ABSTRACT
Mountain regions represent approximately one fourth of the Earth’s terrestrial surface and contain some of the most diverse and fragile ecosystems. The international community recognised the importance of mountain regions in the global environment–development agenda at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, when mountain regions were included as a specific chapter in Agenda 21, thereby receiving equal priority with deforestation, desertification and climate change. The importance of mountains in the global ecosystem was also emphasised with the United Nations declaration for the year 2002 as the International Year of Mountains.
