Mountain Myths Revisited: Integrating Natural and Social Environmental Science

This paper introduces a special edition of Mountain Research and Development on integrating natural and social envi- ronmental science. In recent years, environment and development research has been rocked by discovering that so-called prob- lems, such as Himalayan environmental degradation, or desertification, are not the problems researchers once thought. However, labeling these models as 'myths' is problematic because myths may either mean a demonstrably false statement or a socially con- structed repository of local wisdom. This paper, and those following, present ways to combine both meanings of myth by integrat- ing social and natural science, thus allowing critical debate about biophysical processes at the same time as acknowledging social constructions of environment. As such, this forms part of a growing trend towards adopting Cultural Theory, the 'new' ecologies, and critical realism in environmental research, all of which provide alternatives to positivism or post-modern deconstruction of environmental discourse. Such research included adopting typologies of environmental perception, long-term environmental his- tories, 'hybrid' research combining social and natural science, and building local institutional capacity for integrating different en- vironmental knowledge. It is argued that integrating natural and social environmental science is essential in order to avoid accept- ing environmental 'myths' uncritically, yet also to provide an epistemologically realist basis to local development.