Logically, rural and urban interaction within the river system has a wide impact on down stream communities. With large river systems like the , this impact is not only evident on a national level; reducing negative impact is important to all countries in the region. In order to sustain good water quality and sufficient quantity "all year around" head watersheds, their land use systems and their inhabitants need special attention and support to continuously provide important environmental services, taken granted by downstream communities in the past.

Increased population, combined with rapid infrastructure development, resulted in a significant decrease of forest cover and opening up of steep slopes for marginal agriculture production, with negative effects on the water quality, quantity and frequency of the river flow. The watersheds lost much of their potential to retain water, as infiltration rates decreased. Increased run-off from unprotected steep slopes result in flash floods during rainy season and insufficient infiltration rates and storage capacity due to the loss of forest cover, have a negative effect on water quantity and quality during dry season.

In addition to the change of local conditions, previous government policies at the national level did not address the apparent environmental impact, instead the focus was on food production, urbanization, and industrial development. Past legal and illegal logging and the opening of steep slopes now threatens the fragile mountain ecosystem and instigated the loss of important and unique wild life habitats. The fragmented land use mosaic visible today in the upper watersheds does rarely provide corridors and the necessary exchange between habitats and result in an ongoing loss of a unique ecosystem and its biodiversity.

The Chinese Government established a partial logging ban and initiated two country wide programs to address the degradation process. The Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP) targets remaining natural forests and aims to increase forest and tree cover. The Upland Conversion Program (UCP) is an effort to re-establish permanent land cover and targets marginal agriculture land on steep slopes (>25¡°). Both programs are now implemented on a large scale and will have a significant impact on the livelihood of upland communities, changing century old agriculture practices and the way of life for a large proportion of them. Government offices and communities often lack experience and basic knowledge necessary for implementing such large scale projects, resulting in a top-down approach with limited consultation of the target groups.

In order to prevent further degradation of the watersheds and to improve the overall livelihood of their inhabitants, it is vital to understand past and present developments in order to find the underlying causes and drivers of change. Biophysical and socio-economic assessments, in consultation with all stakeholders can generate the base for future recommendations and improvement of the livelihood of local communities. Systematic case studies in selected sub-watersheds can contribute to develop future land use and watershed management plans. Champion farmers and local entrepreneurs can provide greatly to the advancement of indigenous technologies, as trainer and to distribute knowledge for sustainable mountain development.