Resource Conflicts in Mountains: Sources and Solutions By Carmen de Jong The Mountain Institute, University of Savoy, Le Bourget du Lac, France Conflicts in mountains develop when different needs compete with each other over limited space and time and on a more severe level, when international boundary issues arise in remote areas. From a political and geographical point of view, mountains represent a special environment in terms of topographic, social and economical constraints. Increasing pressures induced by anthropogenic change and uncertainty of climate change foster the emergence of double-loop conflicts. These characteristically develop at the local scale. Often conflicts occur at the interface between traditional, primary activities and new developing economic activities that have a less environmentally sustainable approach towards natural resources. Nowadays the strain on sharing resources accelerates the tip-over point towards conflicts. In this article, the sources of conflicts will be analysed, a case study of conflicts between a farmer and the tourism industry described and possible conflicts resolutions and prevention suggested. The conclusion summarises the current dimensions of conflicts. Sources of conflicts There are many sources of conflicts in mountains and they have a number of common sources. Conflicts usually occur when some or all of the physical, ecological, societal, cultural and economic fields confront each other. In the absence of shared knowledge of problems and/or consensus major distress, resource shortage or even war can result. For example in the year 2000, 18 of the world’s 28 armed conflicts took place in mountains (Smethurst, 2000). Conflicts characteristically occur at a very small scale, as a result of increasing population pressure or from new problems associated with climate variability and uncertainty. They are typically caused by a lack of cooperation between the public and private sector and enterprises as well as opposing economical and ecological values. Moreover, long term versus short term visions can hide the dimension of a conflict. Cultural, societal and ecological sources In the Himalayas, conflicts have developed between natural resources, private enterprises and government policies. For example, areas that have been transformed into nature reserves can no longer be exploited for gathering natural medicinal herbs or for allowing tourists to traverse certain areas, so that the livelihood of local people is menaced. Other societal conflict sources include population migration and immigration, resulting in population deconcentration and concentration and unequal age distributions linked with growing expectations versus needs (Zucca 2006). In this situation, new incoming populations can menace the cultural or economical values of local communities. Conflicts often develop where there is a lack of awareness, perception, understanding acceptance and evaluation of different needs or a lack of information and communication. Indeed, stereo type conservative approaches versus stakeholder participative approaches often result in clashes. Physical, ecological, economical sources Often it is the limited availability or misuse of natural resources that leads to conflicts, in particular where demand is higher than offer. Thus, for example, in order to maintain and ameliorate the tourism industry in mountains, more and more local natural resources are exploited (Hudson, 1996). Since climate change is simultaneously changing the supply of water and snow and the demands of the tourism industry are steadily increasing, more and more water resources have to be exploited to produce artificial snow and compensate for the