What is the importance of mountain forests?

"Forests that grow in mountain areas play an important role in maintaining the stability of mountain systems and supporting the people who live there. Mountain forests are vital as sources of water for irrigation and power generation. They intercept and store water from rainfall, mist and snow, and release it slowly, thereby reducing soil erosion, avalanches and downstream flooding impacts. They are important sources of timber and other wood and non-wood products, and are especially important as sources of fuel for local populations and for those in nearby foothills and plains.

Mountain forests are very important as repositories of biodiversity and as a result are increasingly important for tourism and recreation as well as hunting and fishing. Because mountain forests are usually isolated from similar ecosystems by steep terrain and intervening lowlands with contrasting climates, they are frequently sites of high species endemism: that is the species occur locally and nowhere else. Local distribution tends to make species more vulnerable to extinction, and this combined with increasing pressures on mountain ecosystems has led to the inclusion of many mountain forest species on the lists of the world's most critically endangered species."