GeoJournal 271 127-129 © 1992 (May) by Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Institutional Frameworks for the Study of Mountain Environments, and Development

[yes, Jack D., Prof. Dr., University of California, Department of Geography, Davis, CA 95616-8604, USA

ABSTRACT: During the two decades since the 1972 Stockholm Conference the concern for mountain environments coalesced under an institutional framework involving several organizations and many scholars and scientists. The evolution of the progress of these interested individuals, institutions, and their scholarly journal is outlined with benchmarks noted. An appraisal of the past two decades is given here in recognition of the UNCED-92 conference, the "Earth Summit."

Introduction

Mountain research has evolved along many distinct and legitimate pathways for much of this century. The 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Environment, however, emphasized the need for developing an international and cooperative approach such that the results of research could be applied on a world scale to the solution of environmental problems. The Stockholm Conference, which has proved to be a landmark event in terms of world awareness of environmental issues, prompted, among many other developments, the formulation of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.

The MAB Project 6, "Impact of Human Activities on Mountain Ecosystems," focussed the Stockholm environmental awareness specifically on mountain issues. It is the evolution of the MAB-6 initiative and its expansion into other dimensions that is the subject of this Conclusion to the Special Issue of GeoJournal that is devoted to Mountain Environments.

It is emphasized, however, that there is no intended implication that this evolution is the only significant trend in mountain research, or even the main one. It is the only one, however, through the emergence of the United Nations University, the International Mountain Society, and the International Geographical Union's Commission

on Mountain Geoecology, that has promoted an international institutional framework. During the past two decades there have been several major conferences and colloquia that have been parallel to, and independent of, the chronology outlined below. These activities are mentioned in the Introduction to this Special Issue.

Beyond the scope of this institutional endeavor, numerous "schools" of mountain research, and individual researchers, have combined to develop and to produce valuable products of both an academic and an applied nature. These "schools" and individuals and their works are covered in the Introduction. It is interesting to point out, however, the comparative separateness of European (French, German, Swiss, English, and Russian, for example) and the North American and non-Western "schools," as well as those distinguished along disciplinary lines, such as social and physical anthropology, cultural and physical geography, and the biological sciences. Similarly, there are several prominent regional aggregations: Himalayan, Central and Inner Asian, Andean, Alpine, as well as Japanese.

A feature of the UNESCO MAB-6 initiative is that the participants of the 1973 panel of "experts" meeting in Salzburg and the "International Working Group" meeting in Lillehammer included representatives from both the natural and human sciences in both industrial and

128 GeoJournal 27,111992

developing countries. Several of these participants were associated with the I G U Commission on Mountain Geoecology founded by the late geographer, Carl Troll, and remained in close working contact, initially through the I G U and the United Nations University (UNU) and, more recently, the International Mountain Society. A mountain fellowship of kindred spirits was able to use the MAB-6 and I G U opportunities of the time to begin a process that has set an institutional drive on the "Road to Rio", that is, UNCED-92. In this effort our primary sponsor has been the UNU, and in recent years the government of Swit- zerland, the University of California, Davis, and the East- West Center, Honolulu, have added considerable support.

Many of the initial group of 1973 have remained in working contact and have been able to broaden the loose and rather informal association to all six inhabited continents and to hold productive workshops on each of them. The U N U and IMS, together with the quarterly journal Mountain Research and Development, have provided most of the glue that has held this effort together. The World Mountain Network Newsletter was introduced in 1990 and serves a much wider audience. It is to be hoped that in the post-Rio time mountain scholars, scientists, conservationists and development workers will benefit from its focus on solving problems in mountain environments.

Development of an Organizational Framework

The following is a catalogue of events - meetings, workshops, seminars, conferences - and field excursions. They represent twentyyears of organizational efforts, often seeming to achieve nothing more than hope, or recognition of the need for more effort. In retrospect, steady progress along a winding road can perhaps be detected. The individual events are not all connected by deliberate planning, and continuity has been somewhat fortuitous. A substantial amount of research material, largely originating as the proceedings of the major meetings, has been published, mainly in Mountain Research and Development. This pattern will continue in the future.

Chronology of Events

1972 1972

1972

1974

1974

Stockholm Conference of Environment International Geographical Union (IGU) Commis- sion on High-Altitude Geoecology created UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB-6) meeting "Impact of Human Activities on Environments". Salzburg International Working Group, Lillehammer UNESCO MAB-6 regional meetings in Vienna, La Paz, Lima, Kathmandu, Bogota, Boulder, and Brianconnais Conference on the "Development of Mountain Environments" Munich

1976 I G U Commission on Mountain Geoecology Conference, Caucusus and Moscow

1978 UNU project initiated on "Highland-Lowland Interactive Systems", Nepal and Northern Thailand

1980 Academia Sinica conference on the "Natural Science of the Xizang-Qinghai Plateau", Beijing and Lhasa

1980 IGU Commission on Mountain Geoecology excursion, Japan

1980 International Mountain Society founded and Mountain Research and Development published

1984 International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) established, Kathmandu

1978-UNU/IGU/ IMS regional mountain conferences, 1991 Chang Mai 1979, Reideralp 1982, Kathmandu 1982,

Addis Ababa 1986, Mohonk NY 1986, Kathmandu 1987 (with ICIMOD), Armenia 1989, Bern 1990, Rabat 1990, Dushanbe 1990, Barnaul 1991, Santiago 1991

1984 I G U Commission on Mountain Geoecology Conference, Bern

1986 IGU Commission on Mountain Geoecology Conference, Barcelona

1987 Pontifical Academy of Sciences Study Week, Rome 1988 I G U Commission on Mountain Geoecology

Conference, Christchurch 1988 East-West Center /UNU Honolulu 1990 World Mountain Network Newsletter published, Davis 1991 Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences/IMS/Ford

Foundation Conference, Kunming

Mountain Environments - 1992

With the announcement that the United Nations Organization intended to hold a major world conference on environment and development (UNCED-92) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the timing was auspicious for the advancement of the mountain issue. UNCED-92 is staged twenty years after the 1972 Stockholm Conference. Mountain scholars and scientists mustered their resources and now present a review of their work during the past twenty years and, at the same time, project into the future their predictions. One avenue of advancement was the creation of a "Mountain Agenda" for consideration at UNCED-92.

Representatives from the above mentioned organizations prepared a document entitled Mountain Agenda - 1992. It is important to emphasize that the international representatives planned the document to include the interests of all scholars and scientists interested in placing before the "Earth Summit" in Rio a strong recommendation for international action on mountain environments. However incomplete and preliminary, a key item in the Mountain Agenda - 1992 is the Status Report on the Environment of the World's Mountains that provides a contemporary appraisal for the conference participants and the general public concerned with mountain environments. German support through

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UNESCO and Swiss government financial support enabled publication of this document. This book complements the 6eodouma! Special Issue on Mountain Environments.

The Future These publications provided for UNCED-92

demonstrate the concern for mountain environments. It is anticipated that a much greater awareness of the mountain problematique will be achieved. The prospect of a periodically revised Status Report on the world's mountains should insure much closer exchange and

cooperation among all those concerned with mountain research, conservation, and development. Mountains have been for too long treated as two dimensional adjuncts to major development projects. A world mountain view is needed if we are to enter the next century with any likelihood of achieving even a moderate degree of ecologically balanced mountain development. It is to be hoped that the Status Report on the Environment of the World's Mountains and this Geodournal Special Issue on Mountain Environments will benefit all those interested in the present and future condition of our precious and valued habitat.