Since the first MMSEA meeting in Chiang Mai in 1995, participants in this informal network have consistently high-lighted the richness and diversity of mountain ecosystems, agroecosystems, and cultural systems. They have dedicated their work to the premise that the health and vitality of mountain systems is vital to sustainable development, not only in the mountains but also in the lowlands and plains. This presentation examines some of the forces acting on mountain people and their environments which appear to operate consistently in favour of the lowlands. It notes that the uplands tend to be the object of study as the location of problems (poverty, environmental degradation, low productivity), or as the source of important resources (water, energy, timber), and that pathways to the future require solutions to those problems. Without minimizing the physical challenges posed by mountain environments, this presentation proposes that addressing upland-lowland interactions from the viewpoint of mountain people?whose voices are increasingly audible through regional and international institutions and fora?is the necessary first step to a reordering of priorities and trajectories to the future. Shifting the outlook from the lowlands to the uplands would be facilitated by a greater engagement on the part of researchers and development workers with reconstructing local histories, understanding, respecting and revitalizing coping strategies for addressing insecurity, and designing mechanisms to reverse inequitable power relations and patterns of asset flows between the uplands and lowlands.
