Nearly a quarter the worlds land mass is defined as mountainous and a tenth of the worlds population live in mountainous areas. In Asia alone over 78 million people live above 2500m. The majority of these people live below the poverty line. In the poorest mountain regions, the average income is a tenth of the world average, almost 1 in 10 children die before the age of five, and more than a third of women are illiterate. Often the isolation of mountain communities separates them from civil and political society; this is often compounded by deep religious and ethnic divisions.