Environmental threats, mitigation strategies and high-mountain areas.

High-mountain areas suffer from increasing environmental threats. The causes are often global in dimension but lead to specific impacts under conditions of steep and/or high-altitude terrain with strong effects from snow and ice. This paper presents a global perspective, focussing primarily on observed and projected changes in climate and then goes on to discuss key messages of greatest relevance to the highest belts of mountain regions. The paper finishes with a brief discussion of mitigation strategies.