Economic Globalisation and its Repercussions for Fragile Mountains and Communities in the Himalayas

Farming flexibility and food security under climatic uncertainty: Manang, Nepal Himalaya

“…Many studies of the Himalaya tend to describe the mountain environment and livelihoods in terms of ‘fragility’ and ‘crisis’ (FAO 1997; Adhikari and Bohle 1998; Blaikie et al. 2001; Jodha 2005). Since the concepts we apply to things and places shape the way in which we think about them, it is to be expected that a gloomy future is anticipated for the Himalaya in the present era of global warming.…”

Drivers of Change to Mountain Sustainability in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

“…It saw the emergence of nation states all over Asia and, with that, the bid to integrate peripheral regions such as those of the HKH into national mainstreams (Bose and Jalal 2004;McCauley 2016). In the last three decades, globalization has also been making deep inroads into the HKH, facilitated by liberalizing economies, better connectivity, and transnational flows of media and tourism (Bauer 2004;Hodge 1991;Hodges et al 2014;Jodha 2005). At the same time, fluid movements and long-standing relations between borderland communities for trade, pilgrimage, pastoralism, and often also kinship became more and more constricted because of the tightening of borders, and in many places they eventually became completely cut off from one another (Bauer 2004;Harris 2013;Hoon 1996).…”

“…Is it the failure of traditional institutions that regulated the use of environmental goods and services until recently, or the failure of modern institutions that replaced them to maintain sustainability? Some scholars feel that it is likely due to a failure of development agencies to consider interventions from a "mountain perspective" (Ives 2013; Price 2015) especially in regard to inaccessibility, marginality, fragility, diversity or heterogeneity, niche or comparative advantage, and human adaptation mechanisms (Jodha 2000(Jodha , 2005. The autonomy and flexibility of decentralized traditional institutions at the community/local level in the HKH, as well as natural resource endowments, have helped communities adapt to changes in the past, and these attributes should therefore be preserved and strengthened into the future (Foggin 2018).…”

“…However, over time the infrastructural and physical changes have been accompanied by socioeconomic changes, followed by political as well as administrative changes, with a clear impact not only on how natural resources are managed, but also on how local communities look at and treat them. The shift from decentralized ownership, as well as access to centralization, has made this region vulnerable to large demands on goods and services made available by mountain ecosystems (Jodha 2005).…”

Gendered Responses to Drought in Yunnan Province, China

“…The physical features of mountain regions also shape socioeconomic processes that affect mountain people's vulnerability to the impacts of climate hazards (Jodha 2005). Their relative remoteness increases the cost of access to physical goods and information, socioeconomic marginality may limit their access to income generation opportunities, and limited control of resources may increase resource scarcity.…”