Author Description

This book highlights the different ways of seeing and engaging with the natural world and underscores the need to acknowledge and honour the ways that indigenous peoples have done for generations. Mountain regions occupy about one-fourth of the Earth's terrestrial surface and they are home to almost one-tenth of the global population and offer goods and services to more than half of humanity. Consequently, they received attention at the highest level during the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro's “Earth Summit”. Mountain environments are crucial to the survival of global ecosystems, many of them are experiencing degradation in terms of accelerated soil erosion, landslides, and rapid loss of habitat and genetic diversity, etc. Hence, proper management of mountain resources and the socio-economic development of the people deserves immediate action. Unfortunately, the capacity of mountain ecosystems to provide continued resources is threatened due to the increasing stress of human impact at the global level in general and the Himalayan region in particular. The Himalaya, a highly complex and diversified mountain system in terms of bio-physical attributes, is considered a life support system for millions of people in the uplands and many more in lowland areas of India. It acts as a climate regulator for much of Asia and is globally recognized for its sacred, spiritual, and philosophical values. The richness and uniqueness of bio-physical and socio-cultural diversity and the rich heritage of Indigenous Knowledge and Practices (IKP) have earned the Himalaya global recognition. Being young and geotectonically active, this system remains inherently unstable, fragile, and prone to natural disasters. Also, the vulnerability of this mountain chain to human-induced disturbances is now well established. Therefore, being a special and sensitive system, and more importantly due to its life support values, the Himalaya deserv