Facing Change: Climate Change in Mountain Areas.
IMPORTANCE OF MOUNTAINS - Mountains are essential to our health and well-being. They provide most of the world’s freshwater, harbour an extraordinary variety of plants and animals, and are precious reservoirs of biological diversity for food, medicine, timber and recreation. Mountains are also home to at least one in ten people, with diverse cultures that are rich in traditions, knowledge and languages. Yet, mountain ecosystems are more fragile than lowlands. The growing demand for water, the consequences of global climate change, the growth in tourism, the effects of armed confl ict and the pressures of industry, mining and agriculture threaten the extraordinary web of life that mountains support. These threats are causing rapid, and in cases irreversible, changes to mountain environments and to mountain people, already amongst the world’s poorest and hungriest. FAO ACTIVITIES - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is pooling its co...