The Think Tank section of issue 51 of Renewable Matter, dedicated to the Mountain, features an all-female panel. We have once again brought together some of the most authoritative voices at the international level, both from institutions and the research community, to discuss the issues covered in this monograph.
Given that this issue is produced in collaboration with the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, it was only fitting to begin with the Food and Agriculture Organization, which has devoted a partnership to mountain areas. Therefore, we spoke about the economics and food systems of the highlands with Rosalaura Romeo, who is Head of the Secretariat of FAO's Mountain Partnership.
We then moved to the roof of the world to discuss the climate crisis and socioeconomic balances in the Himalayan region with Izabella Koziell, Deputy Director General of ICIMOD, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. Lastly, Erika Fatland provided an anthropological perspective on the mountain matter.
Below is a summary of the topics we talked about. You can read the full interviews on Renewable Matter #51.
Rosalaura Romeo (FAO): A Mountain Partnership
Mountains experience a constant struggle between abandonment and exploitation, resilience and fragility. In order to better understand the intricate relationship between humans, highlands, livelihoods, and economic development, Emanuele Bompan had a lengthy conversation with Rosalaura Romeo, Head of the Secretariat of FAO’s Mountain Partnership. The Partnership has been working for food and economic development in mountainous areas around the world. Its purpose is to strengthen communities and support investments in sustainable mountain development, to address climate and biodiversity crises in mountain regions, and to ensure the livelihoods and social and economic wellbeing of people there.
Izabella Koziell: The Climate Crisis in the Himalayas
The Hindu Kush Himalaya region, the so-called Third Pole, includes the world’s highest mountain ranges and holds the largest volume of ice on Earth outside the polar regions. But while the “roof of the world” has always been a symbol of unreachable and unchangeable nature, today’s climate crisis is bringing unprecedented transformations up there as well. With that, there are ripple impacts on the hydrological structure of the land, ecosystems, and the livelihoods of nearly 2 billion people. These are complex processes to resolve that require action on science and data, management, economics, and policy, and effective resolution needs collaborative efforts going far beyond the jurisdiction of a single country.
For this reason, for the past four decades, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, or ICIMOD, based in Kathmandu, has been serving as a bridge between eight nations (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar), with sometimes differing interests and very different contexts, but with one common goal: the sustainable and resilient development of the Himalayan region. From melting glaciers to biodiversity, from migration to food security, from tourism to cultural heritage preservation, ICIMOD Deputy Director General Izabella Koziell spoke with Giorgia Marino about the many unprecedented challenges facing the Himalayan region today.
Erika Fatland: Living at High Altitudes
Writing about mountains and economics means dealing with how people live at high altitudes. It means focusing on them and their relationships, especially if they have historically been affected by isolation and semi-isolation, a common problem at high altitudes, from the Alps to the Himalayas. At least for the Himalayas, however, we might as well use the past tense, because at several thousand metres, on the world’s highest mountains, much seems to be changing. But in what direction? No one is better suited than an anthropologist to talk about a region and the people who inhabit it. Thus, Giorgio Kaldor interviewed Erika Fatland, the winner of the Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage
Fatland holds an MSc in social anthropology from the University of Oslo and the University of Copenhagen and has won the Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize with Sovietistan (2014), an international literary success. For her book High. A Journey Across the Himalayas (2020), she crossed Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, China, and Tibet. Her journey became a non-judgmental account of the lives of the people she met, from complete strangers to spiritual leaders.
DOWNLOAD AND READ THE NEW ISSUE OF RENEWABLE MATTER: MOUNTAIN
This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano
Cover image: Matterhorn Peak on Stellisee Lake, Envato