Chapter 8 Neotropical Mountains Beyond Water Supply: Environmental Services as a Trifecta of Sustainable Mountain Development F.O. Sarmiento University of Georgia, Neotropical Montology Collaboratory, Athens, Georgia, United States E-mail: fsarmien@uga.edu Chapter Outline Is There an Andean Vision of Water? 309 Wealth of the Cloud Forests 311 Biocultural Landscapes of Mist and Magic 314 The Role of the Sacred in Conservation 318 Conclusion 319 Acknowledgment 320 References 320 IS THERE AN ANDEAN VISION OF WATER? In the “Andean vision of water,” there are six criteria for the incorporation of water into the socioecological system: (1) water as a living being, (2) water as the basis of reciprocity and complementarity, (3) water as universal and community right, (4) water as an expression of flexibility and adaptability, (5) water as creator and transformer, and (6) water as social recreation (CONDESAN, 2003). The water collected as snow and ice from the snow- pack volcanoes, and from the horizontal precipitation on the epiphytic gar- dens of the cloud forest have a special place in the mythology of Andean people, as they are integral to origin myths or have profound meaning to community and personal geographies. The Kichwa and Aymara share a mythical view of nature guided by the reciprocity principle or Aynu, that often Mountain Ice and Water. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-63787-1.00008-1 Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 309