Natural Resources, 2013, 4, 163-169 163 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/nr.2013.42021 Published Online June 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/nr) An Insight of Ecosystem Capitals and Services of the Kaghan Valley: The Himalayan Region of Pakistan Muhammad Qasim1, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan2, Alia Naz1, Salma Khalid1 1Department of Environmental Sciences, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan; 2Department of Agriculture Extension and Communication, Agricultural University, Peshawar, Pakistan. Email:
[email protected] Received December 5th, 2012; revised March 14th, 2013; accepted April 6th, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Muhammad Qasim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Li- cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT The Kaghan Valley is in the territorial jurisdiction of Mansehera District, named after a tiny village Kaghan, at the end of the valley. The valley culminates in the tree-clad high mountains and glaciers in the North-East with varying altitudes from 1 to 5 thousand meters above sea level. The region is relatively active geophysically, hydrologically and biologi- cally diverse by virtue of the altitude and aspect-driven variability in energy and moisture. In such region a better un- derstanding of changes in land resources, production of agronomic and horticultural crops, use of timber and non-timber products, and livestock structure/composition have important implications and understanding these changes along with the indigenous knowledge of mountain people which, is key to sustainable development of the Himalayan region. Our results showed that the main causes of lowest agriculture production in the area are poor crop management in context of the mountains, drought spells, low soil fertility, land fragmentation and tenancy status of the agricultural land.