It is estimated that half of the world's population lives in or near mountain areas.
Often, these areas became populated as a result of historical disturbances. Some populations were driven into areas which could not be easily reached by invaders. Some succeeded in organizing themselves harmoniously with the environment in spite of a precarious balance, and managed without too many problems for centuries right up to the present because they did not abuse the renewable natural resources.
Encroachment on the forests did not have disastrous effects as long as the soil cover was not irreparably damaged. The population explosion recorded over recent decades, however, especially in the developing countries, upset the balance.
In millions of square kilometers subjected to shifting cultivation by hundreds of millions of farmers, in Asia, Africa or Latin America, the period of fallow has dropped to 2 or 3 years, and no longer allows the soil to recover its fertility. Yields fall, the farmer gets poorer and the young people leave the land. The degraded soil which no longer even has time to rebuild a thin plant cover, is abandoned; erosion causes further damage, for once the degradation process starts, it tends to accelerate rapidly. The consequences of erosion moreover affect not only the mountain zones ' but the downstream areas as well.
It is not only the search for fire and building wood for local consumption which causes deforestation but also and especially these unsuitable systems of soil use.
A large part of the responsibility for soil and water deterioration also rests with the livestock farmer. When the stocking rate on pastures and rangelands exceeds the herbland production capacity, when the animals wreak more destruction with their feet than their teeth, the soil is laid bare to face the stress of the elements unprotected.
"The hardest task in psychological terms is probably that of reintroducing trees in the arid and semi-arid grazing lands of the world, which occupy some 14 million square kilometers ..... The widespread combination of collective land ownership with private herd ownership with the attendant incentive for each grazer to maximize the size of his herd, is an obstacle even to rational pasture management, let alone the planting of trees".
Shifting cultivation affects thousands of kilometers of hilly lands ...
Man disrupts the ecological balance in mountain areas in many other ways. He constructs roads without taking the necessary precautions to protect the natural environment. If he is not careful when exploiting forest coupes, he may be the cause of serious ecological disturbances.
The governments of the most seriously affected countries begin to show their concern when the downstream areas are affected by the consequences of unplanned forest utilization. Disastrous floods, the silting up of dams and reservoirs used for supplying potable and industrial water, for irrigation or to produce energy, the drying up of certain rivers as well as serious damage to the other components of the infrastructure, represent enormous losses for the economies of the countries, especially for the people in the lowland watershed areas, where the large urban and industrial centres are located. Greater attention is therefore paid to mountain areas and the causes of the evil are sought and diagnosed.
At the present time the need to protect and conserve the ecosystem, while ensuring the local people a decent standard of living is keenly felt. Food requirements to meet the demands of an ever-increasing population are enormous on the one hand, while available lands are shrinking under the pressure of human populations and all the infrastructures which accompany them.
The remedies are known. They have been tested in industrialized and developing countries all over the world.
An example is the alpine zone, in the heart of a highly industrialized region. It was subject to the same constraints that the mountain areas of developing countries are subject to today. In these under-privileged areas, where the proportion of rocks, glaciers and other bare lands is extremely high and where damage is often wrought by natural disasters, the average income of the inhabitants was much lower than that of the inhabitants of other areas of the same country. It still is, but the difference is less pronounced. Living conditions were precarious. Farmers gradually abandoned lands which had been damaged by erosion. The governments of the countries concerned adopted special measures in favor of the mountain areas. Some encouraged crop or livestock farming, others granted facilities for the acquisition of agricultural machinery or the construction of stables and other buildings, through a community system. Subsidies were granted for road development and to lower the cost of transport of basic foodstuffs. At the present time, these regions enjoy the same services as the low-lying regions as regards education, health, communications, electricity, etc. The services of advisers specialized in mountain economies are available. Non-agricultural activities are encouraged. In the seriously deforested areas, large-scale planting has been carried out. The development of tourism has drastically changed the living conditions of the Alpine people, by drawing them out of their isolation, by providing jobs, and by enabling them to participate in the economic development of the nation. Nevertheless, crop and livestock farming in these regions is still not as profitable as on the plains, since mechanization is not as widespread.
It is difficult to implement measures to restore the balance, for this implies a change of attitude and lifestyle on the part of the populations of the threatened areas and the use of vast resources on a scale comparable to that of the problem itself.
In many cases the improvements will have to be completed in a very short time - 2 or 3 decades at the most - otherwise the situation will be irreversible.
The future of millions of people is at stake; but the indirect effects, which are not easy to estimate in figures, are invaluable too. This is why undertakings of this sort are of national interest and must be financed by the governments.
Because of the relief of the land and the nature of the soil as well as the climatic conditions in some latitudes, most of the seriously threatened areas are forests or grazing lands located in high altitude regions.
Formerly, these areas were purely and simply classified by the competent authorities as "protected areas" and given over to forests. Sometimes, the forests were abandoned to themselves; no thinning or management in the forestry sense of the term was carried out, and they deteriorated. Sometimes reafforestation was carried out without consideration being given to the populations established on the reafforested lands.
The need to meet increasing demands not only for food s but also for wood and other basic raw materials, drinking water, energy, etc. calls for quick and efficient action in the most threatened and threatening areas.
To preserve - improve, is to develop the natural resources rationally, and thus enable maximum benefit to be obtained while production capacity is preserved indefinitely.
Most often, the inhabitants of the mountain regions err through ignorance. They are often prevented from innovating and seeking new solutions to their problems through respect for tradition. They are not responsive to evolutions. They note the damage, passively, but do not seek the causes. They resign themselves and persist in their errors, clearing more and more to survive and worsening their situation without being aware of it.
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Man and Nature are partners, but Man assumes responsibility for the partnership. |
Any rehabilitation programme in upland watershed areas will have, therefore, to seek to modify this situation, by motivating, educating and training the people so that once they become aware of the problem, they can help in solving it.
World Bank. Preliminary guidelines for designing watershed rehabilitation, Nov. 1980. Projects for Bank Financing. John S. Spears and. Raymond D.H. Rowe. (Return)
The State of Food and Agriculture, 1979 FAO, Rome 1980. page 2.35. (Return)
FAO. Conservation Guide No. 1. Guidelines for Watershed Management, Rome 1977. (Return)
