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Name of the session: Climate Change, Human Migration and Mountains
Chair: Dr. B. W. Pandey, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Delhi School of
Economics, University of Delhi, India. E-mail: [email protected]
The relationship between human migration and climate change is beginning to become an
issue worthy of increasing attention in the international realm. The United Nations
consistently tries to draw more attention to the issue, and in 2008 the European Union’s
foreign policy chief issued a warning that large numbers of climate migrants from Africa
were headed for Europe. In June 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Developments (UNCED, Rio de Janeiro) addressed a range of issues pertaining to sustainable
development as a means of reducing human-induced environmental stress, in a document
referred to as Agenda 21. Chapter Six of Agenda 21 refers that mountain environments are
most fragile ecosystem in the world. But mountains are essential for Highland-Lowland
Interactive System (HLIS). Due to large size of snow and ice cover on Alpine Mountains,
these mountains are the Third Pole of the World. Mountains are important sources of water,
energy, minerals, forest and agricultural products and areas of recreation hence, HimalayaHindukush Region are Human Equator as half of the world population receive fresh water
from these Alpine Mountains. They are storehouses of biological diversity, home to
endangered species and an essential part of the global ecosystem. From the Andes to the
Himalayas, and from Southeast Asia to East and Central Africa, there is serious ecological
deterioration. Most mountain areas are experiencing environmental degradation. Bearing
these two factors in mind, environmental deterioration in mountains can be driven by
numerous factors that include deforestation, over-grazing by livestock and cultivation of
marginal soils. Mountain ecosystems are susceptible to extreme events, soil erosion,
landslides and the rapid loss of habitat and genetic diversity. In many developing countries, in
part because of the degradation of the natural environment, there is widespread
unemployment, poverty, poor health and bad sanitation which are the push factors for out
migration of human population. Such concerns have prompted a number of research and
policy initiatives that have acknowledged and highlighted the importance of mountain
environments in environmental, economic, and social terms.