The Himalayas, or Himalaya, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest; more than 100 peaks exceeding elevations of 7,200 m (23,600 ft) above sea level lie in the Himalayas.
The League of American Bicyclists (LAB), officially the League of American Wheelmen, is a membership organization that promotes cycling for fun, fitness and transportation through advocacy and education. A Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the League is one of the largest membership organizations of cyclists in the United States.
Makalu Barun National Park is a national park in the Himalayas of Nepal that was established in 1992 as the eastern extension of Sagarmatha National Park. It is the world's only protected area with an elevation gain of more than 8,000 m (26,000 ft) enclosing tropical forest as well as snow-capped peaks. It covers an area of 1,500 km2 (580 sq mi) in the Solukhumbu and Sankhuwasabha districts, and is surrounded by a bufferzone to the south and southeast with an area of 830 km2 (320 sq mi).
The Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) established an international long-term monitoring program and site-based network dealing with high-mountain vegetation and its biological diversity. Its purpose is the in-situ observation and comparative assessment of alpine biodiversity patterns under the impact of accelerating anthropogenic climate change. GLORIA involves sets of permanent plots established at pristine or near-natural sites set aside and monitored to observe the migration of plant species due to climate change. Founded in 2001, the program has grown to more than 120 sites around the world, distributed from the poles to the tropics."
Johan Reinhard is an American anthropologist and archaeologist. He is Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. He is also a senior research fellow at The Mountain Institute, a visiting professor at Catholic University, Salta, Argentina, an honorary professor of Catholic University, Arequipa, Peru, and a research professor at Future Generations University.
Celaque National Park is a national park in Lempira Ocotepeque and Copán, western Honduras. It was established on 5 August 1987 and covers an area of 266.31 square kilometres. It includes Honduras’ tallest peak, called Cerro Las Minas or Pico Celaque, which reaches approximately 2,870 metres (9,416 ft) above mean sea level. It has an elevation ranging from 975 to 2,870 metres. Celaque's terrain is very rugged, two-thirds of the area has a slope greater than 60 degrees. The park is classified as a cloud forest with a mean precipitation of 1,600 mm at lower altitudes and a mean of 2,400 mm at higher altitudes. The word celaque is reputed to mean caja de aguas in the local, but now extinct, indigenous Lenca language. Celaque's nine rivers supplies water to 120 villages nearby including the district capital of Gracias. Celaque is high in biodiversity and is home to pumas, ocelots and Bolitoglossa celaque, an endangered plethodontid salamander found only in the mountains of Celaque.
Pasochoa is an extinct volcano located in the Guayllabamba river basin in the Ecuadorian Andes. The current mountain form is a collapsed crater with a semicircular shape. This structure emerged approximately 100 thousand years ago due to an eruption which destroyed the crater and occidental slope of the previous volcanic cone.
The whiskered yuhina is a bird species in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. Its range extends across the Himalayan forests in northern India to northeast Indian states, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and in the east to Indochina including Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. The whiskered yuhina is sometimes found in mixed hunting parties with other yuhina and fulvetta species, but it has also been reported to not associate with mixed hunting parties in some areas. It is described as one of the commonest yuhinas in the Himalayas, although it is relatively uncommon to rare at low elevations. It prefers relatively undisturbed closed canopy cover. It is one among several other birds hunted by livestock herders in Northeast India.
Hill people, also referred to as mountain people, is a general term for people who live in the hills and mountains. This includes all rugged land above 300 metres (980 ft) and all land above 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) elevation. The climate is generally harsh, with steep temperature drops between day and night, high winds, runoff from melting snow and rain that cause high levels of erosion and thin, immature soils. Climate change is likely to place considerable stress on the mountain environment and the people who live there.
Heli hiking is a recreational activity in which a helicopter is used to access remote areas of the back country for hiking. These locations are typically inaccessible through other forms of transportation. Along with heli skiing, heli hiking is one of the most popular forms of heli tourism. It falls within the broad category of amateur adventure or activity-based tourism. It is a seasonal commercial backcountry industry, which also includes mountaineering and kayaking.
Daniel C. Taylor is an American scholar and practitioner of social change, with notable achievements in community-led conservation and global education. He also recognized as giving a definitive explanation for the century-old Yeti mysteries.
The Sacred Himalayan Landscape is a 39,021 km2 (15,066 sq mi) large trans-boundary landscape in the eastern Himalayas encompassing temperate broadleaf and conifer forests, alpine meadows and grasslands, which harbour more than 80 mammal and more than 440 bird species. It extends from Nepal's Langtang National Park through Sikkim and Darjeeling in India to western Bhutan's Torsa Strict Nature Reserve. More than 73% of this landscape is located in Nepal, including Sagarmatha National Park, Makalu Barun National Park, and Kanchenjunga Conservation Area. About 24% is located in India, encompassing Khangchendzonga, Singalila and Neora Valley National Parks as well as Fambong Lho, Maenam, Senchal, Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuaries, Shingba and Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuaries and Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary.
Yak fiber is the term commonly used to refer yak fiber wool produced from the coat hair of yaks, a long-haired bovine mainly found in the Himalayan region, Tibetan plateau, and some areas of Mongolia and Central Asia.
The Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal is awarded every one or two years to an individual "for remarkable service in the conservation of culture and nature in mountainous regions." The medal both recognizes the service of Sir Edmund Hillary on behalf of mountain people and their environment and also encourages the continuing emulation of his example. The Hillary Medal is a project of Mountain Legacy, a Nepalese non-governmental organization ; the president is biologist Kumar P. Mainali. The Hillary Medal was personally authorized by Sir Edmund in 2002, and ratified by the Namche Consensus, the declaration resulting from the 2003 Namche Conference: "People, Park, and Mountain Ecotourism."
Bruno Messerli was a Swiss geographer and university professor who focused on high mountains and highland-lowland linkages. He was appointed Full Professor of Geomorphology in 1968 by the University of Bern, where he taught and carried out research until his retirement in 1996. He contributed significantly to the inclusion of a mountain agenda, Chapter 13 — Managing Fragile Ecosystems — Sustainable Mountain Development in Agenda 21, the official action plan of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the Rio Summit, the Rio Conference, and the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June in 1992.
The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) is an interdisciplinary research centre specializing in sustainability science and land systems at the University of Bern, Switzerland. It conducts research in many countries worldwide, with a particular focus on the Eastern Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, Europe, and Switzerland. In terms of teaching, CDE offers courses in the field of sustainable development at the bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral level.
Jack D. Ives is a Canadian montologist, an Honorary Adjunct Research Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, an author, and a prominent advocate of mountain issues at the global level. He was formerly director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, founding editor of two peer-reviewed journals, chair of the Commission on High Altitude Geoecology under the auspices of the International Geographical Union, and a senior advisor on mountain ecology and sustainable development for United Nations University.
Rainer W. Bussmann is a German botanist and vegetation ecologist, specializing in ethnobotany and ethnobiology, wild food plants, wild crop relatives, climate change, gastronomic botany and preservation of traditional knowledge in the Andes, the Caucasus and the Himalayas. He has worked at the University of Bayreuth, University of Hawaii, University of Texas, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Ilia State University and the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe; he has founded several international non-governmental organizations, including Nature and Culture International, Saving Knowledge, and Ethnomont.
Chetan Singh is an academic historian from Himachal Pradesh, India. He is noted for his work on the history of early modern and modern western Himalayas.
