This book presents the results of an e-conference on Integrating Mountain Culture and Natural Resource Management held by ICIMOD and The Mountain Institute as a planning event for the International Year of the Mountains-2002. The e-conference brought together 80 participants from all over the world to contribute to promoting awareness and understanding of the urgent need to integrate culture with sustainable natural resource management in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH). The contributions to the month-long conference are summarised under the four broad topics: Conceptual Issues, Challenges and Responses, Ethics, and Which Way Ahead. They include issues like the influence of developer culture on decision making for local mountain communities, the need for alternative mechanisms of mountain development, gender discrimination and the need for special arrangements to elicit women's knowledge and viewpoints, and the need to frame policies that can integrate culture and natural resource management. This book will be of interest to all those concerned with natural resource management and mountain development. It is hoped that sharing the results of this conference with a broader audience will support the discussion and debate that can promote the emergence of development planning in partnership with local communities.