Mountain areas are characterized by a close interaction between natural processes and human activities, and by a sometimes difficult relationship between highlands and lowlands. In the last twenty years, and even more so since Rio 1992, new driving forces have become evident: globalisation, urbanisation and a growing divide between the rich and the poor parts of the world from the human side, and climate-environmental change from the natural side. Traditional knowledge, the experience of generations and even centuries, has been overrun by these external driving forces reinforced by modern information and communication technologies. We don't yet know the consequences for mountain ecosystems and mountain communities. Understanding these processes and managing this growing complexity for sustainable development requires new ideas and new tools for education, new objectives and approaches for science and a much better understanding of cultural foundations.