Many people living in mountain regions in lowand middle-income countries are vulnerable to food and nutrition insecurity, which contributes to poor nutritional status. Food and nutrition security require stability of access to affordable, safe, diverse, and nutritious foods. In mountainous areas, affordability and access to diverse foods are challenged by climatic factors constraining agricultural production, poor infrastructure, and geographic isolation. This article describes a nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) project focusing on 5 countries—Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Peru— where 132 microinterventions were implemented by rural service providers (RSPs) who received training and technical support from the project. These microinterventions serve as learning cases for advocacy work to promote the NSA approach at the local, national, and global levels. They are also documented on an Internet platform allowing RSPs and other stakeholders to share best practices and lessons learned at the national and global levels. Preliminary results indicate that this approach is highly effective in addressing nutrition and livelihood issues in remote mountain areas. To scale up the approach and boost its integration into policies at the local, national, and global levels, 2 aspects will be critical. First, more systemic and integrated NSA initiatives need to be implemented that functionally combine production- and consumption-related aspects to effectively change nutrition behavior and serve as learning cases for scaling up. Second, effective capacity development of RSPs and encouragement of interaction among them is key to empowering them as change agents.

The United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016–2025 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development call on all countries and stakeholders to work together to prevent all forms of malnutrition by 2030. In Nepal, these considerations are at the forefront of the country's Sustainable Development Goals. To aid in this effort, this article presents a case study from the mountainous Humla District, Nepal, that was designed to better understand how the arrival of the first road in this area is affecting food security and nutritional status, and how these 2 variables are interrelated. Data from participant observation, interviews, the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale questionnaire, and a region-specific food frequency questionnaire suggest that while the road provides more reliable access to market-sourced food than before, villagers' intake of many micronutrients remains below recommended levels, as most of the market-purchased foods are nutrient poor. Data also suggest that this population is experiencing the double burden of malnutrition: simultaneous cases of underweight and overweight. High food security levels among those in the malnourished/overweight group could easily mask this emerging public health concern. This study provides an analytical framework to better understand the nexus of food security and nutrition, and offers evidence-based recommendations for decreasing food insecurity and malnutrition in mountainous regions, which will help achieve the goal of preventing all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

Mountain communities are considered particularly vulnerable to food insecurity, and their vulnerability is sometimes assumed to be increasing because of a loss of food self-sufficiency. Based on a case study of Nagar District in the Karakoram of northern Pakistan, the present article challenges this assumption by taking a broader perspective on food systems and their changes in recent decades. Defining food security as the outcome of a resilient food system, it investigates how major transformations of livelihoods and farming systems since the 1970s have increased or decreased the resilience of food systems in Nagar in various ways. Based on empirical field research conducted between 2014 and 2016, the study finds that local food systems have transformed from largely subsistence-oriented systems of food production and consumption to increasingly complex, multilocal networks in which off-farm livelihoods, external markets, and government-subsidized food supplies play central roles. This process of diversification of food systems has generally improved communities' resilience to food crises, despite the emergence of various new risks. The article argues that rather than overemphasizing local food self-sufficiency, research and policy related to food security in mountains must address the multidynamic and multifaceted character of food systems, as local production constitutes only one of several interrelated elements.

Reducing food insecurity is crucial to sustainable development in mountain regions. Case studies on complex food systems in these areas facilitate depiction of current trends and challenges and provide detailed information to policymakers. Based on empirical research in Ladakh in the Indian Trans-Himalaya, this study assesses livelihood dynamics in the context of rapid socioeconomic changes and aims to show how diverse spatial and temporal patterns of mobility shape strategies of the mountain population. The results exhibit translocal livelihood diversification as an emerging reality. The consequences are a reduction in land-based food production and an increased reliance on markets and government food subsidies. This shift to a supply-oriented food system implies gender- and intergenerational-biased challenges, such as growing socioeconomic disparities, new dependencies, and an erosion of social institutions in the rural communities. Moving beyond the focus on land-based food production, this article sheds light on the interaction between agriculture, mobility, markets, and supplies, and highlights the need for cross-sectoral policy approaches to meet the challenge of food insecurity in mountains.

The trade of Himalayan caterpillar fungus, or Ophiocordyceps sinensis, is believed to have transformed the rural economy of certain Himalayan villages. Most scholarly work on the caterpillar fungus focuses on its ecology, physiology, and pharmacological attributes, followed by conservation and sustainability issues. Few studies have tried to understand it from a socioeconomic and political perspective. Of the few studies examining its economic contribution to households, most are concentrated in Nepal and Tibet, and a handful focus on India. In the present study, we estimated the mean annual cash income per household in Gori valley, Kumaon Himalaya, and the relative economic contribution of caterpillar fungus. We compared the incomes of caterpillar fungus collectors with those of noncollectors, identified harvest trends from 2009 to 2017, and took stock of people's perceptions regarding this short seasonal occupation. Results show that earnings from caterpillar fungus contribute 60–78% to the annual household income of collectors, with noncollectors earning 15–55% less than collectors. The study suggests that an increase in the number of harvesters may explain an observed decline in individual harvests. Though caterpillar fungus provides opportunities for economic emancipation to half the valley's population, inconsistent harvest, unreliable prices, and illegality of the trade are decreasing its viability for many. Furthermore, discordant and complex governance meted out through various state directives is increasingly jeopardizing this local natural resource-based livelihood enhancement strategy—a strategy that has incidentally outperformed concerted state efforts for poverty alleviation in the region.

Kyrgyzstan is home to one of the largest areas of natural walnut forest in the world. These forests support significant genetic diversity of many important ancestral strains of fruit and nut tree species. The walnuts from those forests are a major source of cash income for many households in that region. Most of the walnut forests are overgrazed, which effectively hinders natural rejuvenation. This has resulted in overaged and degraded forests. Currently, tree cutting for timber is forbidden under a moratorium. In some instances, walnut trees grow in agroforestry systems together with potato and corn as annual crops or apples and berries, alongside hay. Reforestation and afforestation in the walnut forest region is imperative to secure walnut harvests and associated incomes once the existing trees start bearing fewer nuts. The objective of this study was to analyze the economic performance of a range of representative combinations of annual crops, berries, and fast-bearing fruit trees in reforestation and afforestation plots. This included hypothetical timber utilization in order to be able to bridge the income gap until newly planted walnut trees bear nuts. Data were based on semistructured household and expert interviews. In all plots there was grassy vegetation, which was harvested for hay. In some of the plots, corn and potatoes were grown as annual crops. Additionally, in part of the plots apple and berries were grown next to walnuts. The net present value of the farming systems for a 20-year period was highest for the 2 systems that included hypothetical timber utilization. Walnut and haymaking performed worst, with a negative net present value. All non-timber systems yielded an income gap until around year 10, when walnut trees begin to fruit.

Dwarf pine (Pinus mugo Turra) thickets are a substantial land cover in high-elevation mountain ecosystems in Europe, where they fulfill important functions in soil conservation and as wildlife habitat. In many areas across Europe these thickets have rapidly expanded over the past decades because of changing climate and land use, highlighting the need to better understand how species spread relates to growth traits and changing environmental conditions. We quantified changes in dwarf pine cover by elevation on 2 mountains in the Western Carpathians (Central Europe) over 64 years (Babia hora) and 40 years (Pilsko), and we linked them to species growth responses to climate using archival photogrammetry and stem length measurements. We correlated mean growth chronologies with mean monthly temperature and precipitation to assess the main climatic factors driving growth. The total expansion of dwarf pine cover was substantial (28.6% in Babia hora and 57.1% in Pilsko), but the rate of expansion varied with elevation, site, and intra- and interspecific competition. The largest expansion occurred in the open stands of the high elevations (1550–1650 m). Statistically significant positive correlations between growth and temperature were recorded for the most recent growing season and for the preceding growing season. However, despite rising temperatures over time, mean species growth during the last 20 years decreased slightly. The correlation of growth with precipitation was mostly positive but not statistically significant. Thus, the impact of changing climate appeared too weak to overcome other influential factors (eg decline in grazing and intra- and interspecific competition).

This study investigated the bacteriological characteristics and physical parameters of drinking water sources in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal. The park is located in the southeastern part of the Nepali Himalaya and includes the southern slopes of Sagarmatha (Mt Everest). During the 2016 premonsoon dry season, we sampled 29 community drinking water sources and 5 surface-water sources. The physical properties of the samples ranged as follows: temperature 3–17°C, pH 5.41–7.81, conductivity 33.6–175.5 µS, and total dissolved solids 17.3–94.3 ppm. All of the samples tested met World Health Organization drinking water standards for physical parameters. In terms of fecal contamination, 8 samples contained no CFUs (colony-forming units), conforming to the World Health Organization and Nepali national standards; the remaining 26 samples contained between 1 and 100 CFUs, and this range is rated a low to moderate risk by the World Health Organization but fails to meet the Nepali standards. The data show a positive correlation between bacteria content and temperature, and a weak negative correlation between bacteria content and elevation. Samples from the more populated, lowerelevation (<3500 m) areas had higher levels of Escherichia coli and of coliform bacteria in general. This suggests that the samples from warmer and lower-elevation areas have a higher proportion of surface water in the drinking water, which would account for their elevated bacterial content. This indicates that the deeper groundwater may be uncontaminated and should be the focus of future investigations.

Aoraki Mount Cook is New Zealand's highest mountain and a popular destination for climbers. This study combined historical accounts, photos, and geophysical surveys with modern-day spatial analysis, popular narratives, and interviews to explore how conditions on the most popular climbing route up the mountain, the Linda Glacier route, have changed over time. Results highlight significant change on the lower section of the route due to ongoing downwasting of the Tasman Glacier; but higher on the mountain, changes in the route are more strongly associated with year-to-year variability in snow conditions. Even so, recent observations of new rock exposures and a shortening of the climbing season due to earlier crevasse exposure may be indications of longer-term glacier change.

Development of winter outdoor leisure activities in areas of high natural value is a key issue in the sustainable use of mountain environments. Ski touring, an emerging outdoor activity in the Tatra Mountains, is believed to affect protected mammal species such as the Tatra chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica), alpine marmot (Marmota marmota latirostris), red deer (Cervus elaphus), European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes). To assess the impact of ski touring on these species, various studies are underway in Tatra National Park. The aim of this study was to investigate the interactions between ski tourers and large mammals in the park using a social science approach. A total of 274 skiers completed an online questionnaire about their encounters with large mammals during their ski tours in Tatra National Park and their perceptions of animals' reactions to their presence. Just over half of the respondents reported encounters with large mammals—most often with chamois, followed by deer (red or roe), foxes, and marmots. Only 6% reported encounters with brown bears. The most commonly reported animal reactions were vigilance and indifference (no reaction). Flight or aggression occurred less often—in about 22% of encounters with all species and 12% of encounters with chamois. An online survey on human–wildlife interactions can provide a cost- and labor-efficient complement to field research such as direct observation, GPS tracking, and physiological testing.

Land use change is a key component of regional environmental change. In mountain regions, where conditions for agriculture and human life are often difficult, land use trends are dominated by changes in the population's distribution across rural and urban areas and shifts in the main human activities. In the Argentinian puna—a high-elevation subtropical plateau of about 95,000 km² situated above 3200 masl—land is chiefly used for grazing, mining, and tourism. In this article, we analyze trends in these land uses over the last 57 years in the context of climatic changes toward drier and warmer conditions. Since 1960, the human population grew from 80,000 to 130,000; but this increase largely occurred in the scattered urban centers, while the rural population decreased. The main livestock— sheep—showed a net decrease of around 100,000 animals (–18.5%), with numbers increasing between 1960 and 1980 and then dropping markedly. The number of mining operations declined during the 1970s and 1980s and then rose sharply, reaching a 30% increase since the 1990s. Simultaneously, structural wild vicuña populations increased from a few thousand to around 130,000. These results show that environmental changes over the past half century involved a major wildlife recovery associated with a change from widespread extensive grazing to intensive but spatially limited impacts around mining operations and growing urban centers. Tourism emerged as a new activity over the last decades, but the environmental impacts have been poorly studied. To promote local development and regional conservation, research priorities should include (1) empirical assessments of the ecological consequences of land use changes, such as grazing regimes shifting from domestic to wild herbivores, as well as the impacts of mining, tourism, and urbanization on wetlands and hydrological regimes; (2) modeling of future scenarios of mining and tourism expansion and resulting conflicts with environmental conservation; and (3) coproduction of knowledge about interactions among land uses, climate change, and the different decision-making agents.

Land and water management is one of the main thematic research areas at the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN). Several efforts have focused on improving understanding of hydrological dynamics in the Andean highlands, which are the source of water for most of the population in the region. Based on an adaptive management approach, we are developing and assessing the implementation of sustainable land and water management practices to conserve and restore the environmental services of water regulation and provision. The assessment generates evidence on the outcomes of these practices and can help to inform decision-making processes towards achieving water security.

The Centre for Mountain Studies (CMS) is located at Perth College, University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland, and it hosts the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development. CMS staff and students have been active in research and knowledge-exchange activities at scales from Scotland to the world. Particular emphases of current work are on biosphere reserves, land ownership, and community development. The part-time online MSc in sustainable mountain development has attracted students from 4 continents.