Outmigration has become a key livelihood strategy for an increasing number of rural households, which in turn has a profound effect on land management. Studies to date have mainly focused on migrant households, and there is limited literature on the differences in land management practices of migrant and nonmigrant households. This article drew on a current study to explore how outmigration affects land management practices in the context of rapidly changing rural communities and economics in the middle hills of Nepal. The data were collected in Lamjung District in western Nepal using a mixed-method approach. We found that underutilization of farmland is a more prominent phenomenon than land abandonment, with rural communities moving to less intensive farming. Importantly, the increasing underutilization of farmland is not just occurring among migrant households. There are a range of complex factors which influence land-use decisions and the subsequent outcomes for landscapes. A high risk of food insecurity in Nepal is likely to be exacerbated if the current trajectory of underutilization and abandonment of farmland continues. A suite of policy tools that can be selectively applied depending on the local context may be more effective than broad-brush national policies in tackling the underlying causes faced by rural communities.

The movement of rural households from remote uplands to valley floors and to semiurban and urban areas (internal migration) is a common phenomenon in the middle mountain districts of Nepal. Understanding the causes and effects of internal migration is critical to the development and implementation of policies that promote land use planning and sustainable resource management. Using geospatial information technologies and social research methods, we investigated the causes and effects of internal migration on land use and land cover patterns in a western mountain district of Nepal between 1998 and 2013. The results show a decreasing number of households at high elevations (above 1400 m), where an increase in forest cover has been observed with a consequent decrease in agricultural land and shrub- or grassland. At lower elevations (below 1400 m), forest cover has remained constant over the last 25 years, and the agricultural land area has increased but has become geometrically complex to meet the diverse ne...

Mountain "islands in the sky" covering one fourth of Earth's surface provide goods and services to about half of humanity, with nearly half of all 34 world's biodiversity hotspot concentrated in it. Although retaining inherently greater biodiversity, mountains are facing loss of these natural assets due to various human induced causes of which few to name are deforestation, uphill expansion of agriculture etc. With integrated knowledge of mountain biodiversity change in the pathway of time and threatening factors of mountain biodiversity, we can broaden our horizon of knowledge which can be a milestone in sustainable conservation of biodiversity. This is a review article which endeavors to identify the reasons behind high mountain biodiversity and its increasing vulnerability with time. Key Words: Mountain, Biodiversity, Ecosystem, Temporal change DOI: 10.3126/init.v3i0.2501 The Initiation Vol.3 2009 p.102-113