Blog

Developing a virtual student community – MSc Sustainable Mountain Development
The Centre for Mountain Studies is a Research Centre at Perth College UHI – and part of the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) in Scotland. Since 2000 it has run a successful MSc programme in Sustainable Mountain Development.

Get to know the project SCALABLE
The EU-funded SCALABLE project 2021-2023 (Social-ecological pathways and gender perspectives for future conservation of biocultural mountain agroecosystems) is coordinated by the University of Almería, Spain. It aims to identify how gender equity can promote pathways for the future conservation of mountain agricultural landscapes in the biocultural regions of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range in southern Spain.

MOVING’s first year and a half
On 2 and 3 March 2022, MOVING hosted online its Steering Committee after the first year and a half of the project. Partners discussed the current status and progress of the project.

The importance of women in the sustainability of mountain areas
Every year, International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March.
The theme for International Women’s Day on 2022 (IWD 2022) is, “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. For MOVING, gender equality is a key element in its research and innovation activities. For MOVING, gender equality is a key element in its research and innovation activities. Women are considered drivers of change in the mountain framework.

Building synergies with local actors in Los Pedroches
In November 2021 part of the MOVING team from University of Cordoba (UCO) left their offices and headed for the Valle de Los Pedroches region, in the north of the province of Córdoba (Andalusia, Spain). During this one-day field trip, the UCO team had meetings with people involved in the rural development of the region and the production of the Iberian ham (PDO Los Pedroches).

Consequences of the transformation of agricultural landscapes on ecosystem services in the European Alps
In recent decades, socio-economic developments have induced massive changes in land use and land cover worldwide. These affected large parts of the European Alps, in particular, agricultural unfavourable areas that are climatically and topographically disadvantaged. This study mapped 19 ES within the agricultural area based on land cover in the year 2000 and analysed the changes until 2018.

Work progress in the MOVING’s Swiss Alps Reference Region
We spoke with Anna Geiser (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) about the work on the MOVING Reference Region of Swiss Alps.

How does the Cohesion Policy influence mountains?
The Montana174 project was created to address an important challenge: to make people aware of what the Cohesion Policy does in their region and how they can benefit from it.

Governance in mountain areas: what has changed in the last years?
Recently, UNIMONT has carried out a study on governance in mountain areas which is under publication. The study aims to provide a first overview of the priorities of intervention defined by different case studies for their respective mountain territories.

Getting to know Labex ITTEM: mountain research programme in Human and Social Sciences
The Laboratory of Excellence “Innovation and Territorial Transitions in Mountains” (Labex ITTEM) is a consortium of nine French laboratories from National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE) and the Universities of Grenoble Alps (UGA) and Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB).