“Protecting Mountains for the People”
YURTA Association
Projects for 2018-2020
www.highasia.net
Introduction
The main outcome of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Summit) held in Rio de
Janeiro between 20-22 June 2012 is the document called “The Future We Want”, signed by 191 States.
Among other things, it states that " ... Mountain ecosystems play a crucial role in providing water resources
to a large portion of the world’s population; fragile mountain ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the
adverse impacts of climate change …and natural disasters; and mountain glaciers around the world are
retreating …, with increasing impacts on the environment and human well-being, ...mountains are often
home to communities, including indigenous peoples and local communities, who have developed sustainable
uses of mountain resources. These communities are, however, often marginalized, and we therefore stress
that continued effort will be required to address poverty, food security and nutrition, social exclusion and
environmental degradation in these areas... We call for greater efforts towards the conservation of mountain
ecosystems, including their biodiversity. We encourage States to adopt a long-term vision and holistic
approaches, including through incorporating mountain-specific policies into national sustainable
development strategies, which could include, inter alia, poverty reduction plans and programmes for
mountain areas, particularly in developing countries ".
In the light of the foregoing, it seems evident that the efforts done in the last decades on environmental
protection have had a limited reach and scope, at least with regard to mountain areas, and that the adoption of
new initiatives is urgent and any case it should make environmental protection compatible with state
policies, rural science-based development and indigenous traditional knowledge. Considering remote and
less populated regions, we think that, basically, protection has focused on landscapes and wildlife, but not on
rural communities, even though the indigenous rural communities are an integral part of these regions since
immemorial times. We think that, in these regions, protection must be integral and designed not to create
natural museums but to establish biocultural spaces under specific management rules.
We believe that the adoption of such a holistic perspective must be followed up with the design of integrated
development models in search of a long-term balance, in which a rational exploitation pattern combines with
socio-environmental protection and long-term eco-development to conceive specific territories as biocultural
spaces more than mere lands of provision.
Logically, these consensual models must be first applied to some regions with an exceptional combination of
economic, cultural and environmental values but also very fragile, where their original inhabitants must be
main actors in this avant-garde process. One of these regions, extremely fragile but also extremely
productive and environmentally very important, is High Asia, a vast territory located in the heart of Asia
characterized by the high altitude of its mountains, valleys and plateaus, as well as its capacity to generate a
huge fluvial network, the largest one in the world.
Economically speaking, high-altitude areas provide a diversity of natural resources extracted from their
forests, grasslands and soils, in the form of water, timber, minerals, medicinal plants, pure air, natural
landscapes and breathtaking sceneries, resources that are later transformed in high value-added products by
the electrical, mining, timber, pharmaceutical, and tourist industries. Moved and properly processed in urban
contexts, these products mainly benefit urban intermediaries and consumers.
In an unfair and uneven exchange for the many benefits it provides, High Asia continues to be treated, in
turn, as a marginal land, mostly serving the interests of the urban-based people in most of the countries that
form this exceptional region. This marginality includes not only a peripherical physical situation where
national borders and the usual restrictions applied to bordering areas are set up, but also a more serious
marginalisation in terms of lack of interest, investment, and less social esteem.
As opposed to the traditional statement claiming to protect the environment because of its own value, the
proposals supported here are aimed at “protecting mountains for people, because of the many benefits people
get from mountains”. First, benefits for the dispersed and small communities located at high altitude; second,
benefits for the most numerous mid-altitude communities; third and especially, benefits for those millions
and millions of inhabitants living in the lowlands, in thousands of farming villages, in many small and
medium-size cities, and in the big cities and megacities of South, East and Southeastern Asia.
What is the High Asia region?
Encompassing extensive regions of Bhutan, China, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia,
northern areas of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and some parts of the Russian republics of Tuva
and Altai, High Asia actually represents a more significative region than the more political and
changing conception of Central Asia. As defined by the eminent geographer Hermann Kreutzmann,
High Asia is “a particular biocultural space up to 2500 mts., altitudinal belt where pastoralists have
played an important role in shaping relationships, connecting regions, exchanging goods and
valuable information".
In the High Asia region, water is an increasing concern and the control of rivers a crucial issue for
the involved governments. Additionally and since the XX century, the political pressure has
increased over this region due to the bordering conflicts. Economically, the pressure exerted on
High Asia region is also very high because of the rapid but uneven development of the two most
populated countries in the world (India, China), which make a 36.4 % of the whole world
population. High Asia contains enormous reservoirs of valuable minerals. In addition, climate
change combined with the excessive population pressure and competition in the big cities are doing
this area more attractive for new generations of colonisers. Therefore, there is an urgent need of
educating people considering the many factors influencing the High Asia region.
The exceptional value of the High Asia region as a unique ecosystem, as well as an exceptional
environment and a major economic and cultural crossroad, is summarised as follows:
1. A Unique Ecosystem:
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Called Roof of the World and Third Pole because of the largest concentration of high peaks and a
unique altitudinal belt up to 7000 mts. high, with a 17 % of total glaciers and icecaps on Earth
Requiring High-Altitude Adaptation, because of the oxygen scarcity, high-intensity solar radiation,
short and soft summers, extreme climate variability and profusion of microclimates.
Being a massive water-tower and fresh water reservoir capable of generating the World´s Largest
Fluvial Network that influences the lives of about 40 percent of the World’s population.
2. An Exceptional Environment:
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Hosting the Alpine Tundra biome, a grasslands belt containing very nutritious alpine pastures
forming an altitudinal gradient between 2500-5500 mts.
Containing three Biodiversity Hotspots placed in high-mountain areas (Himalaya, Mountain of
Southwest China and Central Asia Mountains), and many protected areas at high-altitude.
Birthplace and homeland for two emblematic and interactive animal species: Snow leopard, the
symbol of wildlife protection, and Yak, both needed for protection.
Operating as a Lung for South Asia by re-generating the polluted air produced in the overpopulated
lowlands of South and South-East Asia, with a very dense concentration of villages, towns, cities and
big cities.
Propitiating the monsoon rains, and being a key piece in the Terrestrial Atmospheric Circulation.
3. A Major Economic and Cultural Crossroad:
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With an impressive Cultural Heritage: oral story, music, crafts and arts, literature, line of thinking.
Enriched by a millennial Ethnic-Religious Interaction based on multiculturalism and peaceful
coexistence among practitioners of three main religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam.
Historically marked by a continuous process of Economic, Material and Knowledge Exchange:
Ancestral trading routes (Silk Road, Tea Horse route) and barter systems (salt caravans, etc.).
Dominated by very old, native and highly dynamic Agro-Pastoral systems: particular mixed pastoral
and agrarian complexes based on barley, potatoes, medicinal plants, yak, sheep and goat husbandry.
Project background: precedents, motivation, and partnership
In July 2013, YURTA Association attends the V WRHA Congress (2013), representing the main
organ of the World Reindeer Herders Association (for the Arctic region), a first pastoral network
established in 1997. Two years later, during the celebration of the First Meeting of Central Asian
Pastoralist (2015), and inspired in the WRHA, YURTA Association proposes the creation of the
World Yak Herders Association. In June 2016, YURTA signs a Letter of Agreement issued by the
FAO, to be managed by its department Pastoralism Knowledge Hub, to initiate a series of
community dialogues in the High Asia region as a first step for establishing a World Yak Herders
Association. This project primarily tries to find out the reasons behind the alarming decline of yak
husbandry since the 60s. According to ICIMOD, “Yak are increasingly coming under pressure with
closed borders and restrictions on grazing and movement. Furthermore, yak herders are facing
immense livelihood challenges, not least due to climate change, and the younger generation is
unwilling to continue with traditional yak herding, which poses a severe threat to this traditional
occupation” (Yak on the Move, ICIMOD, 2016).
The project partnership includes: FAO, ICIMOD, AKF (Aga Khan Foundation), UCA (University
of Central Asia), NRCY (National Research Centre on Yak), HIMALI (Nepal), MoPA (Mongolian
Pastoralists Alliance), PACA (Pastoralists Assembly of Central Asia), SAPA (South Asian
Pastoralists Alliance), WAMIP (World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples), WoPA (World
Pastoralists Assembly), WRHA (World Reindeer Herders Association), YNAN (Yak and Nak
Association of Nepal), WAL (Women Alliance of Ladakh), LAMO (Ladakh Arts and Media
Organization), YALA (Yak Association of Ladakh), and other agencies and associations.
YURTA Projects for 2018-2020
The projects here enumerated have been initially thought to cover the more immediate needs of the
indigenous peoples from the High Asia region recorded during the implementation of the World Yak
Herders Association project, as well as to attend very specific secondary needs related to these
communities. Basically, these demands focus on a better and adapted education, the need of being
associated with other similar communities, whether at local, regional or international level, and an
appropriate dissemination of their cultural values and heritage, along with the required economic
upliftment to compete with the external market by an adequate production, promotion,
diversification, and commercialization of their own native products, as well as an adequate tourism
promotion and the development of self-managed tourist initiatives.
In response to the above-mentioned demands, the YURTA team of experts have designed a
collection of interconnected projects to work on and with the intention to be implemented between
2018 and 2020, as well as made prevision of potential funders and favourable places for its real
implementation:
NETWORKING and INDIGENOUS PARTNERSHIP
1. Extension of the World Yak Herders Association project to China, Bhutan, Pakistan, and
Afghanistan – Supported by FAO ?
2. A search of funding for a First WYHA Congress – Supported by IFAD?
3. Trips to Peru/Bolivia, Iran, Siberia to link the WYHA to other related pastoral organisations
(Pastoramericas, UNINOMAD, WRHA) – Self-financed?
CULTURAL DISSEMINATION and AWARENESS RAISING
4. Realisation of the documentary: Water of Grass (self-financed), an acuatic journey through
the High Asia ecosystem. Locations: 1. India, 3. Myanmar, 4. Vietnam, 5. China
5. Proposal to create High Asia Interpretation Centre (Leh, Ladakh) – supported by ICARDA
6. Design of the interactive educational support: the “High Asia Great Game” (self-funding)
EDUCATION
7. Proposal to create the High Asia Education Centres (depending on UCA), with a pilot study
in Namche Baazar (Nepal) – supported by AKF?
TOURIST PROMOTION
8. Study to propose the creation of the “Yak Amity High-Altitude Trail” (YAHAT), with the
first phase in Nepal – supported by UNESCO, UNCTAD?
ECONOMIC UPLIFTMENT
9. Proposal to open four first World Yak Herders Association branches:
◦ Murghab – Tajikistan (supported by GIZ?)
◦ Tsetserleg – Mongolia (supported by AVSF?)
◦ Langtang – Mongolia (supported by HIMALI-Nepal Government?)
◦ Leh - India (supported by ICAR-NRCY?)