Integrating local voices and visions Into the global mountain agenda

As the 21st century begins, mountain scholars and development specialists can congratulate themselves for having finally brought mountain issues to a global level of awareness. Through the efforts of a small number of dedicated individuals and institutions, the neglected mountain ecosystems and native peoples of the world were finally given offical recognition at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit through Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 and again in 1998 by the UN General Assembly, which declared 2002 as the “International Year of Mountains.” Today, the professional international mountain circuits..