This article aims to contribute to the analysis of the complex relationship between sustainable development and green economy in mountain areas by focusing on a conflict over the building of a centralized biogas plant to produce renewable energy from livestock manure in an Italian Alpine valley. The case study shows that the project for a large-sized biogas plant promoted by the local political institutions as environmental modernization of local agriculture, and supported by the most important professional organizations, became increasingly controversial at the local community level and was eventually abandoned. By drawing in particular on the literature concerning the social acceptance of renewable energies, the article highlights how this conflict raises issues of distributional justice and procedural justice with regard to the implementation of the green economy model, and it points out the need to embed green economy technologies in the local context and conditions. These concerns should be given primary consideration if the green economy model is to contribute to the sustainable development of marginal areas.

Mountain economies are undergoing transformation from traditional agrarian to more industrial or service-oriented economies. Such changes invariably have socioeconomic impacts on nearby communities and lead to fragmentation and rural depopulation. Sikkim, a small state of India in the Eastern Himalayas, has recently embarked on a program of hydroelectricity project construction. This study examined community perceptions of the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of these projects in 3 rural areas and considers implications for future sustainable livelihoods. While benefits such as employment have accrued to the rural community from these economic development projects, changes in land use and in people's occupations may have adverse impacts on their future livelihoods. We argue that there is a need to support new types of land-based economic activities on abandoned agricultural lands, reclaim degraded lands, and introduce new products and production methods.

Ladakh presents some unique challenges for development and nature conservation initiatives. Since opening to tourism in 1974, its unique landscapes, biodiversity, and culture have attracted adventure-seeking tourists from all over the world. Tourism, especially in the past few decades, has developed very rapidly, bringing many economic and social changes with adverse environmental impacts. By recognizing the threats posed by unplanned tourism, a number of organizations and institutions working in the area felt the urgency to initiate sustainable community-based tourism projects that would protect the local wildlife and natural resources and offer alternative livelihood opportunities to the local population. The homestay model in Ladakh is designed on the principle of equitable access and hence is available for adoption by households across economic classes. This article uses the particular case of Korzok homestays, implemented by the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF-India) near the Ramsar wetland Tsomoriri, to illustrate how community development needs can be integrated with conservation goals. It elaborates on the evolution of the initiative, some early impacts, and how the initiative might evolve in the future. A general list of recommendations is also presented.

A medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) project was implemented in Nepal and parts of India from 2005 to 2009 by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development to enhance the livelihood options and reduce the poverty of poor rural households. The present study assesses the impact of the project on poverty and livelihood security using quantitative and qualitative data collected in a household survey, focus group discussions, and interviews with key informants. The project improved the skills and knowledge of producers and collectors MAPs in production, management, processing, and marketing, as well as their negotiating power with traders. This helped increase household income and alleviate poverty. However, the project's impact varied across project sites. While an impact was quite visible in Nepal and Chhattisgarh, India, it was less visible in Himachal Pradesh, India. Factors responsible for the different levels of impact are analyzed, and lessons are drawn for future programs and projects. The findings suggest that locally available and commercially valuable natural resources, including MAPs, have the potential to improve the livelihoods of rural mountain people.

The “green economy” is increasingly being promoted as a way of creating socially and environmentally viable forms of development. Using the specific case of an attempted nongovernmental organization (NGO) intervention in a minor peasant community in the Recuay region of the Peruvian Andes, this article raises the question of how to get from green economy as a theory of development to green economy as a tool of governance. The article is based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the region. Peru has experienced a decade of rapid growth, but this impressive progress hides the fact that large numbers of rural poor have been left untouched by the national economic boom. An examination of the household economy through the idea of “ecologies of production” underscores the social, economic, and environmental embeddedness of Andean household economies and explores pathways to the market. Articulation and governance are the main concerns when it comes to understanding the ways in which the peasant economies are maintained through environmentally embedded social relations, which in turn govern how natural resources and ecosystems are managed. The article concludes by pointing to three issues of importance with regard to a green economy: (1) In conditions of poverty, economically risky investments are rarely sought; (2) matters of governance inform production; and (3) articulation to the market is crucial in terms of production input and output.

In the Peruvian sierra near the city of Cajamarca, livelihood options of extensive grazing and plantation forestry often conflict with ecosystem services provided by the native jalca grasslands where these land uses are undertaken. This study estimates financial returns for local landowners for grazing livestock and plantation forestry and compares these values with estimated values for environmental services under each land use. Results of the estimated financial returns to landowners suggest that the profitability of each land use varies significantly because of local variation in grassland productivity, proximity to the village, and rates of time preference. In comparison to the financial returns to each land use, resulting values for environmental services were relatively high in magnitude, especially for the ecosystem service of water provision, suggesting that in most cases, overgrazing and pine plantations in the jalca will yield net economic losses at the national level. Regarding pine plantations in particular, the value for increased carbon sequestration was outweighed by the value of expected losses in water provision for irrigation, suggesting that a potential market based on carbon could yield net economic losses if water is not considered. The paper concludes that rural development can be best achieved in the study area by promoting conservation of the jalca, encouraging low-impact grazing practices, and targeting pine plantations only for areas of the jalca that are already degraded.

Environmental education (EE) has recently been included in school curricula in India to improve understanding of ecosystems, their functions, and the effect of human actions on them. The need for EE is more pronounced in Ladakh, in the Indian Trans-Himalaya, where recent development activities pose challenges for the fragile mountain ecosystem and for traditional livelihoods. Inclusion of EE in school curricula by the Jammu & Kashmir State Education Board and a conservation education program organized jointly by various government and nongovernmental agencies across Ladakh are some of the significant steps taken. As part of the Wildlife Institute of India's collaborative conservation education program, a questionnaire survey was conducted to explore Ladakh school teachers' knowledge of and attitude toward wildlife and conservation. In all, 277 government school teachers took part in the study. Results of the study highlight that teachers in Ladakh are aware of local biodiversity and have favorable attitudes toward conservation. However, responses to specific statements on snow leopards (Panthera uncia) were found to be unfavorable. Despite a high percentage of respondents agreeing that conservation of snow leopards was important, they also were considered as a threat to the local economy. The study identifies the need for intensive preservice and in-service environmental education programs to spread conservation awareness.

The third dimension of mountain agricultural productivity, pollination, helps to maintain crop productivity and thus makes a great contribution to agricultural economy. In the absence of natural pollinators for a variety of reasons, farmers in Maoxian County of southwestern China employ “human pollinators” to pollinate apple and other fruit crops to secure yields. In 2001, we conducted a study to gain an understanding of the process and significance of hand pollination of apples, which revealed that 100% of the apples in Maoxian were hand pollinated. Because it was a unique approach developed by these Chinese farmers the authors were curious to revisit the site in 2011 to assess the sustainability of human pollination and see whether farmers had invented better alternatives. The findings suggest that, recently, Maoxian farmers have been working toward phasing out apples and replacing them with plums, walnuts, and loquats along with vegetables. These new fruit and vegetable crops are economically and ecologically more appropriate to them, because they do not require pollination by humans and also fetch a better price. However, hand pollination by human pollinators is still practiced with apples to a lesser degree, which indicates that all these farmers have yet to find satisfactory alternatives to this economically unsustainable practice.

To identify the sapling species that can be planted in spruce–fir forest in the Changbai Mountains, China, we analyzed the associations among saplings and between saplings and adult trees of 4 tree species (spruce [Picea koraiensis Nakai], fir [Abies nephrolepis (Trautv.) Maxim.], Korean pine [Pinus koraiensis Sieb. et Zucc.], and lime [Tilia amurensis Rupr.]), and the spatial distribution of saplings under the adult trees. We observed positive associations between the saplings and adult trees of spruce, fir, Korean pine, and lime. In addition, the numbers of saplings of spruce, fir, Korean pine, and lime with distance from adult trees exhibited a positively skewed distribution. We conclude that saplings of any one or several of these 4 species can be planted in the mixed forests and the optimum distance between saplings and adults trees of the coniferous species is 2–3 m, whereas the corresponding optimal distance from the broadleaved lime is 4–5 m. Our results provide new insights into the development of reforestation techniques in spruce–fir forests in the Changbai Mountains.

Mountain areas are of great importance to biodiversity conservation. Also, they have long been reputed as the last remnants of virgin, unspoiled nature. In this paper, we assess the degree of human impact on mountain ecosystems through the Human Influence Index (HII), using it as a proxy to estimate the degree of threat to mountain biodiversity. We also measured how well the least human-influenced mountain areas are protected (HII ≤ 10). Our results show that still-large proportions of mountain areas are under low or moderate human influence, as assessed by the HII. However, these results should be considered carefully, because the HII does not include some important human-made influences affecting mountain ecosystems globally, such as climate change. Finally, 34.7% of the mountain area under low human influence (HII ≤ 10) is currently covered by nationally designated protected areas.

To assess changes in glacial lakes in the Chinese Himalaya, 2 inventory phases were conducted on the basis of 278 aerial survey topography maps from the 1970s and 38 Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) images from the 2000s. In the past 30 years, the number of glacial lakes has decreased, from 1750 to 1680 (a decrease of 4.0%), whereas the average area of glacial lakes expanded from 166.48 to 215.28 km² (an increase of 29.7%). Between 3400 and 6000 m, glacial lake areas expanded at rates of 2–84% in almost all 100-m elevation bands, and the dominant expansion rates at different elevations were inversely correlated with glacier area retreating rates to some degree. Glacial lake expansion was a dominant contributor to the increase in glacial lake area, accounting for about 67% of the net changes in lake area, whereas newly formed lakes accounted for the remaining 33%.

Landscape pattern structure can be quantified by landscape pattern indices (LPIs). One major drawback of the commonly used LPIs is that the landscape is represented by a planar map, which depicts the projection of a nonflat surface into a 2-dimensional Cartesian space. As a result, ecologically meaningful terrain structures like terrain shape or elevation are not taken into account and valuable information is lost for further analysis. A method to compute LPIs in a surface structure has been developed by Hoechstetter et al, who calculated landscape patch surface area and surface perimeter from digital elevation models. In this paper, Hoechstetter's set of LPIs was used and extended. A parametric t-test was used to assess the differences between the commonly used planimetric metrics and the surface landscape metrics for quantification of a mountain vegetation pattern at 3 levels (patch, category, and landscape) and for natural and anthropogenic categories in the Lancang (Mekong) watershed in China. The results show that the surface-based metrics for area, perimeter, shape, and distance to nearest-neighbor metrics were significantly larger than the same metrics derived by a planimetric approach for patch, category, and landscape levels in 2 different mountainous areas. However, diversity and evenness metrics did not feature significant differences between the surface-based landscape and the landscape represented in the planar maps. When comparing the area metrics for natural and for anthropogenic categories, significantly larger differences between these categories were found when the surface approach was used. The common planimetric method may underestimate the differences between natural and anthropogenic categories on areas and mean patch area in steep mountain areas.

Mountain ecosystems and watersheds are essential for long-term sustainable global development and poverty alleviation and can make an important contribution to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Freshwater, rich biodiversity, and other natural resources provided by mountains are vital for the livelihood of billions of people. However, recent environmental, economic, and social developments such as climate change, increasing natural disasters, population growth, the expansion of commercial agriculture, and urbanization compromise the ability of mountain ecosystems and watersheds to provide essential environmental goods and services. Degradation and decreasing water flows seriously affect agricultural production and food security and threaten the supply of water to large urban centers in the lowlands, while water, energy, and food are likely to be the main scarcities in the coming decades. Watershed management and sustainable mountain development (SMD) are necessary and appropriate approaches to address these challenges and need a prominent place on the international agenda.

The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) is the University of Bern's center for sustainable development research. Founded in 1988 as a part of the Institute of Geography, CDE became an interdisciplinary university center in 2009. Its current overall aim is to foster sustainable development-oriented research across various institutes and departments of the University of Bern. In view of this new mandate, CDE devised a new strategy focusing on 6 strategic themes. These are explored and advanced by groups of researchers organized in thematic clusters. Three of the 6 clusters address sustainable development from a comprehensive perspective: global change impacts, innovations for sustainable development, and education for sustainable development. These clusters are complemented by 3 clusters that investigate sustainable development with a specialized perspective: natural resources and ecosystem services, multidimensional disparities, and governance of land and natural resources.

After a long period of emigration from the rural areas in the European Alps, a trend reversal can be observed in the last quarter of the 20th century. However, this “new immigration” affects the Alpine countries unevenly in terms of both timing and intensity. Furthermore, growing spatial mobility and consequential transformation of settlements involve several population segments with diverse motives for their movements. This article sketches the temporal development and the extent of the diverse immigration and circulation patterns for the individual countries of the Alps and identifies knowledge gaps. Furthermore, opportunities and risks of the new immigration for both the “new highlanders” as well as the indigenous communities are briefly discussed. The authors conclude with an outline of further needs for basic research in this field and an appeal to leverage the new immigration for rural development.

The article was already discussed within the “Demography and Employment” working group of the Alpine Conference and is expected to serve as a basis for discussion in the International Scientific Committee on Research in the Alps (ISCRA) workshop “New Highlanders” taking place at the Alpweek 2012 in Poschiavo, Switzerland.

Rural development is a vast sector that encompasses infrastructure creation, sustainable livelihoods, and decentralized governance. Mountain landscapes, with their inherent constraints of remoteness, sensitive ecosystem, and marginality, pose unique challenges to rural development. We undertook an assessment of the evolution of development themes and rural development progress made in the mountain state of Sikkim over the past decade. We found that a rapidly growing national economy has facilitated a 4-fold rise in investment in key rural development subsectors in Sikkim over the past 5 years. This significant enhancement in financial investment, coupled with good governance and innovative policies, has ensured that human development indicators, along with social infrastructure creation, have shown impressive progress. Setting up village cluster-level support offices to strengthen governance, transforming regular programs to mission mode with great political determination by adopting a saturation approach, financing improved earthquake-resistant housing for poor households, and promoting climate change adaption measures to enhance rural water security are some of the innovative approaches that have the potential to be transferred to other mountain areas. We propose a further expansion of capacities and economic opportunities in rural areas by prioritizing the self-employment sector, by expanding the nonfarm rural economy, youth training and placement, and continuing commitment to strengthening democratic institutions and procedures to ensure more rapid and inclusive growth of the rural economy.