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Wilderness areas and high-altitude steppe
Wilderness areas of the Greater Asian Mountain region
are characterized by either desert or very dry high-
latitude environments including steppe. Most of these
areas are typified by great clustering and concentration
of biodiversity and resources commonly around water
(oasis), glacier fed rivers and in south facing slopes.
The highly patchy nature of natural resources in such
landscapes makes them particularly vulnerable to de-
velopment. Most of these areas are characterized by ei-
ther scattered villages as in rural areas, crucial to many
nomadic indigenous people. Many of these nomadic
people have adapted a life form that enables them to
utilize scattered and sparse resources in a more or less
sustainable manner.
Unfortunately, the development of infrastructure such
as power lines and roads intended to increase the stan-
dard of living, trade and health of locals, often leads to
increased immigration of non-locals, bringing in dif-
ferent lifestyles and unsustainable land use practices.
Figure 7:
Deforestation, grazing and erosion along road and river corridors in Galiat, Northwestern
Pakistan. The two small images to the right show the vegetation cover in 1979 and 2001. The pink
color in the large image indicates the reduction in vegetation cover observed from 1979 to 2001. No-
tice that deforestation and land use changes primarily takes place along roads and rivers (see small
insert of roads in image).