In recent years, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have increasingly been used in a wide array of application contexts for development cooperation in lowlands and mountain areas. When used for planning, implementation, and monitoring, GIS is a versatile and highly efficient tool, particularly in mountain areas characterized by great spatial diversity and inaccessibility. However, the establishment and application of GIS in mountain regions generally presents considerable technical challenges. Moreover, it is necessary to address specific institutional and organizational issues regarding implementation.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are often seen as incompatible with participatory processes. However, since the late 1990s, attempts have been made in numerous projects around the world to define “best practices” for improved natural resource management projects that integrate participation and accurate spatial information, using GIS (for example, see  www.iapad.org/participatory_gis.htm). This article describes a project in the Peruvian Andes where spatial information played a key role. Can GIS help narrow the gap between professionals and farmers or local officials? Or is it really a top-down tool that requires too much expert knowledge; and are investments too great for remote rural areas? Examples of successful use of GIS are provided in this article, while practical complications and methodological constraints are highlighted.

The treeless desertlike environments of southern Tibet are assumed to be naturally unsuitable for forests. Yet, climatic conditions do allow for the growth of indigenous trees in Lhasa and many parts of southern Tibet, even where there is no high groundwater table or irrigation. This was discovered and proven in a Sino–German research project launched in 1997. The project made an inventory of forest relics, correlated residual tree stands with climatic data, and successfully cultivated nonirrigated indigenous junipers and cypresses. The eroded semidesert landscape of southern Tibet appears to have a huge potential for reforestation. The area with a potential for tree growth was investigated using the Geographical Information System known as GRASS (Geographical Resource Analysis Support System). Reforestation measures could meet the heavy demand for timber and firewood, help combat erosion on overgrazed slopes, and restore the degraded pastures. Grazing must be excluded on reforestation plots. Simultaneously, rangelands may regenerate after overgrazing. The optimum duration of the ungrazed period varies with altitude, humidity, soil conditions, and the degree of degradation. Successional trends observed on exclosure plots suggest that the drier the climate and the lower the initial degree of herbaceous vegetation cover, the longer the ungrazed period will be beneficial for pasture regeneration. Challenges in research and practice resulting from these preliminary results are highlighted.

Beforona is a mountainous region in eastern Madagascar, where slash-and-burn cultivation (tavy) has been practiced for several generations to produce rice, the staple food of the Malagasy people. This system of cultivation has long been unsustainable (deforestation, erosion, loss of soil fertility, etc). Other types of cultivation considered more sustainable were inventoried in a study, particularly the irrigated rice field and traditional agroforestry system known as tanimboly found in the valleys. On the basis of research results, data were incorporated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) to elaborate descriptive models using different parameters related to this farming system. Spatial distribution of tanimboly shows that more than 90% is concentrated along small streams, in concave areas, and not on slopes and hillsides. Tanimboly becomes scarcer as the distance from the forest edge approaches 2 km, and surface areas are drastically reduced in proportion to distance from roads. GIS and regression models made it possible to identify potential areas for tanimboly. Relations between the various parameters were calculated using logistic regression functions to predict occurrence of the tanimboly phenomenon in nonsampled zones. It appears that farming strategies are particularly influenced by infrastructure.

The Mountain and Plains Spatio-Temporal Database Informatics Initiative (MaPSTeDI) is a collaborative effort between the University of Colorado Museum, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and Denver Botanic Gardens to convert their separate collections into one distributed biodiversity database and research toolkit using online mapping applications. The 3 participating museums are all located just east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and have extensive natural history collections data covering the southern and central Rockies and adjacent plains. MaPSTeDI's efforts will result in an online mapping application with access to over 200,000 georeferenced specimens. Once this application is in production, MaPSTeDI will provide access to valuable data that can be used by researchers for biodiversity analyses and land use planning over a 6-state region that includes Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

Spatial patterns in socioeconomic data reveal issues and trends that would otherwise be missed by data aggregation to political or other units. Geographic Information System (GIS) tools provide display and analysis capabilities that are underutilized by many social scientists. The present article combines field-based surveys that maintain locational information with GIS tools to examine gender roles, responsibilities, and workloads in a spatial context for a case-study watershed in Nepal. Adult women outworked men by an average of 3.8 hours per day. Spatial differences in workloads are related to road access, with women living near the road working longer days, and men near the road participating more in “typically” female tasks such as collecting drinking water. Households with poor access have larger landholdings, greater total production, and are more reliant on subsistence agriculture. Households with road access use more agrochemicals, have smaller landholdings, and are more reliant on off-farm employment to meet their families' needs. GIS helps communicate these spatial trends more clearly and quantifies key issues when combined with statistical analysis. The use of field-based participatory techniques, aerial photographs and quantitative GIS and statistical analysis is infrequent in gender analysis but provides social scientists with powerful tools for investigating variability. In this study, the significant influence of the road on socioeconomic issues was highlighted, along with the need to focus development activities spatially.

This article analyzes a project concerned with the conversion of agricultural land into forests and the impact on local communities in the upper Min River Basin in China. The aim of the project, called “Grain for Green” (Tui Geng Huan Lin), is to improve watershed conditions, enhance biodiversity, and conserve natural resources. Results from a participatory socioeconomic survey showed that the basic living standards of farmers were guaranteed by government subsidies because some of their cultivated land was converted into protected forest. The common perception is that although farmers were happy to participate in the project because they became less dependent on agriculture and were able to diversify their income, they were worried about their future after 8 years of government subsidies and preferred to plant forests for economic rather than ecological reasons. There is also a fear that if subsidies end, farmers may turn forestland into sloping cultivation land. To guarantee sustainable implementation of the Grain for Green Project, farmers discussed options with local government officials. In face-to-face interviews, they discussed issues such as basic cropland protection, educational investment, out-migration of the workforce, hydroelectricity exploitation, and tourism development.

Many studies have focused on desertification processes in northern China in an attempt to understand desertification-related ecological problems. Desertification on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has received little attention, even though desertification resulting from overgrazing is a widespread phenomenon there. This study focuses on the Gonghe Basin in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, located on the northeast Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, to shed light on desertification processes and associated environmental impacts during a 10-year period from 1987 to 1996. We first used 2 thematic mapper images to classify land cover for 2 summers (1987 and 1996) into 9 land cover types related to desertification. To assess the severity of desertification and to calculate the total soil carbon emission caused by desertification, we first defined severity by comparing land cover differences between 1987 and 1996 and then determined the differences in organic carbon content of the soil in grasslands during different stages of desertification between 1987 and 1996. The results showed that about 240 km² of grasslands was lost to agricultural encroachment and about 190 km² became sand-covered area between 1987 and 1996. During the same period, desertification affected 569.6 km² of grasslands, with desertification assessed as very severe for 41.8%, severe for 15.1%, and moderate for 43.1% of the area. The results also show that carbon emissions from grassland deterioration caused by desertification amounted to 2.06 × 10⁶ tC during the 10-year period, the average annual emission rate being 0.206 × 10⁶ tC.

Land cover mapping obtained from photointerpretation of aerial photographs and orthophotographs was used to quantify land cover changes between 1957 and 1996 in a Mediterranean middle mountain area. Expansion of forested area is clearly the main land cover change caused by the abandonment of traditional agricultural activities and by the use of other materials and energy sources instead of forest resources. As a result, about 64% of the area was covered by forest by 1996, whereas in 1957 forests accounted for only 40% of the land cover. Spontaneous afforestation of abandoned fields with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in terraced areas and areas of sparse scrub vegetation, coupled with an increase in the density of forest canopies, has been responsible for this expansion of woodland. The influence of physiographic factors in land cover change processes in the terraced areas of the catchment was also considered. The results demonstrate that within the terraced areas, north-facing and more elevated steeper slopes are more intensely afforested. However, an accurate analysis of the role played by these factors in land cover change cannot be carried out because the pattern of land abandonment is not independent of these physiographic characteristics. Furthermore, field observations at the terrace scale are evidence of the relevant influence of local topography in afforestation dynamics.

Since the 19th century a slow expansion of forests into previous agricultural areas has been recorded in the Carpathians. The present article analyzes forest cover change in the Orawa region of Poland, using historical maps and contemporary satellite data. Forest cover change was analyzed with reference to elevation, under the assumption that it reflects a transformation of the vertical land use system developed in the 17th and 18th centuries. For the past 180 years, the proportion of forest in the study area has increased from 25% to 40%. Forest expansion largely affected pastures cleared within the forest belt and areas located immediately above and below this belt. Changes in forest area were largely related to a decline in agriculture and have occurred along with population growth. As a result, grazing has been replaced by forestry, nature conservation, and tourism.

The Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) and UNESCO are cooperating on developing a strategy for implementing global change research in mountain Biosphere Reserves around the world. The objective is to provide an integrative research framework for regional interdisciplinary studies that address the causes and impacts of environmental and socioeconomic changes in the mountain Biosphere Reserves.

The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) is a university institution that conducts resource- and people-oriented research and development activities in Switzerland and abroad. It is part of the Institute of Geography at the University of Berne and is the lead institution for the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North–South.

The International Partnership for Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions (IPSDMR) was initiated by the Government of Switzerland, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the Government of Italy, and the Mountain Forum (MF) during the International Year of Mountains 2002 (IYM2002). The concept of the IPSDMR originally took shape during sessions of the Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and was finalized—with the publication of a basic concept document—at the 4th session of the Preparatory Committee in Bali, Indonesia, in June 2002. The Partnership was officially adopted as a “Type 2 Outcome” at the WSSD in Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August 2002–4 September 2002. Activities so far in 2003 have included several meetings in Switzerland, an e-consultation moderated by the MF, and a side event at the meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-11) in New York. These activities culminated in the First Global Meeting of Members of the Mountain Partnership, held in Merano, Italy, 5 October 2003–6 October 2003.