The world's mountain regions are increasingly under threat as more and more land is converted to farming and grazing, according to a new report produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Mountain Watch, the first map-based assessment of environmental change in mountain areas, reveals that mountains regions including the Himalaya are fragile and susceptible to climate change. Areas doing well, apart from Greenland, the region whose mountains appear to be the most pristine, are North and Central America, where only an estimated 9 percent is used for livestock and 5 percent for crops. "Our reverence for these unique, wilderness areas has been partly based on their remoteness, their inaccessibility, but this new report highlights how, like so many parts of the world, some of these last wild areas are fast disappearing in the face of agriculture, infrastructure development and other creeping impacts," said UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. Compiled by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre as a contribution to the International Year of the Mountains, the report was presented to officials attending the Global Mountain Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from 29 October to 1 November.