It became an international organization in 1987, when it created a regional office in Kathmandu, Nepal, and in Huaraz, Peru a few years later. Its mission expanded to include preservation of mountain cultures and natural resources, as well as sustainable development, in the world’s longest mountain ranges—-the Andes, Appalachians, and Himalayas.

Additional offices now exist in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China (TAR) and India; the original site in West Virginia remains home to both a regional office and Spruce Knob Mountain Learning Center; and a new international headquarters was established in Washington, DC, in 2002.

Each regional office of The Mountain Institute employs local staff, and more than fifteen nationalities are part of the worldwide team. In each location, TMI works with local partner organizations and communities to design its programs, using a method of “appreciative inquiry” that it has developed over the years. Careful evaluation of The Mountain Institute’s endeavors has revealed that sustainability is most successful when mountain communities determine their own needs and capacities, and experience “ownership” of the outcomes. This philosophy is at the heart of The Mountain Institute’s work.

Mountains shelter nearly half of the world’s biodiversity “hot spots”, provide 60 to 80 percent of the world’s fresh surface water, provide crucial resources like minerals, timber and hydropower, and house rich cultures that are storehouses of traditional knowledge. They are a source of beauty, inspiration and recreation, often symbolizing a greatness beyond our human capabilities.

Yet in most countries, mountain people are among the poorest anywhere. Harsh climates, degraded resources, poor health care and educational opportunities, and lack of access are a few of the reasons that mountain communities typically have 40 to 50 percent or more of their inhabitants living below their national poverty levels. They have too often been ignored by their governments, by traditional development agencies, and by most of the non-profit community.

This report describes how The Mountain Institute works to improve sustainable livelihoods in these remote regions, to reinforce the pride and resilience of mountain people, and to conserve the precious natural resources on which all of our futures depend.