As a new strategy to conserve resources, decentralization of political authority has displaced earlier coercive conservation policies in many countries. More than 60 countries claim to have decentralized forest control. In these countries, communities are supposed to be involved in joint strategies to conserve forests. The story is similar for other resources such as wildlife, water, and watersheds. Decentralization is becoming ubiquitous even for provision of services, development programs, health and education. This is not surprising. Decentralization aims to achieve one of the central aspirations of equitable political governance: humans should have a say in their own affairs. Given the ubiquity of decentralization initiatives, 2 questions require critical attention: (1) What accounts for decentralization of political authority toward local decision makers? Voluntary relinquishing of power seems to fly in the face of expected state behavior. (2) Do the actual effects of decentralization policies match claims that decentralization is better on grounds of efficiency, equity, or political empowerment?

Ningnan County, Sichuan Province, China, is a small, typical mountain county with an area of 1670 km² and a population of 167,000. In the past 20 years, great achievements have been made in economic development in general and agricultural development in particular.

New legislation on decentralization has institutionalized popular participation to ensure good governance at the municipal level in Bolivia. Traditional organizations in Bolivian civil society have rallied to the cause of reform. The challenge of decentralization is being met successfully, although the central government sometimes fails to fully implement its own measures. The municipality of Pucarani in the Bolivian Altiplano illustrates how the dynamics of a satisfactory relationship between local actors (governance) contribute to successful implementation of decentralization.

If current land use practices in the uplands of Central America are not modified soon, rural poverty will persist and lead to environmental collapse. There is a simultaneous need for increase of productivity, improved natural resource management, and recognition of people's rights to the resources they manage. Only when rural families can consider land to be their own, manage resources sustainably, and generate surplus will they be able to trigger genuine change in the system of governance. Top-down attempts to change the system of governance will only succeed in changing the form rather than the content. Until the governed have shaken off traditional patterns of dependency and control from above as well as modified their land use practices, the vicious circle of poverty will remain intact. The proposals for an alternative approach presented in this article are based on more than 6 years of field work in 20 municipalities in the mountains of Lempira, Honduras (Figure 1).

Kyrgyzstan, officially called the Kyrgyz Republic, is a small and highly mountainous former Soviet republic situated in northeast Central Asia (Figure 1). It is surrounded by the Pamir-Alay Mountains to the southwest and the Tien-Shan range to the northeast; the Tien-Shan ridge predominates. Ninety-four percent of the land area is located above 1000 m; 40% is above 3000 m, with large glaciers and permanent snow. The average altitude is 2750 m. Since gaining independence in 1991, the Kyrgyz Republic has undergone a difficult transition from a command and supply economy to a market-oriented one, embracing a democratic system of governance. The government has strongly promoted decentralized local governance and community development through the formation of local self-governing bodies and emphasis on intensive mobilization of human resources and local capital at the grassroots level. In reaction to the government's commitment to promote a high degree of local governance for community development, the UNDP-supported Decentralization Program began to help mobilize mountain communities in the Kyrgyz Republic to initiate community development efforts that would meet the needs of villages in Kyrgyzstan.

Regional development in mountain areas and the impact of development on landscapes have been focuses of economic and regional policies in Austria for many decades due to the country's very mountainous topography. A special Support Program for Mountain Farmers was established in the early 1970s. Since the late 1970s, support for regional economies has been defined from a bottom-up perspective. Meanwhile, measures designed in accordance with agricultural and regional policies have become an important component of Austria's mountain policy, with significant implications for sustainable regional development. Assessment of mountain agriculture in Austria has been carried out with particular attention to ways and means of supporting the agricultural sector and to measures aiming to preserve and manage land resources sustainably under the difficult production conditions in mountains. At the core of mountain policy is the valuation of nonmarketable goods, which are increasingly referred to as “rural amenities” in international discourse (Figure 1). Such valuation must be included in comprehensive policy assessments of sustainable development. Emphasis on the character of mountain areas with respect to potential local and regional amenities has made it possible to enhance small-scale development initiatives at the local level. Sustainable resource use in peripheral mountain regions largely depends on the possible development potential of amenities in regional concepts, on nurturing the endogenous potential of the local population, and on inducing appropriate initiatives for balanced development of cultural landscapes and rural society.

This paper explores endogenous development as a strategy for Swiss mountain communities. Endogenous development refers to self-determined participatory development based on regional needs and the use of endogenous potentials. Data from 2 case studies, Urnäsch and Schamserberg, show that endogenous development cannot be detached from its national and global context and that local initiatives evolve as a continuous interplay between internal and external factors. The main benefits of endogenous development are within the social and cultural realm: it raises people's awareness of local problems, promotes community bonds, and fosters local identity. These effects are important because they increase the quality of life. Indirectly, they can have an effect on economic development because they motivate people to stay in their communities and become involved in local activities. Regional policy should thus pay more attention to endogenous development by promoting participation, local initiative, and social capital.

The European Alps are among the world's most densely populated mountain regions. To date, towns have played a subordinate role within this area. Due to the marginal position of Alpine towns within national urban systems, they do not constitute an interrelated urban system, and no primary center exists. The current degree of urbanization cannot be measured by adding up the population of the towns in the Alps. Instead, it is necessary to demarcate urbanized zones according to functional criteria. This article presents a demarcation of urbanized zones in the Alps based on the French method of European functional urban areas (EFUAs). As elsewhere in Europe, urbanized zones are expanding and gaining importance under the influence of structural changes in the economy. At the same time, the shift to post-Fordist production and regulation is leading to more pronounced internationalization of medium-sized and small towns as well as conurbations. Census data on demography and commuting collected between 1960 and 1995 indicate that urbanization processes in the Alps have caught up with those occurring in non-Alpine Europe. A comparison of 1980 and 1990 data on employment shows that growth sectors in the Alps are lagging behind those in peri-Alpine conurbations. The Alpine border is gradually being turned into a residential and recreational area for these peri-Alpine conurbations. The present article argues that this externally driven functional division between urban regions outside the Alps and monofunctional recreational landscapes within the Alps contradicts the criteria of sustainable development. Hence, a policy of strengthening small and medium towns in order to increase the value of inner-Alpine lifestyles and economies and enhance town–country relations is preferable to the continued expansion of peri-Alpine agglomerations and metropolitan areas and should be encouraged within the boundaries set by ecological principles.

Nepal is witnessing a transition from a predominantly agrarian economy to one where nonagricultural income opportunities are increasingly important. The significance of wage labor in (semi)industrial production and in the service sector is growing rapidly. Along with these changes, there is increasing labor migration as part of the population seeks work in labor markets in urban areas, both in Nepal and India or further abroad. Within the Nepalese urban labor market, carpet production evolved as one of the most prominent industries during the early 1990s, experiencing high annual growth rates. Yet this “gold rush” was followed by a dramatic decline in the mid and late 1990s that severely affected the industry and its workers. In order to analyze these processes, the author conducted an empirical study from 1996 through 1999 consisting of interviews with business people, workers, and officials from governmental and nongovernmental organizations. The study showed that declining income opportunities have drastically affected savings and remittances. As a consequence, those (male) workers with access to more attractive labor markets sought new destinations, particularly in the Gulf states, whereas women workers have been left behind.

In order to better understand the state of mountain agriculture, this article analyzes trends for 3 integral components of mountain farming systems—production of foodgrain crops, horticultural and cash crops, and livestock—using time series data published by national governments in 5 Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) countries. Results show that, although the area under foodgrain crops has not increased, their yields have not declined as much as is often perceived. In some cases, crop productivity has increased. This evidently implies that mountain farmers are maintaining productivity of foodgrain crops for food security reasons. Results also suggest increasing trends in crop diversification toward horticultural and cash crops. Present trends in rapid expansion of areas under these crops indicate the growing importance of horticultural and cash crops in mountain farming systems and the household economy across the Hindu Kush-Himalaya. These trends have positive implications for the future development of mountain agriculture in terms of harnessing mountain niches and comparative advantages. In the livestock sector, there is a general decline in the cattle population across the HKH. Trends indicate the possibility of greater development of smallholder dairies with improved buffaloes in the Himalayan subtropics. The number of stall-fed buffaloes and goats is rising with increased use of external inputs and purchased feed, thus contributing positively to food security and nutrition in mountain households.

In Peru, strong growth in urban demand for industrially processed dairy products has induced a rapid increase in milk production along the coast but not so much in the Andean highlands, where an increase in milk production would create the greatest benefits. A farm–household optimization model was used to assess the current and changing competitiveness of milk production on the coast (Arequipa and Lima) and in the highlands (Cajamarca). Results show that large farms on the coast, particularly near Lima, are currently the most profitable. However, the high milk prices in Lima are likely to fall because of local market saturation and reduced competition among regional milk buyers. In contrast, milk prices in Arequipa and Cajamarca are expected to rise as a result of increased milk collection by milk processors since milk production costs in these regions are lower and there is a strong incentive to increasingly substitute expensive imported milk powder with locally produced evaporated milk. Improvements in the rural road system and the promotion of agricultural export crops along the coast, particularly in Arequipa, would accelerate the expansion of milk production in the highlands. To improve highland farmers' access to the market, policy makers and development agencies should target their interventions in close collaboration with milk processors. Because they have a strong interest in increasing milk production in their own region, milk processors are also important partners when designing measures to improve farmers' fodder and herd management practices in order to further increase the competitiveness of milk production in the highlands relative to the coast.

Tropical deforestation poses a threat to ecological sustainability and socioeconomic development in many parts of the world. Information on forest transformations is especially pertinent in sensitive ecological zones such as mountainous regions, where forest cover protects steep slopes and thin soils from erosion. Such areas are frequently unsuitable for agriculture, but inhabitants may have few alternatives to meet subsistence needs. Understanding the relationship between human behavior and forest change poses a major challenge for development projects, policy makers, and environmental organizations that aim to improve forest management. Knowledge of the areal extent of forest cover and the processes of change represents an integral step, but in many areas of the globe, these processes are still relatively unknown. This study addresses forest cover change in a community in the mountains of western Honduras. Between 1987 and 1996, 9.77 km² of land was reforested and only 7.48 km² was deforested, as determined by satellite image analysis. This reforestation is related to the current institutional, biophysical, and socioeconomic contexts. Forests remain primarily on steeper slopes, at higher elevations, and at a distance from settlements and roads. A county ban on logging has allowed regrowth of previously logged areas. Agricultural intensification appears related to abandonment of some marginal lands. Processes of privatization have been occurring; private forests reveal higher reforestation and lower deforestation rates than communal forests. Privatization, however, has favored the wealthy. Thus, the majority has had to depend on shrinking communal forests.

The current status of alien plants in the alpine and subalpine areas of the Australian Alps is assessed in this article. The number of alien species has increased following the region's use by nonindigenous Australians over the last 170 years. One hundred and seventy-five alien plant taxa have been recorded above 1500 m in the Australian Alps. These taxa are mainly perennials from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. They are predominantly associated with disturbance and are categorized here according to the types of human activities with which they are associated. There are roadside or path weeds (78% of species), resort weeds (58%), grazing weeds (25%), and rehabilitation weeds (11%). Just over 20% of the alien taxa have become naturalized in the region. Diversity, distribution, and biology of the species are evaluated along with the threats they pose to the conservation of the region.