27-03-2006 Mountain areas: global strategy for global problems

“Mountain regions occupy about a quarter of the global terrestrial land surface and provide goods and services to more than half the humanity. Global environmental change threatens the integrity of these systems and their ability to provide the goods and services upon which humanity has come to depend.� This is the framework of “Global change and mountain regions�, an unique scientific publication that gives an overview of the current knowledge on the dramatic situation our planet is experiencing because of the global environmental change.

Global Change and Mountain Regions: An Overview of Current Knowledge Series: Advances in Global Change Research, Vol. 23 Huber, Uli M.; Bugmann, Harald K. M.; Reasoner, Mel A. (Eds.) 2005, 650 p., Hardcover

More than sixty topical and influential contributions from paleoclimatology, cryospheric research, meteorology, geology, ecology and development studies are compiled in about 650 pages.
Each one with outlook on future research directions: assessing the state of the art is the first step to define concrete management systems for these fragile mountain areas.
Management decisions must be based on a sound understanding of the future dynamics of these systems.

Edited in 2005, this landmark volume is a point of referenc for the entire international scientific community. It is the result of the research carried out by the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) in the framework of the Glochamore (Global Change and Mountain Regions) project.

Glochamor is a biennial project aimed at developing an effective strategy for reducing the causes and impacts of global change on mountain regions. The project, ended last year, reached its objective by developing an integrative and interdisciplinary research strategy for these areas.
The strategy will be implemented in the Unesco Mountain Biosphere Reserves (MBRs), in both developed and developing countries. Among the MBRs figures the Sagarmatha National Park, whose management involves the Ev-K²-CNR Committee.

The questions of who, where, when and at what cost should be addressed in the next step, called Real Projects in Real Places (RP2). This follow-up program will implement the Glochamore research strategy in dialogue with local communities and managers of the mountain areas.