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‘Life in the Mountains’ publication launched

09.10.2017

The publication Life in the Mountains: Environmental and Cultural Diversity of Development Models was launched this month in Dushanbe, Tajikistan during an event organized by the University of Central Asia (UCA). As part of a series of public lectures held by UCA in partnership with the Russian Geographical Society and the Geographic Society of Tajikistan, the event was conducted within the framework of developing interdisciplinary dialogues between intellectuals, academics and students from different disciplines in the humanities and sciences. Pulat Shozimov, Director of the UCA’s Aga Khan Humanities Project, moderated the lecture, and author Yuri Badenkov, Senior Research Scientist of the Russian Academy of Sciences, presented the book.

Life in the Mountains describes the diversity of life and of development models in mountain areas, in the context of their historical heritage and of their environmental and ethno-cultural diversity. Referring to case studies in the European Alps, Karakorum mountain range, Himalayas, Andes, Central Asian mountains, East African mountains, northern Appalachians, Caucasus and Altai Mountains, author Yuri Badenkov discusses issues of political inequality in mountain regions, the effects of mountain communities being peripheral locations and their dependence on urban and lowland centres for their economies. The book’s intended audience includes politicians, researchers, students, nongovernmental organizations and practitioners working in the area of sustainable mountain development. The book is co-published by the Russian Geographical Society and UCA.

A leading scientist in the fields of sustainable mountain development and adaptation strategies for global change, Yuri Badenkov has experience working in North Eurasia, Central Asia, the North and South Caucasus and the Sudet Mountains of Poland. He was a core member of the founding commission of UCA and is a member of the UCA Mountain Societies Research Institute’s advisory committee. From 1983 to 2013, he led the MAB-6 Center at the Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has also contributed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s work on sustainable mountain development and to their Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), working specifically on the preservation of mountain biosphere reserves.

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News and photos by Alma Karsymbek/Mountain Partnership Central Asia Mountain Hub