Price, Martin F.

Weingartner, Rolf

Mountain Research and Development

Bern Open Repository and Information System (BORIS)

BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, researchlibraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research.Introduction: Global Change and the World's Mountains—Perth 2010Author(s): Martin F. Price and Rolf WeingartnerSource: Mountain Research and Development, 32(S1):S3-S6. 2012.Published By: International Mountain SocietyDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00119.S1URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00119.S1BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, andenvironmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books publishedby nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance ofBioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use.Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiriesor rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder.source: https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.17327 | downloaded: 8.5.2016Introduction: Global Change and the World’sMountains—Perth 2010Dear Readers,From 26–30 September 2010, 450 people from 60 countries on 6 continents attended the international conference on ‘‘Global Changeand the World’s Mountains’’ in Perth, Scotland, organized by the Centre for Mountain Studies (CMS) at Perth College, University ofthe Highlands and Islands, together with the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI). This was probably the largest internationalmountain science conference ever held, and it truly was international because the majority of participants were not from the hostcountry; there were more people from the United States and Switzerland than from the United Kingdom. This article introduces theconference, and is followed by articles that are a selection of the keynote presentations given at the conference. The volume concludeswith 3 articles that review and provide a series of conclusions regarding the content and emphases of the conference and suggest futurepriorities.The conference in 2010 was the second in a series in Perth; the first, held in 2005 as the Open Science Conference, concluded the 2-yearGlobal Change and Mountain Regions (GLOCHAMORE) project, primarily funded by the European Commission’s 6th FrameworkProgramme for Research and Development. The project aimed to further understanding of the causes and impacts of global change inmountain regions through 5 product-oriented workshops and a final conference. The 2005 conference attracted 310 abstracts; theconference was attended by 210 people from 41 countries on 6 continents. All plenary presentations were recorded and webcast. Themeeting led to the publication of a book of 197 extended abstracts (Price 2006) and of the GLOCHAMORE research strategy (Bjo¨rnsenGurung 2006), which has since been used as the basis for proposals to the European Commission and the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).Context and aimsThe context of both conferences was similar.Mountain areas occupy 24% of the Earth’s land surface; they are home to 12% of the global population,and another 14% of the population live in their immediate proximity. Globally, mountain areas are vital sources of water for agricultural,industrial, and domestic use. They include major centers of biodiversity, often coinciding with centers of cultural diversity where traditional ecologicalknowledge is maintained. In an increasingly urbanizing world, mountain areas are key locations for tourism and recreation. Mountain systems areparticularly fragile, and they are subject to both natural and anthropogenic drivers of change. These range from volcanic and seismic events andflooding to global climate change and the loss of vegetation and soils because of inappropriate agricultural and forestry practices and extractiveindustries. Thus, many mountain ecosystems are moving along trajectories that couple high rates of environmental change with strong economicchanges. The collective effect may be the irrecoverable alteration of the ability of these ecosystems to provide critical goods and services to bothmountain and lowland people.To understand these issues and processes, and to devise policy measures to address them, requires inter- and transdisciplinary research thatleads to three types of knowledge (Proclim/CASS 1997):N Systems knowledge, to analyze how a system functions today, and how it may be altered by global change;N Target knowledge, which includes values that show in which direction the system may develop: this knowledge is elaborated in extensiveparticipatory stakeholder processes; andN Transformation knowledge, which is based on systems and target knowledge and provides measures and options for changing the systemin a certain direction and evaluates the consequences of these measures, thus providing the evidence basis for the political process ofdecision-making.Even though mountain research is quite active, as shown by the number of publications (Ko¨rner 2009), only a relatively small proportionof articles address transformation knowledge. Overall, a key challenge for the participants in the 2010 conference was to bring togetherthese 3 types of knowledge to inform both their own research in mountain areas and long-term strategies for research, whether inter- ortransdisciplinary or within individual disciplines.Specifically, the aims of the conference were to bring together leading scientists and others working in, and concerned with, mountain areasaround the world to:N Present, evaluate, and synthesize progress in our understanding of global change in mountain regions since 2005;N Evaluate progress with regard to the implementation and impacts of the GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy;N Work proactively on a global agenda for research and action relating to global change and mountain regions, taking into considerationglobal assessment and policy processes, such as those relating to the conventions on climate change and biodiversity signed at the RioEarth Summit in 1992, as well as the consideration of mountains at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in2012.Supplement IssueEditorialMountain Research and Development (MRD)An international, peer-reviewed open access journalpublished by the International Mountain Society (IMS)www.mrd-journal.orgMountain Research and Development Vol 32 Suppl Mar 2012: S3–S6 http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00119.S1  2012 by the authorsS3In addition, the conference was designed to contribute to, and inform the future direction of, 2 global initiatives:1. The MRI: a global change scientific program that (a) develops strategies for detecting signals of global environmental change inmountain environments; (b) defines the consequences of global environmental change for mountain regions as well as lowland systemsdependent on mountain resources; and (c) designs proposals toward sustainable land, water, and resource management for mountainregions at local to regional scales;2. The UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development, located at the CMS, specifically its objectives to (a) facilitate the furtherdevelopment and implementation of the GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy; and (b) organize and contribute to internationalmeetings that facilitate understanding of, and action toward, sustainable mountain development, taking global change intoconsideration; and to publish the outcomes.A further goal of the conference was to provide opportunities for presentation and further development of activities withinother global and regional programs and initiatives either by focusing specifically on mountain themes or with a mountain component.ProcessA key to the success of the conference was that key experts working on a wide range of themes, within both the natural and social sciences,agreed to organize sessions that related to their interests. Thus, prospective participants could submit their abstracts for consideration within28 global themes, of concern to scientists from a wide range of social and natural science disciplines; and 4 regional themes, one relating to aspecific initiative (the Western Mountain Initiative: see westernmountains.org), the others relating to global change in the European Alps, theAmerican Cordillera, and the Asian mountains. In total, 610 abstracts were submitted, which required considerable work by the sessionorganizers to select the best presentations; one had to review 128 abstracts! Eventually, 314 papers were presented in 42 parallel sessions over3 afternoons, as well as a further 96 as posters. Extended abstracts of all of these papers were prepared as a compact disk for all delegates andremain available for download (CMS 2010).Complementing the parallel sessions, the morning sessions were devoted to plenary presentations and discussions. The plenary speakerswere internationally recognized experts from a wide range of disciplines and countries around the world. They were invited to giveplenary presentations, with a focus on interdisciplinary research in mountain areas, taking as broad a geographical overview aspossible, preferably global, on their specific topic, and to focus on new insights and knowledge gained since 2005. Various plenaryspeakers took up this challenge to different extents, as can be seen from the articles in this volume. Although all plenary speakers wereinvited to contribute to this special issue of Mountain Research and Development, not all were able to do so. However, all theirpresentations, together with all other oral presentations at the conference, remain available at http://mri.scnatweb.ch/mri-events/perth-ii-global-change-and-the-worlds-mountains-perth-uk. The final morning session was devoted to the process described in the synthesisarticle by Bjo¨rnsen Gurung (2012) and concluded with Bruno Messerli’s (2012) overview of the past, present, and possible future ofmountain research.In addition, to achieve the goal of fostering global and regional programs and initiatives, the conference was preceded by 2 smallerevents—organized by the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) and the Mountain InvasionResearch Network (MIREN)—and specific thematic sessions and lunch-time sessions took place during the conference. After theconference, the MRI organized a full-day session with invited people to discuss and adjust its agenda for future activities.Overall, the conference provided exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary knowledge exchange and social interactions. A wide rangeof disciplines were represented; as in 2005, more participants were from the natural than the social sciences (see Bjo¨rnsen Gurung et al2012). On the last day, many participants expressed the wish for a further conference in 2015; resources permitting, it is anticipated thatthis will take place.Martin F. Price1* and Rolf Weingartner21Director and Chairholder, UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development, Centre for Mountain Studies, Perth College,University of the Highlands and Islands, Crieff Road, Perth PH1 2NX, UK* Corresponding author: martin.price@perth.uhi.ac.uk2Director of the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Chair of Mountain Research Initiative and member of the Oeschger Centre forClimate Change Research, Hallerstrasse 12, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerlandrolf.weingartner@giub.unibe.chOpen access article: please credit the authors and the full source.EditorialMountain Research and Development http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00119.S1S4ACKNOWLEDGMENTSA large international conference requires significant resources. In this case, essential financial resources were provided by the Swiss Agency for Development andCooperation, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, the Man and Biosphere Programme of UNESCO, Perth andKinross Council, the Scottish Government, the British Council, and the United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO. The human resources committed to theconference were also significant. As well as the time spent by the session organizers to review abstracts and chair their sessions, the staff and students of the CMSas well as Greg Greenwood, Executive Director of the MRI and his staff worked very hard to make the conference a success. Finally, the contribution of theparticipants should be recognized. Given the number of people participating in the conference, over 6 active days (including preparation time), it can be estimatedthat it represented the equivalent of 17 person-years of work, further proving the value of this conference.REFERENCESBjo¨rnsen Gurung A, editor. 2006. GLOCHAMORE (Global Change and Mountain Regions) Research Strategy. Zurich, Switzerland: Mountain Research Initiative.Available at: http://mri.scnatweb.ch/glochamore/print-version-of-the-glochamore-research-strategy; accessed on 30 November 2011.Bjo¨rnsen Gurung A, Wymann von Dach S, Price MF, Aspinall R, Balsiger J, Baron JS, Sharma E, Greenwood G, Kohler T. 2012. Global change and the world’smountains—Research needs and emerging themes for sustainable development. Mountain Research and Development 32(Suppl):S47–S54.CMS [Centre for Mountain Studies]. 2010. Extended Abstracts—Global Change and the World’s Mountains Perth, Scotland, UK. 27–30 September 2010. Perth,United Kingdom: Centre for Mountain Studies. http://www.perth.ac.uk/specialistcentres/cms/Conferences/Perth2010/Documents/extendedabstracts.pdf;accessed on 30 November 2011.GLORIA [Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments]. http://www.gloria.ac.at; accessed on 30 November 2011.Ko¨rner C. 2009. Global statistics of ‘‘mountain’’ and ‘‘alpine’’ research. Mountain Research and Development 29(1):97–102.Messerli B. 2012. Global change and the world’s mountains: Where are we coming from, and where are we going to? Mountain Research and Development32(Suppl):S55–S63.MIREN [Mountain Invasion Research Network]. http://www.miren.ethz.ch/; accessed on 30 November 2011.Price MF, editor. 2006. Global Change in Mountain Regions. Duncow, United Kingdom: Sapiens.ProClim/CASS [Forum for Climate and Global Change/Conference of the Swiss Scientific Academies]. 1997. Research on Sustainability and Global Change:Visions in Science Policy by Swiss Researchers. Bern, Switzerland: ProClim-, Forum fu¨r Klima und Global Change, and Schweizerische Akademie derNaturwissenschaften SANW. http://proclimweb.scnat.ch/portal/ressources/1122.pdf; accessed in November 2011.EditorialMountain Research and Development http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00119.S1S5This supplement issue was produced with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), whichwas also one of the principal sponsors of the international conference ‘‘Global Change and the World’s Mountains,’’ held inPerth, Scotland, UK, on 26–30 September 2010.The conference was also supported by:The conference was organized by:EditorialMountain Research and Development http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00119.S1S6

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