Tropical mountains and highlands are mostly located in the zone between 20° South and 20° North approximately. In Southeast Asia and eastern India, tropical climates extend north to near 30° latitude. Vegetational zonation is extremely variable in tropical mountain areas. In tropical highlands, there is very little seasonal fluctuation in temperature, but the daily temperature fluctuation is markedly greater than in mid-latitude mountains. The daily temperature extremes produce a large number of freeze-thaw days in tropical highlands.
Major highland areas with permanent human populations are mostly in the tropical zone. Examples discussed in the symposium were the Andes, the Ethiopian highlands and the eastern Himalayas; although the Tibetan plateau is located in the temperate zone, this region also supports sizable and permanent human population. In different tropical highlands, many similar adaptive strategies can be found. Mixed agro-pastoral subsistence is an outstanding feature of adaptation to tropical mountain ecosystems. Such subsistence is carried out in extremely high altitudes despite harsh conditions. Intensive land use has had similar dramatic consequences in each area. Deforestation, floods and erosion are a shared experience for highland people.
Highland adaptations are similar or parallel in a broad sense. In this symposium, striking differences were also pointed out in relation to transhumant migratory pattern, food production, and social organization. Comparative studies of cultural adaptation are needed to understand the general and specific problems associated with human occupation of tropical mountain environments.

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Highlands in tropical Africa are mostly located in eastern and northeastern parts of the continent. The Ethiopian highlands accounts for 47% of African highland area. Residents in the Ethiopian highlands cope with a higher population density by exploiting most parts within the local environment intensively. The folk classification of altitudinal zones by the Amhara people reflects the intensive exploitation of environment. The Ethiopian highlands are also known as a center of origin for many cultivated plants including ensete and tef These crops are cultivated only in Ethiopia. In the Ethiopian highlands there are many cultivars of barley and most of them are endemic, although the plant originally introduced from western Asia. Several questions about the ecological history and the socio-cultural ecology of the Ethiopian highlands are noted.

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This article examines technological and socio-cultural aspects of Andean environmental exploitation, from pre-Hispanic times to the present. Data was obtained mainly during field research in the Peruvian Andes.
The Andes form a cordillera stretching for about 8,000 kilometers north and south along the Pacific coast of the South American continent. The cordillera includes many high peaks above 6,000 meters. Since the Andes are such long and high mountains, with a north and south axis, natural environments differ greatly from place to place according to latitude and altitude. The tropical Andes range from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador to Peru and Bolivia, and environments range from tropical lowlands covered with rain forest to alpine areas covered with ice and snow.
Since ethnohistorical studies by Murra(l968, 1972), in which he examined environmental exploitation among Andean populations, “vertical control” has been a major theme in Andean ecological and economic anthropology. Subsequently many studies of contemporary “vertical control” or cultural adaptation have appeared. These studies confirmed that many communities have subsistence economies organized along the same lines of vertical control as in Murra’s ethnohistorical examples (Brush 1976). The recent studies further show that the Andean highlands have less productive and more fragile environments. In fact, many communities are suffering from the deterioration that follows gullying, flooding, and erosion. Nevertheless, populations in the tropical Andes have been able to farm crops and raise domesticated animals for a long time, in permanent settlements. Permanency may depend on the following events:
1) Highly productive plants and animals became domesticated.
2) Many varieties became well-adapted to the environments in which they were grown.
3) Technologies for environmental control made it possible to use fragile environments in a sustained manner.
4) Methods were developed for effective use of limited natural resources.
5) Effective social systems were developed for land control and use by local communities.
The principles needed for permanency are still maintained in many traditional communities that are economically self-sufficient. In such communities, the inhabitants have tried to avoid production risk by not pursuing high productivity, and by attaching greater importance to stable production. In recent years however, market economies have developed even in the high mountain areas, due to progress in transportation. In addition, many highland inhabitants have emigrated to the lowlands because economic resources became scarce in the highlands. Previously self-sufficient rural communities have thus experienced many changes, including dramatic changes in land use.

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People both in the Andes and the Himalayas make their living by adapting themselves to the highland and making the most of the various ecological environments. They have some common cultural elements such as herding domestic animals adapted for low temperatures, but there is a great difference in the style of adaptation in animal husbandry. Also, even within each area there are considerable variations.
The purpose of this article is to present the models of agro-pastoral relations and the seasonal movement of livestock, comparing two cases in the south Peruvian Andes and three in the east Nepal Himalayas, where agriculture and animal husbandry are the basic subsistences.
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In conclusion, both in the Andes and the Himalayas, both exclusive pastoralism and agro-pastoralism are found, but their ways of movement of livestock are different. The Andean exclusive pastoralism is sedentary, and the Himalayan version practices transhumance. Also, in the Andean agro-pastoralism, the seasonal movement of people is required by the necessity of agriculture. On the other hand, in Khumbu of the Himalayas, transhumance is agro-pastoral, and in Solu, transhumance is required purely by the necessity of animal husbandry. So, we can find all the possible types of seasonal movement of animal husbandry by comparing the Andes and the Himalayas.

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In the Himalayas, domesticated yak is fed at an altitudinal range of 3,000 to 5,000m. Below this zone, the cow is more common. Hybrids are fed at an intermediate zone. In order to analyze the genetic basis of milk protein variation, milk samples were taken from the nak (female yak), cow and their hybrid. By principle component analysis, yak and a highland type of cow (kirmcome) were clearly distinguished from midland (shakzam) and lowland (palang) cows. Local Sherpa people may produce suitable animals for each zone by controlling animal reproduction systems.
Generally speaking, a sustainable stocking rate is two adult animals per hectare in the central Himalayas. However, most pastures were overgrazed 3 to 10 times more than this level. The feedstuff stored over winter was half composed of hay and half of agricultural by-products such as rice straw and wheat straw. Grazing by animals provided 53 to 60 % of food intake (fresh plant weight). Ten % of fodder was provided by trees. For the total number of animals in this study region, the fodder shortage was very acute. Overpopulation of animals was estimated to be 31 to 73 %.
Tree fodder is a typical feedstuff in this region. Popular fodder trees are Quercus, Symplocos and Castanopsis. Extention programmes are needed to increase tree fodder production and conserve soils. Ten years are needed to establish a system for continuous tree fodder production. One fodder tree can produce 14 kg fresh matter per year. The shortage can overcome by planting an additional 10 to 15 fodder trees per cow.

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In this paper I describe vegetation patterns in Nepal Himalayas, and the impact of cattle on vegetation. Yak and zom herding in the junbesi valley is discussed in relation to vegetation change (zom is a yak and cow hybrid). In the Himalayas, the climate changes gradually from wet in the East to dry in the West. The vegetation of the Terai and Outer Foothills, Midlands, Humla-lumula, Inner Valleys, Arid Zone and Alpine Zone are discussed, using the division recognized by Stainton (1972).
In the Himalayas, altitude and aspect are primary determinants of vegetation type. Vegetation types on north and south facing slopes in western Nepal are compared with the vegetation types in Junbesi valley and adjacent areas in central Nepal. In the western and central Midland, evergreen oak forest (Quercus incana, Q. lanuginosa, Q. semecarpifolia, Q. glauca etc.) is the original vegetation. Oaks are severely lopped for fodder and for fuel wood, and much forest has been converted into terraced field. Several species of fodder tree are planted next to terraced fields at altitudes of approximately 1000 - 2000 m.
In Junbesi valley, the transhumance of yak ranges from alpine meadow to Abies spectabilis forest, and the yak feeds chiefly on Kobresia and Gramineae. Zom grazing ranges from alpine meadow to Abies spectabilis forest and Quercus semecarpifolia - Tsuga dumosa forest. In these habitats, zom have a more herbaceous diet than yak.

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Dated charcoal and humic materials in soil, both which are evidence of forest fire and vegetation changes, as well as micro fossils such as pollen and opal phytolith (plant opal) in soil indicate occurrence of past deforestation in the Himalayan region. Timing and causes of the deforestation were discussed. Severe damage was inflicted between the late 10th and first half of the 20th century in Sirubari, central Nepal. Human impact such as population growth and cultural change due to the prosperity in the Kathmandu Valley and the active cultural exchanges between Nepal and India may have accelerated an environmental change during the 14-15th centuries. The deforestation during this period in central Nepal may have been caused by forest burning for shifting cultivation The evidence of deforestation in the Khumbu area was resulted from the immigration of Sherpas from Tibet in the middle of 16th centuries. Intensive outbreaks of fire during the period between the late 8th and 12th centuries have been reported in the Potechu valley, eastern part of the Nyainqentanglha Mountains, southeastern Tibet, as well as relatively intense fire in the Solu-Khumbu area. The earlier dates (the 8th century) of the deforestation of the period correspond to the timing of territorial and ethnic expansion of Tibet in the 7th to 9th centuries. In this period forest fire occurred frequently, but the results of pollen analysis at Phaplu in the Solu area indicate that nearly natural forest was maintained in a large part of the area at around the 9th or 10th century. This means that the forest could have recovered after the fire had ceased at least up to the late 10th century. Evidence of forest fire over the millennia was reported in Iunbesi and Namche, the Solu-Khumbu area and the Potechu valley, southeastern Tibet. Temporary deforestation caused by hunting and grazing is evident of having started at several thousand years ago. Human activities in the eastern Himalayas and southeastern Tibet may have extended perhaps nearly 10,000 years earlier. In conclusion, temporary hunting and grazing started several thousand years ago in the Himalayan area, but intensive agricultural land use and severe damage occurred between the late 10th and first half of the 20th century.

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Mt. Sagarmatha and other high mountains in the Sol-Khumbu area in Nepal attract trekkers from allover the world. Now this area has suffered severe environmental damage and the area is receiving foreign aid to solve the problems. This damage has been going on for about thirty years now. How did it come about? We think that the cause of the environmental damage is the activities of people, even though they have supported native people such as the Sherpas and have tried to help them. However, unfortunately, this has changed their way of life and spoiled it.
Even though their support intended to help, it actually will continue to spoil the original way of life of people in the Himalayas. The first section outlines the traditional life style of the Sherpas, who have long practiced their own way of preserving resources. The second section outlines the Hillary school as symbolic examples of the help given to the Sherpas.

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Natural Environment and Subsistence Differentiation
Bhutan is located on the South slope of the Great Himalaya. The Northern border between Bhutan and Tibet is above 7000 m., but the Southern one, between Bhutan and India, is only about 200 m. Bhutan can be divided into three areas by altitude. In this alpine zone annual rainfall is 400 mm, 60-90 percent of it falling in the Monsoon season. In this area, the main subsistence is seasonal Yak nomadism.
The 2000-4000 m. zone, so-called middle inner Himalaya, has a cold temperate climate with annual precipitation averaging about 1000 mm. The western region receives a comparatively higher rainfall. Buckwheat is cultivated at the higher elevations and rice in lower sites. Cattle breeding is also common. Agricultural field move by season, with those at higher elevations being cultivated in summer and the lower sites in winter. Cattle are also relocated to lower sites in the winter. This might have been influenced by the tradition of Yak nomadism.
Near the southern border, at an elevation of less than 2000 m., the climate is hotter and humid, with average annual temperatures ranging from 15-30°C and a rainfall of 2500-5000 mm in some areas. In that zone the rice is the main crop.
Modern History and Modernization
The modernization of Bhutan began in 1952. In 1961, formulation of Five-Year Plans for economic development commenced. The goals of the First and Second Five-Year Plans included roadways, health care, and education. From the Second Five-Year Plan, road construction became a project directly managed by India. With the Third Five-Year Plan starting in 1971, aid from nations other than India began to be accepted. Until the Fourth Five-Year Plan, India maintained great influence on the funding and formulation of plans.
The Fifth Five-Year Plan was put together not by foreigners, but by the people of Bhutan themselves. Since this plan, self-reliance and decentralization have become the underlying principles. The Sixth Five-Year Plan was undertaken based on the fundamental policy of the Fifth Five-Year Plan. With acceptance into the United Nations in 1971, government became more fully organized and ministries were set up. The Seventh Five-Year Plan commenced in 1992.
It can be said that while Bhutan receives a huge amount of aid from countries around the world, it has kept the negative effect of aid, so-called “aid addiction” found in many developing nations, to a minimum. In the early stage, Bhutan carefully considered its relation with India in accepting foreign aid. Bhutan adopted the policy of decentralization. That is, instead of concentrating all key national facilities in the capital, they are dispersed throughout the country. As for electric power supply, instead of building large power plants in each region, mini-hydro stations of 200 to 500 kW capacity were constructed utilizing mountain streams in each village.
The people of Bhutan are taking a very cautious policy toward conservation of nature. Sixty percent of its land is covered by forest. The main reason for this seems to be the recognition that destruction of forest would lead to destruction of very fundamental aspects of the culture of Bhutan. Together with the teachings of Mahayanist Buddhism, the people of Bhutan hold the belief that what is gained from nature should be returned to nature.

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