Most countries have not yet adopted mountain-specific laws, preferring to protect mountains through existing sectoral legislation. However, countries such as France, Georgia, Italy, Russian Federation (North Ossetia-Alania), Switzerland and Ukraine, have enacted legal instruments dealing specifically with mountains, and other countries are developing similar legislation. This publication broadly describes the main elements of international and national mountain-specific legal texts, and also includes national case studies.
This book investigates the bitterly contested development of environmental conservation in France from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, suggesting that conflicts over forests between the state, landowning elites, and the peasantry not only reflected escalating demand for this most vital of natural resources but also shaped the country's revolutionary struggles.