Integrating local voices and visions into the global mountain agenda

As the 21st century begins, mountain scholars and development specialists can congratulate themselves for having finally brought mountain issues to a global level of awareness. Through the efforts of a small number of dedicated individuals and institutions, the neglected mountain ecosystems and native peoples of the world were finally given official recognition at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit through Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 and again in 1998 by the UN General Assembly, which declared 2002 as the 'International Year of Mountains.' Today, the professional international mountain circuits, both the scholarly and development kinds, are buzzing with conferencing, e-conferencing, report writing and publishing, public awareness raising, and a host of other activities that could convince us that conditions have never been better for the mountain cause. While we should all applaud this much-needed progress at the political level, some very important unfinished business remains on the mountain agenda.