The strategies and methodologies in current practice aimed at achieving sustainable, participatory conservation are inadequately developed, and their implications are poorly understood by policy makers, managers and communities among other user groups. Possibilities of conflict and jurisdictional overlap exist. Institutional arrangements and policy instruments that facilitate the alleviation of poverty in the mountain adjacent communities through rural development should be integral components of sustainable mountain conservation. The local community though fully aware of the ecosystems biodiversity values have insufficient insights on all issues at stake, as they have limited capacity to interact at par with research institutions and government agencies as key stake holders. This paper takes a candid look at possibilities existing within the indigenous knowledge systems, community structures, institutional management agencies and other resource users for sustainable mountain and site-based resources conservation. This is in view of current policy shifts, and the gaps that exist in practice between the policies and actual enforcement.