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Hindu Kush-Himalayas
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The First NGO Concerned with the Environment in Afghanistan Surveys the Pamir Mountains

The Society for Afghanistan Volunteer Environmentalists (SAVE), the country's only environmental entity, which was established about four years ago to work, campaign, and carry out research on environment and awareness in the war-torn Afghanistan, has recently launched its exploration and survey programmes in the strategic Wakhan Corridor district of Badakhshan province. The programme is being sponsored by WWF-Pakistan.

The magnificent strategic Wakhan Corridor area contains the Big and Small Pamir mountains which are aptly called the "Roof of the World."

The Big Pamirs, beside other general species, contain Marco Polo sheep which is very important worldwide and unique ungulate. Other major species found in the area are ibex, urial, snow leopard and brown bear. The living conditions are similar to other mountainous areas of the world. The local people, however, are extremely poor and vulnerable to all kinds of diseases and poverty. SAVE has a functional office in Khandud, Wakhan (close to the Pamirs), and from this office it has launched the survey programme in the beginning of 1997. SAVE has produced a mid-term report on the assessment of the area's biodiversity, socio-economics, education, agriculture, and other aspects of life in the Pamir mountains. SAVE plans to carry out research on the snow leopard next year and, to this end, solicit assistance from any quarter to help them in carrying out this work.

For more than two decades, Afghanistan remained in the shadows largely due to the absence of dedicated and effective organizations, as well as the situation of situation of continual war. Now, SAVE would like to announce that they are open for all kinds of joint ventures and collaborative undertakings in this part of the world. For further details contact:

Abdul Wajid Adil, SAVE, Director
House No. 514, Street. 15, E2, Phase I
Hayatabad, Peshawar, Pakistan
Tel/fax: 0092 521 813838
E-mail: adl@save.psh.brain.net.pk

A New Mountain Development Initiative Called the 'Mountain Forum'

Grassroots agencies working in partnership with the Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), a national-level developmental agency which completed 50 years of work in the hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, in India, have formed a new organisation called the Mountain Forum.

Dr. Sudhirendar Sharma, who instigated the formation of the Forum, felt that most of these 14 agencies were working on problems in their respective target areas - whereas the need of the hour was to focus on issues that need to be highlighted - both for action and policy level intervention.

In a meeting early this year in Shimla, these agencies drafted a policy paper on mountains in that part of the world. The meeting covered short-term issues such as land erosion and micro-enterprise development, on one hand, and long-term issues such as forest management and migration on the other.

CASA's Chief Monitoring Officer for the region, Jayant Kumar, will be the coordinator of the Forum for the next four years. The Forum's work will not be restricted to the member agencies but will also be shared with other bilateral and government agencies in the region. For further details contact:

Mr. Jayant Kumar
Chief Monitoring Officer
CASA, Rachna Building
2 Rajendra Place, Pusa Road
New Delhi 110 008
Tel: 5715498, 5715538, 5767231, 5761579
Fax: 011-5752502
Telegram: CASARD. NEW DELHI
E-mail: clare.casard@axcess.net.in

13th Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet International Workshop

The 13^th Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet International Workshop (HKTIW) will take place from April 20-22, 1998, in Peshawar, Pakistan. HKTIW has been an annual event since 1985, held mainly in Europe but once each in Nepal and USA. The workshop focuses on the current research in all disciplines of the earth sciences concerning the Himalayas and associated mountain ranges in south-central Asia. Primarily informal, the workshop is an ideal forum for presenting results ranging from these work from professional organizations to graduate students at universities. The various topics that the 13th HKTIW will focus on are as follows:

Regional tectonics

• Sutures, melanges, arc terrains and ophiolites in Nanga Parbat and other syntaxes
• Crustal thickening/duplication: thermal and magmatic response
• Geophysical profiling across Himalaya, Karakoram and Tibet
• Extension, strike-slip, and wrench tectonics
• Radiometric dating, isotope geochemistry
• Basins: initiations, inversions, closures
• Erosion, uplift and exhumation mechanisms
• Economics, environmental impacts and geological hazards
• Remote sensing and GIS applications

The will be oral-poster presentations for three days at the premises of the National Centre of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, followed by a week-long field excursion along the Karakoram Highway through the Himalayas, Kohistan, and the Karakoram mountains.

For further information contact :

Dr. M. Asif Khan/ Dr. M. Qasim Jan,
National Centre of Excellence in Geology,
University of Peshawar, Peshawar
PAKISTAN
Fax: (92) 91-43180, 41979
Phone: (92) -91-44367, 43180
E-mail: hkt13@uop.psw.erum.com.pk

(http://www.lehigh.edu/~pkz/hkt-circular.phpl)

 Total Ecosystem Management (TEM) Programme in Pattipola, Sri Lanka

A Total Ecosystem Management (TEM) programme has been recently initiated in Pattipola, Sri Lanka. Pattipola is one of the highest inhabited areas in Sri Lanka (6,300 ft asl) and lies on the headwaters of the Mahaveli river. The land use practices in the region have been environmentally and socially devastating. The government has replaced the native mountain forests with monocultures of Pinus and Eucalyptus.

The communities practice a high input modern agriculture that records over 140kg of fungicides applied to each hectare per annum. This coupled with a similar load of pesticides means that the river systems are being poisoned.

The TEM concept is being developed by Counterpart (an NGO) in Washington D.C. The TEM promotes redesigning of agricultural land on the principles of 'Analog Forestry' which seeks to create a silvicultural system analogous in architectural structure and ecological function to the original climax or sub-climax community. There are no biocides allowed and a premium price is obtained for the product that is certified by a local agency: the NeoSynthesis Research Center (NSRC) in Washington.

If workers in environmental rehabilitation in other mountain regions would like to share or exchange experiences they are welcome to contact the following people:

Ranil Senanayake
Counterpart , 49 Upper Lake Road
Nuwara Eliya Sri Lanka
E-mail: 100232.3435@compuserve.com, Or,

Dr. David Vosseler , Counterpart, Washington D.C
E-mail: david@counterpart.org

APMN Hindu Kush-Himalayas

Subregional Focal Point Coordinator
Mr. Shahid Akhtar
ICIMOD, GPO Box. 3226
Kathmandu, Nepal
TEL: 977 1 525313
FAX: 977 1 524509, 977 1 536747
E-mail : shahid@icimod.org.np

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United Nations General Assembly, 25 June 1997
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Building Partnership for the Mountain Agenda

Excerpt of speech given by Tage Michaelsen on sustainable mountain development delivered at the " Mountains of the World" book presentation during the United National General Assembly on 25 June 1997. The speech was given on behalf of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization - the official UN Task Manager for Agenda 21, Chapter 13 "Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain Development."

The important occasion of launching the new book "Mountains of the world - a global priority". is particularly significant at the time of the Special Session of the UN General Assembly to review progress during five years since Rio.

The partnerships that have been forged after UNCED are a direct result of the Mountain Agenda having achieved the status of a special chapter (Chapter 13) under Agenda 21. . Mountain issues gained legitimacy and recognition, and a seat at the intergovernmental negotiating "table" .The notion of "upstream conservation for downstream use" has been replaced by the more balanced concept of "sustainable mountain development". . Conservation of mountain ecosystems is only possible if it recognizes the legitimate right to development of mountain people, and contributes to the economic and cultural survival of mountain communities.

Since the declaration of the mountain chapter UNCED follow-up to Chapter 13 has been a very collaborative effort. NGOs, governments and international organizations, facilitated by FAO, have worked closely together to shape and implement the Mountain Agenda, especially within the framework of the ad hoc interagency group on Chapter 13, which has met four times since 1994.

The Government of Switzerland has been one of the most faithful supporters of both global and regional initiatives, and in particular of the initiatives of NGOs.

The Third session of the CSD in April 1995 endorsed the proposal to hold regional intergovernmental consultations on mountains with a prospect of holding an international meeting on mountains at a later stage. The regional inter-governmental consultations on Chapter 13 have already been held in all regions except North America, which is now sheduled for early 1998. Global and regional (European) NGO consultations have also been held.

The role of NGOs in the follow-up to Chapter 13 has been particularly effective both at the global, regional, national and local levels. They have been the driving force behind the establishment and the resounding success of "Mountain Forum" as a global network with a strong regional identity and ownership. They are engaged with Governments and international institutions in a number of initiatives.

Emerging priorities

The process of regional intergovernmental consultations, which is now almost completed, has allowed an increased focus on specific objectives of Chapter 13 and better understanding of how they can be best achieved. As it is highlighted in the book, it now seems likely that obstacles to achievement of five key objectives can be overcome. These include:

• Recognition of the need for efforts to eradicate hunger and malnutrition along with the overall objective of poverty alleviation in mountain regions, including increased recognition of the need for greater empowerment, equity and equality of women living in mountain areas;
• A clearer understanding of resource flows to and from mountain areas, leading to increased income for mountain communities and a fairer distribution of earnings from the utilization of natural resources and from services provided in mountain areas;
• Growing recognition of mountain areas as valuable sites for preserving cultural integrity and conserving biological diversity;
• Increased recognition of the important role played by forests in mountain areas with respect to such issues as hazard prevention, biodiversity conservation and livelihood opportunities and for the sustainable flow of water resources and their efficient use towards achieving food security;
• Greater recognition of the need for new or reinforced legal mechanisms (charters, conventions, national legislation etc.) to protect fragile mountain ecosystems and promote sustainable and equitable development in mountain regions.

Challenges Ahead

The challenge for sustainable mountain development is similar to the challenges facing other post-UNCED initiatives, i.e. to translate Agenda 21 into concrete action at national and local level by using and strengthening the partnerships which have been forged during the first five years after Rio, and to build on the regional initiatives and processes.

The need for a wider international meeting still exists. It should build upon the regional consultations which have taken place among Governments as well as NGOs, and should focus on a limited number of key issues on which progress can be expected.

The facilitator role of the task manager should continue to evolve with a view to generating concrete action involving all stakeholders, especially at the local level. There is a clear need to seek complementarity with other initiatives and processes, both cross-sectoral (such as poverty, women and other major groups) and sectoral (such as forests, freshwater, biological diversity).

Mountain Forum should be supported as an innovative regionally based cooperative network based on the most up-to-date technology, and which has already produced a number of invaluable results including the outcome of two electronic conferences.

Finally, . it proves once again, that a small group of dedicated people, if not actually move mountains, can at least direct the attention of the world towards them for the benefit of all mankind.

Agenda 21 Success Stories Earth Summit +5

Special Session of the General Assembly to Review and Appraise the Implementation of Agenda 21, New York, 23-27 June 1997

United Nations' Special Session of the General Assembly to Review and Appraise the Implementation of Agenda 21 dubbed as the Rio Plus Five, was held in New York, 23-27 June 1997.

The review meeting of the UN witnessed the presentation of progress made by various countries from all over the world in line with Agenda 21 adopted in the Earth Summit held five years ago (June 1990) in Rio de Jeneiro. Success stories from various countries in the pursuit of Agenda 21, that were presented in the Special Session has been archived in the United Nations Department of Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development Home Page Earth Summit+5 Section. For the Asia/Pacific region the Agenda 21 Success Stories can be accessed at the URL :

< http://www.un.org/dpcsd/earthsummit/ga97asia >

Success stories from countries of Asia/Pacific such as the Russian Federation, Papua New Guinea, the Phillipines, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, China, India, Japan, and others have been archived.

The archived success stories include amongst others topics, such as, Extension of Sustainable and Organic Farming (Russian Federation); The Biodiversity Conservation and Resource Management Programme (Papua New Guinea); Community-Based Seed Banking and Seed Propagation of Indigenous Agro-Forestry Species (IAS); The Cambodia Area Rehabilitation and Regeneration Project (Cambodia); Urban Squatters Resettlement Project: Rehabilitation and Community Support and Services to Urban Poor; and others.

New Publications

BOOK REVIEW

Name of the Book : Mountains of the World - A Global Priority
Edited by : B. Messerrli and J.D. Ives
Pages 495
Published by : The Parthenon Publishing Group Inc., 1997
ISBN 1-85070-781-2

It has been five years since the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, when Chapter 13 (Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain Development) was adopted in Agenda 21 - United Nations Conference on Environment and Development's prime directive. The period over the five years, since the Earth Summit or Rio Plus Five, has brought about endeavors and efforts by individuals and communities concerned with sustainable mountain development to address the issues and raise awareness.

The book under review - "Mountains of the World - A Global Priority" is an amalgamation of reports by various mountain scholars which have addressed the diverse issues concerned with sustainable mountain development. On the other hand, it is imbued with elements which purport to raise awareness on sustainable mountain development nationally, regionally and globally.

Divided into four broad parts, viz., (i) Mountains of the World - A Global Priority; (ii) The Human Dimension of Mountain Development; (iii) Mountain Ecosystem. Resources and Development; and (iv) Mountain Agenda for the 21^st century, the book altogether contains nineteen chapters which single out and address the prevalent sustainable mountain development issues. Suggestions to governmental and non-governmental organisations, and agenda to raise awareness and pro-activity towards sustainable mountain development at the policy and political levels constitute the integral substance to raise awareness.

Setting stage and providing the overview, the issue of defining mountains; problems of representatives in time and space; questions of scale are emphasised under the first part in Chapter 1 authored by Ives, Messerli, and Spiess.

In part two comprising of five chapters, in Chapter 2 Grotzbach and Stadel discuss people and culture in the context of an extremely diverse physical base. Berbanum in Chapter 3, from a socio-religious angle, highlights the powerfully influential aspect of sacredness and the imperative to integrate it to realise successful development. Introducing the topics of marginality, along with the necessity to better balance the standard of living of mountain peoples and their counterpart lowland and urban dwellers, issues of comparative inequality and poverty are examined by Ives in Chapter 4. Issues of penetration even into the remotest of the mountain communities by the international market system in the context of economically integrating world, causing what the authors call absolute and comparative cost disadvantages, have been addressed by Rieder and Wyder in Chapter 5. Libiszewski and Bachler completes this part with a treatment of the devastating effects of conflict in mountain regions.

Part three contains eleven chapters. The chapters range from major resource issues and their management and potential (water by Badhyopadyay and et al; energy resources for remote highland areas by Schweizer and Preiser; biodiversity by Jenik and Klotzli; mining and mineral extraction by Fox; protection of nature by Thorsell; montane forests and forestry by Hamilton, Cassels, and Gilmour), to utilisation of mountains for recreation and new forms of tourism and amenity migration (Price, Moss, and Williams), mountain farming, defined broadly to include agriculture, animal husbandry, and integral use of forest resources (by Jodha), and mountain watershed (by Hamilton and Bruijnzeel). These chapters are rounded off by a treatment of mountain risk and disasters (by Hewitt) and of climate and climate change (by Price and Barry).

A Mountain Agenda for the 21^st Century, in part four in two chapters represents the summing up. Chapter 18 by El Hajdi Sene and McGuire, details the organisational and administrative follow-up to the Earth Summit and sets the framework for the political objectives under the rubric of Rio Plus Five, and beyond. Chapter 19, by Ives, Messerli and Rhoades draws on the rest of the book to provide statement on the need for a new approach to policy and politics in-so-far as the prospects for sustainable mountain development during the twenty-first century is concerned. Some suggestions are made on the need for targeted mountain research.

This book which was released during the United Nations General Assembly on 25 June 1997 is a gold-mine of information on sustainable mountain development issues. It is a milestone piece of work in the pursuit of addressing issues and raising awareness concerned with sustainable mountain development. It has its distinction for being produced by individuals who all have absolutely adhered to academic freedom. The President of the Swiss Confederation, in his foreword, warmly recommend it to everyone interested in and committed to sustainable mountain development, and is convinced that the book will stimulate greater world-wide awareness of all aspects of sustainable mountain development.

N.B: The editors of the book can be reached at: Bruno Messeleri <messerli@giub.unibe.ch>Jack Ives <jackives@pigeon.carleton.ca>

New Journals

Journal of Remote Sensing and Environment, Vol. 1, 1997, Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation (SPARRSO)

This is an annual multidisciplinary journal published by the Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation. It covers studies preferably by using remote sensing and GIS technology for various aspects of natural and environmental sciences such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, meteorology, climatology, geography, geology, hydrology, water resources, oceanography, and disasters.

The scope of the journal also includes disciplines like space science and technology, cartography, image processing, and spatial analysis.

For further details contact:

Editor, Journal of Remote Sensing and Environment
Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation (SPARRSO)
Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh
Tel: 323981, 323994, 327913
Fax: 880-2-813080

Nepal Agricultural Research Journal, Volume 1, June 1997, No. 1, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and Society of Agricultural Scientists, Nepal (SAS-Nepal)

This is a publication jointly published by Society of Agricultural Scientists, Nepal (SAS), and Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC). Editor-in-chief, Kishore Sherchand, in editorial says that, in the past, much of the fruits of the labour of Nepalese scientist have either remained isolated or gone unnoticed, because most of the research results were not published. As a result, due recognitions were not accorded to them. Moreover, the research journals which are published in Nepal face problem of continuity. Part of the blame should go to the institutional and the national bureaucracy, as Nepalese scientist in the past were not evaluated and appreciated because of their research outputs. SAS conceived this idea as one important step, hoping that it would ultimately encourage fellow scientist to write and publish their research outputs. For further details contact:

Chief Editor, Nepal Agricultural Research Journal
C/O Animal Breeding Division
NARC, Khumaltar, P.O. Box 1950
Phone: 977-1-523160
Fax: 977-1-521197
E-mail: biodiversity@narc.wlink.com.np

ICIMOD's New Publications 

H.R. Sharma and E.Sharma, Mountain Agricultural Transformation Processes and Sustainability in the Sikkim Himalayas, India, Discussion Paper, Series No. MFS 97/2, ICIMOD, 103 pp, ISSN 1024 - 7548

The study was undertaken in the northern and southern districts of Sikkim, India, in order to examine the effects of mountain agricultural development processes on livelihood options and their implications on sustainability. Sikkim presents a good example of harnessing a local mountain niche by adopting cardamom farming, which is compatible with the mountain specificities.

The purpose of the study was to document the range and quality of livelihood options of households under maize-potato dominated and large cardamom-dominated farming systems and, more specifically, to assess the sustainability of large cardamom farming options. The large cardamom was found to be the most important farming option. Both ecological and economic evidence indicate positive sustainability implications of this cash crop with attributes such as low-volume, high-value, non-perishable; and being less infrastructure intensive, less labour intensive, and less dependent on external inputs. Large cardamom cultivation also provides ecological benefits such as soil conservation, soil fertility maintenance, and extension of forest cover with intact tree biodiversity in the existing farming systems. A number of problems, e.g., viral diseases, inadequate pot-harvest technology, and marketing facilities beset the crop. For a majority of the Sikkimese farmers, the sustainability of this crop has to be sustained, it should no longer be neglected and marginalised.

Therefore, concerted efforts need to be made on this crop with necessary investments to strengthen physical, institutional, and social infrastructures. The study shows that harnessing local niche by growing large cardamom is consistent with the mountain specificities, and it tends to be sustainable by having positive effects on the quality of life, equity, and the natural resource base.

Districts of Nepal - Indicators of Development, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu, Nepal, 1997, 119pp, ISBN 92-91115-6930

This document provides a unique assessment of the development status of each of Nepal's 75 districts in relation to 39 indicators of development. Although the study was prepared specifically for SNV Nepal's needs, the outcome is likely to be of great interest to HMG of Nepal and other development institutions and organisations involved in decentralised development planning and support.

This document is expected to be of assistance to development policy- and decision-makers and aid agencies working in Nepal to channel their resources in such a way to overcome regional inequalities that have become so apparent from this work.

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News/Views
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The classic way of producing a paper about what is happening around the world and what is in the policy pipeline needs regional meetings or workshops specially built around to a common agenda, preceded by a call for papers. This is followed by the gathering together of materials from around the world and leading to consolidated editing for publication in a learned journal or conference proceedings. The cycle time from idea to publication usually takes from 18 months to two years minimum, with all the misery of air fares, visas, hotel bookings, vaccinations and participants quarrelling in public. Alternatively, a researcher or writer could be funded for a round-the-world trip to meet the right people, followed by conventional publication without peer review. The cycle time in this case is 12 to 18 months. And both these cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A new publication by Mountain Forum, drawing on original material from the higher elevations of five continents has just been done, from idea to published text, in four months. Nobody took a plane, lost their baggage, hated the hotel, or returned to a backlog of work. It was done electronically and the costs were a tenth of the conventional.

The electronic conference was imagined to be a way of gathering reliable material on a currently interesting topic from all over the world quickly. Can the electronic conference do better than the conventional?

It is just that many NGOs are computer tentative and have ancient computers, so there is a feeling that electronic conferences, even modest low tech, e-mail conferences, are not for them. A communications' clinic in Lima let people try out electronic communications away from the condescending gaze of computer literate juniors. So members of the Mountain Forum knew electronic conferences were in the air, or in cyberspace, and when the first blandishments came from the "international server node" of the World Mountain Institute operated by The Mountain Institute on behalf of Mountain Forum they were more or less willing to participate. The subject was entitled "Investing in Mountains: Innovative Mechanisms and Promising Examples for Financing Conservation and Sustainable Development".

During the conference, over 60 individuals from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific sent in their own, and read everyone else's contributions. A moderator persuaded, cajoled, and prodded throughout the six weeks duration. Occasionally revisions were suggested. Summaries were posted to all at the end of every week. Then the assembled texts were arranged and edited into a paper publication in conventional style and were also made available for downloading from the world wide web site <http://www.mtnforum.org>.

A second conference has just been completed this time on "Mountain Policy and Laws". The agenda gives an idea of the direction mountain NGOs are taking. Which laws treat mountains as a specific theme? And the kind of laws needed and whether local traditions can function effectively within the modern legal system. A 60-page study of these themes will cost less than US$ 20,000 and will be a solid base for policy development. True, the mountains are a special case in which NGOs are dispersed and fragmented and are little aware of what is going on beyond the watershed, let alone the national frontier. But, as someone said with laborious earnestness at Lima "Communication among people with the same aims banishes the isolation which saps the will to act. It encourages people to share experiences and so quickens the pace of development and increases confidence in action. It transforms a scattered community of interests into a coherent body of purpose."

The example of Mountain Forum's electronic conference is a major step towards that end of realising the coherent body of purpose.

(Courtesy: Peter B. Stone, England and Anil Agarwal, Down To Earth, New Delhi.)

APMN West Asia
Subregional Focal Point Coordinator
Prof. Onur Erkan
Faculty of Agriculture
University of Cukurova
Adana, Turkey
Fax: + 90 322 3386746
E-mail : oerkan@pamuk.cc.cu.edu.tr

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