain agricultural development in northeastern Thailand.

To address the environmental impacts of tourism in protected areas, park managers need to understand the spatial distribution of tourist use. Standard monitoring measures (tourist surveys and counting and tracking techniques) are not sufficient to accomplish this task, in particular for off-road travel. This article predicts tourists′ spatial use patterns through an alternative approach: park accessibility measurement. Naismith's rule and geographical information system′s anisotropic cost analysis are integrated into the modeling process, which results in a more realistic measure of off-road accessibility than that provided by other measures. The method is applied to a mountainous United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in northwest Yunnan Province, China, where there is increasing concern about potential impacts of unregulated tourist use. Based on the assumption that accessibility tends to attract more tourists, a spatial pattern of predicted off-road use by tourists is derived. This pattern provides information that can help park managers develop strategies that are effective for both tourism management and species conservation.

Water has been identified as a key resource for Nepal's economic growth. Although the country has 225 billion cubic meters of water available annually, less than 7% has been utilized. Climate change is a frequent topic in national development discussions in part because of its possible impact on future water availability. This study assessed the likely impact of climate change on water resources development in the Koshi River basin, Nepal, using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool to generate projections for the 2030s and 2050s. Results suggested that the impacts are likely to be scale dependent. Little impact is projected at annual, full-basin scales; but at sub-basin scale, under both the IPCC's A2 and B1 scenarios, precipitation is projected to increase in the upper transmountain subwatersheds in the 2030s and in most of the basin in the 2050s and to decrease in the lower sub-basins in the 2030s. Water yield is projected to increase in most of the basin except for the A2 scenario for the 2030s. Flow volumes are projected to increase during the monsoon and postmonsoon but decrease during the winter and premonsoon seasons. The impacts of climate change are likely to be higher during certain seasons and in some sub-basins. Thus, if infrastructure is in place that makes it possible to store and transfer water as needed, the water deficit due to any changes in rainfall or flow patterns could be managed and would not be a constraint on water resources development. The risks associated with extreme events such as floods and droughts should, however, also be considered during planning.

Household surveys were conducted in 2 representative rural settlements in central and western Bhutan to evaluate differences in cattle raising practices and seasonal variation in the physical characteristics of cattle, and to project future trends in herd management and forest grazing. Results indicated that cattle owners' perceptions, aptitudes, and attitudes are changing and that rural interventions need to take these changes into account. The proportion of households without cultivated pasture was greater in the central Bhutan study village. The settlements also differed in cattle owners' opinions on forest selection and grazing pressure. The only outstanding similarity between settlements was the preference for crossbred cattle, revealing a strong orientation toward small but productive dairy herds and suggesting that a future reduction in forest grazing was likely. Although both settlements rely on forest grazing, there are considerable differences in cattle production practices and type of cattle reared, primarily driven by access to market, topography, and domestic forage resources. Our results suggest that management decisions should be based on site-specific information rather than generic guidelines.

Oak (Quercus spp.) is an important commercially harvested firewood resource in Bhutan. An oak firewood shortage began in 2000–2009, when demand, spurred by urban domestic and institutional use, began to exceed supply, resulting in overcutting of oak-dominant forest, which affected tree species diversity. This study solicited urban and rural perceptions on oak firewood availability, alternative firewood sources, and whether harvest is consistent with oak conservation, and conducted an assessment of the consequences of commercial oak firewood harvest for species diversity and regeneration. Semistructured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted, and regeneration was sampled on unharvested and commercially harvested oak firewood stands. Urban and rural respondents reported that the oak firewood supply was diminishing. Rural respondents said that oak firewood, leaf litter, fodder, and wood for handles for agricultural implements were abundantly available in the past but that, with the increase in population, these products have become less available, a trend that is likely to continue in the future. Urban respondents overwhelmingly chose electricity as an oak firewood substitute because it was associated with clean energy, improved sanitation, and forest conservation. Electricity should be promoted as an oak firewood substitute in urban homes. Oak as a source of firewood, leaf litter, fodder, and handles for agricultural implements is indispensable for sustaining rural livelihoods, and harvest consistent with conservation needs to be practiced. Tree species diversity and regeneration were not significantly higher in unharvested stands compared to harvested stands, indicating that oak firewood harvest may not have impacted species diversity. The findings support banning commercial harvesting of green oak trees for firewood and promoting electricity as an alternative energy source as the most important oak conservation measures.

Firewood is a major energy source, especially in many high mountainous regions in developing countries where other energy sources are limited. In the mountainous regions of Tajikistan, current energy consumption is limited owing to geographic isolation and numerous challenges—including in the energy sector—that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Tajikistan's independence. The sudden disruption of external supplies of energy forced people to rely on locally available but scarce biomass resources, such as firewood and animal dung. We conducted an empirical study to gain an understanding of current household energy consumption in the Western Pamirs of Tajikistan and the factors that influence firewood consumption. For this purpose, we interviewed members of 170 households in 8 villages. We found that, on average, households consumed 355 kg of firewood, 253 kWh of electricity, 760 kg of dung, and 6 kg of coal per month in the winter of 2011–2012. Elevation, size of a household's private garden, and total hours of heating had a positive relationship with firewood consumption, and education level and access to a reliable supply of electricity showed a negative relationship.

This study analyzed the ecological factors influencing soil degradation in the Atacora Mountains in northern Benin, which harbor two endemic species, Thunbergia atacorensis and Ipomoea beninensis. Data were collected along line transects from plain to summit within 22 plots of 30 m × 30 m. Indicators of physical soil degradation (extent of organic layer, color of topsoil, compactness of soil, presence and extent of rills, and occurrence of sheet erosion) and environmental factors (canopy and ground cover, topography, occurrence of flooding, and slope) were assessed. Cluster analysis identified 4 soil degradation classes: light, moderate, high, and extreme. Discriminant and multivariate variance analyses identified canopy and ground cover as the 2 main ecological drivers of soil degradation. Plant, litter, and stone cover were found to decrease as soil degradation increased. The parts of the Atacora Mountains with high elevation and steep slope were found to be less degraded than areas with low slopes, which are easily accessible for human activities. Policies to mitigate soil degradation should prioritize practices with low impact on vegetation cover and promote soil protection practices such as tree planting and mulching.

The Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE) was jointly established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Ministry of Water Resources in 1966. It is a state academic institution engaged in research on mountain hazards, the mountain environment, sustainable mountain development, and digital analysis of spatial information. Its mission is to conduct innovative research on key aspects and principles of mountain science and serve sustainable development in China. It also aims to play a leading role in related fields and cultivate high-level talent.

The Department of Integrative Geography at the University of Bern is dedicated to sustainability research and teaching. Within its sustainable regional development and sustainable land management foci, it is firmly committed to mountain research and development. One of the study regions is the Swiss Alps, where issues such as common property resource use and protected area monitoring link to global debates.