Mountains - the summit of life

By Pramod DE SILVA

When Edmond Hillary was once asked why he wanted to climb Everest, the world’s highest mountain, his answer was: “because it is there”. Yes, mountains have a magical appeal - they literally stand out from the rest of the landscape.

They are the result of a geo-evolutionary process on the surface of the Earth over billions of years and as time goes on more mountains will appear. They are timeless and serene. It is not easy to forget the image of a snow-capped Everest, Kilimanjaro or Fuji. Here in Sri Lanka, mountains such as Sri Pada, a holy site for all religions, and Piduruthalagala, the country’s highest, are world famous.

It would be wrong to assume that mountains are barren. They are living, breathing organisms - almost. After all, they are home to many species of flora and fauna and of course, people. In fact, mountains are sacred landscapes around the world.

The world will reflect on the close association between people and mountains on Saturday, International Mountain Day. The United Nations General Assembly has designated December 11, from 2003 as “International Mountain Day”. This decision results from the success of the UN International Year of Mountains in 2002, which increased global awareness of the importance of mountains and stimulated the establishment of national committees in 78 countries. The opportunity to address mountain issues evolved from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, where mountains became the singular focus of Chapter 13 of Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development.

It might be surprising, but mountains cover about one quarter of the world’s land surface and provide a direct life-support base for about 12 percent of the world population. Mountains are crucial to life. In addition to hosting more biodiversity than any other eco-region on earth, mountains provide most of the world’s freshwater. More than three billion people indirectly rely on mountains for water to drink and grow food, produce electricity and sustain industries. However, policies and decisions concerning the management of those resources are made often from afar, leaving those who live in mountain communities with the least amount of influence and power.

The theme for the International Mountain Day 2010 is Mountain Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. It aims to raise awareness about indigenous peoples and minorities who live in mountain environments and the relevance of their cultural heritage, traditions and customs. Many of the world’s most impoverished and food insecure people live in mountain regions. There is a need to ensure the ecological health and the economic and social improvement of mountain areas for the sake of mountain inhabitants.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation, the UN’s lead agency for Mountain Day celebrations, says this year’s International Mountain Day provides an apt occasion to reflect on how important it is to empower indigenous communities and help them promote and preserve traditional knowledge, including sciences, agricultural practices, responses to global change, medicines and health practices, fauna and flora, oral traditions, crafts and arts.

Mountains are not just tourist attractions. They are not only for climbers. They are mini ecosystems that support a wide variety of life. Many indigenous people depend on mountains for their livelihood. There is increasing awareness that mountains are fragile ecosystems that are of global importance as the source of most of the Earth’s freshwater, repositories of rich biological diversity, popular destinations for recreation and tourism and areas of important cultural diversity, knowledge and heritage.

Building partnerships

International Mountain Day is thus an opportunity to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life, to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to build partnerships that will bring positive change to the world’s mountains and highlands. Every day, mountain people face immense physical barriers - rugged terrain, poor communication systems and inadequate roads.

It has been pointed out that malnutrition and food insecurity in mountain regions contribute to increased disease and disability. Millions of people in the Andes, Himalaya and other large mountain areas of the world suffer from goitre and cretinism, because glaciation, melting snow and heavy rainfall regularly leach fragile mountain soils of their iodine content. At the same time, in many mountain communities, Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children, while raising the risk of disease and death from severe infections.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the high levels of malnutrition and hunger in mountain areas have much to do with the inaccessibility, complexity and fragility of mountain environments and the extent to which mountain people are often marginalised.

In the Ethiopian highlands as well as in the Upper Rwaba watershed of Burundi, for example, inequities of land distribution coupled with population growth have increased poverty and food insecurity. In the Peruvian Andes, two of every three households don’t possess enough arable land to grow the food required to meet their nutritional needs. Enduring prolonged sub-zero temperatures is a matter of course for Peru’s indigenous mountain people, many of whom live at more than 3,000m above sea level. Scores die every year from the cold, but in recent years the number of people succumbing to the freezing temperatures has triggered talk of a national crisis.

Tranquil, romantic

Despite the hardships of life in the mountains, most mountain people love their land.

Many young people in mountain communities leave their homes to find better jobs, but the mountains are still in their hearts. Today, some young people find jobs nearby as mountain guides or shopkeepers, helping tourists enjoy their scenic mountain homes.

Mountains may seem tranquil and romantic, but they pose many dangers. Here in Sri Lanka, we regularly experience earthslips that claim lives in mountainous areas. Many mountain communities live under the threat of landslides, earthquakes, floods, avalanches and volcanic eruptions caused by shifting tectonic plates. In many countries, mountain areas are home to indigenous peoples and cultural minorities.

Their marginalisation, combined with language differences, often mean they do not participate in disaster risk reduction activities.

With the onset of climate change, mountain regions are becoming even more hazardous to live in. Herein lies a challenge for the authorities - an obvious step to reduce the vulnerability to disasters in mountains is to avoid building settlements in hazardous areas. But this comes with a host of social, political and logistical problems.

The National Building Research Organisation of Sri Lanka has identified many hilly and mountainous areas which are not suitable for human habitation and efforts are under way to resettle those already living in such areas.

Considering the often extreme vulnerability of mountain people and the high number of natural hazards, it is not surprising that more than half of the deaths caused by natural disasters occur in mountains and adjoining lands.

However, the greatest factor that causes people to live in vulnerable situations is poverty.

In many large mountain cities, slums climb the sides of the surrounding hillsides where the risk of floods and landslides is greatest. In rural areas, it is the poorest families who are forced to earn their livelihoods higher up, on steeply sloping and dangerous terrain.

Other factors make mountain communities particularly vulnerable to disasters. For example, in remote mountain areas, providing advanced warnings of possible threats and emergency relief can be extremely difficult.

Mountain people

Mountains - and mountain people - are also threatened by other factors, including development. Mountains and their ecosystems are affected when dams are built.

The cutting down of trees on mountain slopes leads to soil erosion, which in turn destabilises mountains.

It also affects animal species living on and near mountains. Roads and tunnels are built after blasting mountain sides. Agricultural activities near mountains may also affect mountains. For example, more and more animals graze on mountain pastures and forested land. Small-scale farmers often clear land for agriculture by slashing and burning mountain forests.

Tourism is a double-edged sword when it comes to mountains. Tourism brings dollars to the locals, but tourists leave garbage that pollutes the environment.

They sometimes vandalise mountain sites and structures. Managing tourism sustainably on and near mountains is a challenge for tourism authorities and governments the world over.

Tourism development should not proceed at the cost of local inhabitants or the mountain landscape.

With indigenous people all over the world facing the threat of ‘extinction’, governments have a special responsibility to protect mountain peoples and their habitats.

There is a unique relationship between man and mountains, which should be perpetuated for the benefit of future generations.

The International Mountain Day has given us an ideal opportunity to reflect on these issues and take timely, appropriate action.