Ethnological Studies on Environmental Exploitation in Mountains - The Nepal Himalays and the Central Andes Compared-

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Objectives and MethodsFirst, to study the exploitation pattern in the Nepal Himalayas. In order to do this, field work was carried out in the Kachenjunga area this Februrary and in Langtang valley in March, resepectively. Second, to make a comparison of the environmental exploitation pattern between the Nepal Himalays and the Central Andes. Findings of this research were analyazed in comparison with the data of our several years fieldwork in the central Andes.RESULTSAccording to our observations both in the Nepal Himalayas and in the Central Andes, main points of our findings are as follows. Recent comparative studies of mountain populations in such diverse areas of the world as the Alps, Himalayas, and Andes have demonstrated parallels in ecological adaptaions. However, we found several differences of the exploitation system between the Nepal Himalayas and the Central Andes. One of the most notable differences is that Andean peasant village economies revolve around the exploitation of multiple production zones, whereas most of the Nepal Himalayan villages specialize in few acivitities within a limited production zone.At the same time, both in the Nepal Himalayas and the Central Andes, intensification of land use associated with the problem of fuel wood removal was observed. It is considered that this intensification of land use has had many dramatic consequences, such as deforestation, erosion, floods, lamdslides, etc. Since small farmers or peasants are concentrated mainly in isolated and high mountainous regions, they are struggling with the procurement of cooking fuel and food processing. More intensive and comparative studies on environmental exploitation in mountains will shed more light on this subject.