For most governments and planners in the region, planning, programming, and policy making has often been done with only the perspective of the plains. This compendium of selected policy papers, the result of a regional policy workshop that brought together policy makers and development practitioners in the region in 2006, tackles a variety of mountain issues and themes from the perspective of policy. Taken collectively, the papers offer a framework and a lens with which to review policies, government programmes, and development interventions and incorporate the mountain perspective in them. The book discusses policy options in the conservation and management of natural resources, fair trade in natural resources and mountain niche products, innovative mechanisms for payment for environmental services provided by mountain dwellers, increased equity of access over mountain resources among mountain people, and provides a wealth of perspectives for governments, policy makers, and development practitioners in mountain areas in the region and beyond to ponder and seriously consider. A more complete CD version includes all the other papers read and discussed during the regional policy workshop in 2006.