An Untapped Potential for Cooperation in Science and Technology
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An untapped potential for cooperation in science and technology for mountain conservation and sustainable development: The case of the Andes and the Himalayas Alejandro Camino Mountain Forum Secretariat 2002 [email protected] Keywords: sustainable mountain development, natural resources, agriculture, traditional knowledge, science, technology, Andes, Himalayas. Abstract The Andes and the Himalayas are the two most massive and extended mountain ecosystems in the world. Despite some important geographical differences between them, they share many commonalities. In addition, they have both witnessed the development of ancient and complex civilizations and are currently inhabited by rural communities that carry an ancient heritage including traditional patterns of management of natural resources. In the past the great geographical and cultural distances between both regions precluded the possibilities of information exchanges, less so cooperation. The contemporary facilities of information and communication technologies have shortened those distances thus opening the possibilities for exchanges of information and experiences, thus facilitating a novel breakthrough in so called "horizontal cooperation". This paper discussed the major similarities and differences between both mountain regions and attempts to identify several areas with prospects for a fruitful cooperation in the areas of science, technology, culture and commerce. Examples of effective and beneficial cooperation are presented in the fields of mountain agriculture and livestock development, cottage industries, decentralized renewable energies, tourism, risk engineering, etc. It also explains in which way this "mountain to mountain" cooperation and exchange could benefit and enrich the drives from the public and private sectors to protect these biodiversity-rich and singular ecosystems, as well as their cultural heritages, while offering creative and mountain-adapted responses to the challenges of the future. Finally, it suggests how to move forward to promote this type of cooperation. 1. Potential and benefits from South-South, Mountain-to-Mountain Cooperation and Exchange Despite their geographical distance and different cultural roots, the South American Andes and the Asian Hindu-Kush Himalayas share many commonalities, as this paper will attempt at identifying. Based on a comparative approach to the somehow similar environmental and socio-cultural challenges that both regions confront, I will argue on the potential benefits that could result from promoting mutual knowledge and enhancing cooperative action-oriented research for conservation and sustainable development. Learning from each other's limitations and potentials, as well as from experiences in dealing with them, will result in mutual benefits. Furthermore, strengthening the interactions between both regions may open up the doors for cooperation and exchange in science and technology, and particularly in addressing crucial conservation and development issues. This cross-fertilization between the biggest mountain regions in the world will contribute in identifying successful experiences worth sharing. Also, pro-active interaction of human resources and mutual knowledge and sharing of our natural resources may help in improving the livelihood of mountain communities. In addition, I will argue that international technical cooperation is of mutual benefit to both, recipient and provider. International aid may also be a good business for the supplier since technical inputs and resources provided to the recipient usually constitute paid services. As such, these services can also contribute in the dynamism of the economy of the provider while bettering the prospects for sustainable development of the recipient. In the currently liberalized market economy, technical sub-contractors whose services are paid -partially or fully- by a donor agency, provide most of the aid given by the more developed countries. Thus, for example, the fruitful Swiss projects to improve cheese manufacturing in both mountain regions, was accomplished through Swiss technicians who were paid for their services. Private groups under contracts with bilateral development agencies have done some important dissemination of solar energy in the less developed mountain regions. In some cases, the beneficiary country provides a financial counterpart to the technical and financial aid program offered by the developed country. Nowadays, most less developed countries have well trained professionals in many development-relevant technical fields; however these usually face difficulty in finding jobs in their own countries. Many of them end up hired by development agencies from the north to implement projects in countries different from their own. It is quite unfortunate that in order for them to apply their know-how towards development abroad, they usually serve the aid agencies from the north as one of their few employment options. Few less developed countries have established institutional mechanisms to make their know-how available to other regions where it may be needed. This is the case of Brazil, which provides technical aid -usually linked to commerce, to Portuguese speaking Africa. However, it should not come as a surprise that one may find North American experts on yak breeding exploring the potential of the Himalayan yak in the South American highlands, or that European experts on the nutritional values of a traditional Andean legume Lupinus mutabilis are now promoting its cultivation in Africa. The New Zealand alpaca breeder attempting to introduce this species in Asia overrides the expertise gained over 5,000 years by the pastoral camelid herders of the Andes, certainly at an increased cost. Northern, Central and Southern Andes (from Stone, P.B. 1992: 189) The socio-economic conditions of the Andes and the Hindu-Kush Himalayan regions are certainly much closer than what any of these two regions may be to the Alps or the Rocky mountains. Much more is shared in terms of socio- economic conditions between shifting cultivators from South East Asia and those from the Andean headwaters of the Amazon, than between these two and the temperate farmers of the northern latitudes. It is thus more sensible and viable to attempt -for example- to transfer a successful experience of small hydro-power development from the Himalayas into the Andes, than from Austria into Bhutan. South-south cooperation, as it was traditionally called a decade ago, may offer the potential beneficiaries a more realistic and pragmatic option. In this way, for example, the experience of social mobilization to restore the monumental historical heritage of the ancient city of Bhaktapur in Nepal could prove a much more feasible strategy for preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of the highland historic city of Lampa (Peru), than any other successful story of salvaging the heritage of a Spanish medieval town. II. The Andes and the Hindu-Kush-Himalayas: differences and commonalities. The Andes and the Hindu-Kush-Himalayas are the most massive mountain complexes of the planet. In many aspects they share important similarities, though substantial differences need also to be pointed out. Let's examine some important differences and similarities at the bio-geographical and socio- cultural dimensions. While the Hindu-Kush-Himalayas run in an East- West direction, along the northern hemisphere's subtropical belt, the Andean ranges extend over 7,000 kms, from the extreme southern latitudes of South America, to the heart of the tropics. This factor sets a fundamental bio-geographical difference. The Himalayas are thus affected by seasonality, something that in the Andes is just restricted to its southern portion. The tropical Central Andes, the main massive mountain portion of South America, and that which became a cradle of civilization and of plant and animal domestication, is, in any case, just subject to a alternate dry and a rainy seasons. In this paper we will concentrate in this part of the Andes. As I will illustrate later, cooperation between this central sector of the Andes and the Hindu-Kush Himalaya has an untapped potential. The above-mentioned bio-geographical dimension marks a substantial difference in the traditional subsistence systems that evolved in both mountain regions. In the Himalayas severe winter preclude utilization of the upper landscape forcing yak herders to store hay and move their animals to lower areas during winter. In the central Andes, below the permanent glacier snowline (at aprox. 4,900 mts. a.s.l.), the land remains free from snow throughout the year (snow fallen during a night snow storm will melt under the tropical sun in the following day). As far as water is available, below the upland rangelands where Andean camelids are bred, farming can be conducted almost year round. A cross-section of the vegetation belts along the western slope of the tropical Andes (from Messerli, B. and J. Ives 1997:286) Another significant bio-geographical difference is that created by the surrounding biomes. The Himalayas are framed in the South by the watershed plains subject to seasonal monsoons and in the North by the dry high Tibetan plateau to the North. In the Andes, these conditions are reversed. An arid narrow coastline on their Pacific piedmont frames the Central Andes to the West. To the East, the always-humid Amazonian rainforests drains its upper watershed. The fact that this portion of the Andes is located in the tropics also accounts