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On the occasion of the International Year of Mountains, and in response to the clear consensus reached by the international community regarding the need to ensure harmonious and sustainable development of mountainous areas and watersheds, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and its partners in the subject, undertook a large-scale assessment and global review of the current status and future trends of regarding knowledge about and techniques for integrated watershed management
. The objectives were to promote the exchange and dissemination of experiences of integrated watershed management techniques, identify constraints to the implementation and development of those techniques during the decade from 1990 to 2000 and capture relevant new paradigms and approaches. The lessons learned from diverse experiences are being used to define a new generation of integrated watershed management projects. Experts from four continents contributed to the assessment. Watershed management concepts and approaches were reviewed, and different experiences assessed. The results of this exercise are presented in several documents, including the proceedings of workshops and reports on the four case studies. The conservation, use and sustainable management of watershed resources in order to meet the demands of growing populations have been a high priority for many countries over the past several decades. In this respect, integrated watershed management through people’s participation has become widely accepted as the approach that ensures sound sustainable natural resources management and a better economy for upland inhabitants, as well as people living in downstream areas
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This is a summary of the first week of discussion from a 2003 E-Discussion entitled, "Sustainable Mountain Communities: Environmental Sustainability in Communities Impacted by Tourism and Amenity Migration"
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Week 1 Themes:
- Reducing Resource Consumption and Waste
- Developing and Maintaining Sustainable Transportatio
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This paper discusses the local knowledge of the Muong in Xe II Village in northern Vietnam
. The Muong are one of 53 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. Xe II Village is located in the highlands, far from urban centres. Its inhabitants are mainly subsistence farmers. This paper examines the role of local knowledge in villagers' land-use systems. The paper focuses on local knowledge in wet rice cultivation and animal husbandry. Wet rice cultivation is a long- standing tradition of the Muong people, who have benefited from scientific and technical expertise. However, they have preserved traditional techniques in land preparation and irrigation, with positive effects on soil fertility and protection from soil erosion. Although many villagers use new rice strains, they have carefully selected different rice varieties to suit plots located in different conditions. The villagers continue to use compost and some traditional materials against rice pests and rats, in addition to chemical fertilizer and pesticide. Just as in wet rice cultivation, people have preserved and developed local knowledge concerning animal husbandry. They have flexibly combined rice farming and fish rearing in the same fields. Traditional rules strictly enforced by villagers on the use of natural resources and grazing areas have protected the sources of feed for cattle. The paper concludes that the traditional knowledge of the Muong in Xe II Village has made valuable contributions to community development. The knowledge has been preserved and handed down from generation to generation in families, family clans and villages, through exchanges during farming activities, leisure time, and meetings. The paper also finds that each gender possesses different local knowledge
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The Common Property Workshop at Rutgers was co-hosted by the Eco-policy Center for Agricultural, Environmental, and Resource Issues and the International Association for the Study of Common Property, IASCP, which held its Executive Board meeting the next day (March 1st)
.The workshop brought together people who are doing innovative thinking about the problems of dealing with common resources, as well as the problems of property rights and property rights as they relate to and use of management of natural resources.The Eco-policy Center looks at resource issues from an environmental point of view, ecological point of view and also an economic point of view. This means looking at environmental issues, at agricultural issues, issues of land use, and so the idea for looking and studying common property is very appropriate for the center
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From 37 June 1996, representatives from 13 African nations and more than 10 international organizations and NGOs, close to 70 delegates in all, met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the first African Intergovernmental Consultation on Sustainable Mountain Development
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African mountains are an important source of water, energy and biological diversity. They are also a source of such key resources as minerals, forest products and agricultural products, and are important for tourism. Widespread poverty among mountain inhabitants in Africa, however, is causing rapid changes in mountain ecosystems, as resource poor farmers are forced to respond to economic and demographic pressures by overexploitation of natural resources. This often affects not only upland communities, but those living downstream as well. Hencei the proper management of mountain resources and the socioeconomic development of mountain communities deserves immediate action.
This Consultation was organised to allow African nations to collectively address these concerns and propose appropriate action. It was organised and cohosted by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) of the Ethiopian Government and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the Task Manager of Chapter 13 of Agenda 21: "Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain Development". The financial support for the Consultation was provided by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Italian Cooperation, FA0 and UNESCO
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