Mountain Partnership

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Poverty

Nepal

Mountain people are among the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged. Living far from the centres of commerce and power, they have little influence over the policies and decisions that influence their lives and contribute to the deterioration of their mountain homelands. With the exception of a few regions, such as the European Alps where mountain communities are politically represented in national governments, the voices of mountain people generally go unheard. As a result, many mountain people live on the economic fringe as subsistence farmers and herders, traders and day labourers, with no authority over those who exploit their mountain homes.

Sharing the wealth

Mountains are rich in biodiversity, yet the vast majority of mountain people live in poverty. This is often because the most valued mountain resources, such as forests, minerals and water, are expropriated and exploited by outsiders. With the exception of when they are hired as labourers for low pay, mountain people rarely profit from the resources being extracted. To make matters worse, economic activities in mountain areas are seldom managed sustainably, leaving mountain people to live in the degraded or highly polluted environments left behind. Central governments tend either to ignore mountain people or to impose their will on them from afar. In dictating the development of mountain areas, officials often pay little attention to the needs and capabilities of mountain people, with whom they may also have conflicting cultural, racial, ethnic or religious differences.

The feminization of poverty

Mountains, which are among the world’s harshest environments in which to live, are often left to marginalized people, such as indigenous communities and cultural minorities. Pushed uphill to extreme altitudes, many mountain people can barely scratch out a living as they struggle to grow crops on steeply sloped fields with fragile soils and short growing seasons. Some mountain people survive as herders, nomads and foragers. Others work as day labourers for commercial forestry and mining companies that profit from mountain resources. However, a growing number of mountain men are migrating to cities in search of jobs, leaving women, children and the elderly to maintain the homestead. As a consequence, mountain poverty has become increasingly the territory of women. In many mountain communities, women have always taken charge of farm activities. But today, with fewer male family members present, women’s burdens have increased substantially. Despite their additional responsibilities and dependence on farming income, few women are given title to mountain farmland, and fewer still have access to financial credit. In some mountain societies, women’s movements and acquaintances are restricted, preventing them from benefiting from educational and extension opportunities. For example, mountain men often have opportunities to attend school and learn the national language, while mountain women become further marginalized because they speak nothing other than a little-known tribal dialect. Each of these factors places the greatest burden of poverty on mountain women.

Lessons from Switzerland

Wealthy though Switzerland may be today, not long ago life was so unpromising in many mountain communities that people regularly fled to lowland towns and cities in search of a better existence. Faced with losing many cherished Swiss traditions, people in the mountains and the lowlands began to debate what might be done to make mountain life more appealing. As a result, policies were developed which have turned Switzerland’s mountains into some of the most prosperous regions in the country. Among these policies:

Mountain futures

In recent years, roads, railways and telecommunications systems have opened mountain communities to outside influences. These changes have been both good and bad for mountain people. Better transportation, for example, makes it easier for mountain people to move their goods to markets. At the same time, imported goods have become cheaper and more widely available in mountain communities. Some of these imported goods are displacing indigenous products. In the Andes, for example, the recent sudden availability of synthetic yarns has severely diminished the local demand for hand-spun, naturally dyed wools. As access to mountain regions increases, so too does the potential for exploitation of mountain people and mountain resources. Putting power back into the hands of mountain people and advocating policies and practices that ensure equitable access to and distribution of the benefits from mountain rangeland, water, forests and mining are important steps towards alleviating poverty in mountain communities and, in turn, protecting mountain resources.

Mountain voices

The Panos Institute's Oral Testimony Programme gathers and publishes the words and opinions of the people whose voices often go unheard. Recently, Panos began interviewing individuals from highland and mountain communities for its Mountain Voices project. Here are some of their comments concerning poverty:

"The water and earth in other places are warm and grain can be harvested twice a year. In our place the water and earth are cold, we can only harvest grain once each year."
- a 72-year-old Wa woman in southwestern China

"We're forcing the land to produce more than the elements, I think, will support. It's just forcing crops out of the land."
- an Appalachian farmer in the United States

"Before, when there wasn't the road, when people from the plains came to steal, they would steal one tree. Now one truck can seat ten people, so many trees were easily taken. But since last year there isn't a single tree to cut. Now it's barren."
- a Miao woman in China

"I practised in medicinal herbs, so I have some knowledge ... but we villagers are not allowed to collect [them]. The Indian Government, correctly recognizing their value and the need to protect this resource, appointed people to supervise collection, but instead of locals, a third person would get the contract to extract herbs. They are really exploiting the treasures of our jungle."
- 74-year-old Tegh Singh Mahant in India.

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