Since 1996, Mountain Legacy Project (MLP) researchers have been exploring change in Canada's mountain environments through the use of systematic repeat photography. With access to upwards of 120,000 systematic glass plate negatives from Canada's mountain west, the MLP field teams seek to stand where historic surveyors stood and accurately reshoot these images. The resulting image pairs are analyzed, catalogued, and made available for further research into landscape changes. In this article we suggest that repeat photography would fit well within the Future Earth research agenda. We go on to introduce the Image Analysis Toolkit (IAT), which provides interactive comparative image visualization and analytics for a wide variety of ecological, geological, fluvial, and human phenomena. The toolkit is based on insights from recent research on repeat photography and features the following: user-controlled ability to compare, overlay, classify, scale, fade, draw, and annotate images; production of comparative statistics on user-defined categories (eg percentage of ice cover change in each image pair); and different ways to visualize change in the image pairs. The examples presented here utilize MLP image pairs, but the toolkit is designed to be used by anyone with their own comparative images as well as those in the MLP collection. All images and software are under Creative Commons copyright and are open access for noncommercial use via the Mountain Legacy Explorer website. The IAT is at the beginning of its software life cycle and will continue to develop features required by those who use repeat photography to discover change in mountain environments.

Agroforestry is seen as a promising set of land use practices that can lead to increased ecological integrity and sustainable benefits in mountain areas. Agroforestry practices can also enhance smallholder farmers' resilience in the face of social and ecological change. There is a need for critical examination of existing practices to ensure that agroforestry recommendations for smallholder farmers are socially inclusive and grounded in local experience, knowledge, and perceptions. In this paper, we present a transdisciplinary systems approach to the identification and analysis of suitable agroforestry options, which takes into account gendered perceptions of the benefits and values of natural resources. The 4-step approach consists of an appraisal of local perceptions of the social-ecological context and dynamics, an inventory of existing agroforestry practices and species, a gendered valuation of agroforestry practices and species, and the development of locally adapted and gender-sensitive agroforestry options. In a study using this approach in the Peruvian Andes, data were collected through a combination of participatory tools for gender research and ethnobotanical methods. This paper shares lessons learned and offers recommendations for researchers and practitioners in the field of sustainable mountain development. We discuss methodological considerations in the identification of locally adapted agroforestry options, the understanding of local social-ecological systems, the facilitation of social learning processes, engagement in gender research, and the establishment of ethical research collaborations. The methodology presented here is especially recommended for the exploratory phase of any natural resource management initiative in mountain areas with high environmental and sociocultural variability.

Building community resilience is an important topic in the current debate about achieving positive community development outcomes from sustainable place-based policies, especially in mountain regions and less-favored areas. At the practical, grassroots level, however, it remains unclear how community resilience can be effectively included and assessed in local development efforts. We argue that social impact assessment (SIA) can and should play a key role in assessing regional development strategies and proposals and in building community resilience. We present the SIA Framework for Action as a tool to enhance policies, plans, programs, and projects and to assist in attaining appropriate social development outcomes, including community resilience. We demonstrate the value of the framework by discussing its application in a development project in rural Italy—the restoration of the Tratturo Magno, an ancient path used by shepherds and flocks for transhumance over centuries. The project, Vie e Civiltà della Transumanza, patrimonio dell'Umanità (Routes and Civilization of Transhumance World Heritage), inter alia, sought to promote rural tourism by restoring parts of the Tratturo Magno in the area damaged by the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake.

Although climate warming is generally expected to facilitate upward advance of forests, conifer seedling regeneration and survival may be hindered by low substrate moisture, high radiation, and both low and high snow accumulation. To better understand substrate-related factors promoting regeneration in the alpine treeline ecotone, this study compared 2 substrates supporting conifer seedlings: rotten downed wood and adjacent soil. Study locations, each with 3 levels of incoming radiation, were randomly selected at forest line–alpine meadow borders in Pacific Northwest wilderness areas extending along an east–west precipitation gradient. Associations among substrate type, seedling density, radiation, site moisture, site temperature, plant water potential, and plant stomatal conductance were assessed. Wood microsites, flush with the ground and supporting Abies spp conifer seedlings, extended up to 20 m into alpine meadows from the forest line. Although wood microsites thawed later in the spring and froze earlier in the fall, they had warmer summer temperatures, greater volumetric water content, and more growing degree hours, and seedlings growing on wood had higher water potentials than seedlings growing on adjacent soil. At drier eastern sites, there was a positive relationship between seedling density and volumetric water content. Further, there was a positive relationship between seedling stomatal conductance and volumetric water content. Our study indicates that in the Pacific Northwest. and likely elsewhere, seedlings benefit from wood microsites, which provide greater water content. Given predictions of increased summer drought in some locations globally, wood microsites at forest line–alpine meadows and forest line–grasslands borders may become increasingly important for successful conifer regeneration.

This study explored the effects of landscape change on the provision of ecosystem services in a mountain area in northern Portugal, in particular the trade-offs and synergies between services in 2 categories: provisioning and regulating. Services were assessed for 1990 and 2006 and projected for 2020 under 3 scenarios, both biophysically and economically, based on modeling and published and unpublished statistics. We found that landscape changes in the 16-year period under study increased the total supply of ecosystem services, measured both biophysically and monetarily, but that agriculture production dropped dramatically. Both regulating and provisioning services increased in value, but only regulating services increased in biophysical units. Projections under 2 of our 3 scenarios indicated that both types of ecosystem services will continue to increase in both amount and monetary value and will function in synergy, whereas the third scenario predicted a decrease in services and trade-offs between the 2 categories. Because land use has a major impact on ecosystem service supply, an understanding of the changes and trade-offs described in this article can support planning and management, in particular in mountain areas and other regions with limited alternatives for income generation. Our findings suggest that regional development plans should include incentives to maximize regulating and provisioning ecosystem services.

Mountain and upland regions provide a wide range of ecosystem services to residents and visitors. While ecosystem research in mountain regions is on the rise, the linkages between sociocultural benefits and ecological systems remain little explored. Mountainous regions close to urban areas provide numerous benefits to a large number of individuals, suggesting a high social value, particularly for cultural ecosystem services. We explored and compared visitors' valuation of ecosystem services in the Pentland Hills, an upland range close to the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, and urban green spaces within Edinburgh. Based on 715 responses to user surveys in both study areas, we identified intense use and high social value for both areas. Several ecosystem services were perceived as equally important in both areas, including many cultural ecosystem services. Significant differences were revealed in the value of physically using nature, which Pentland Hills users rated more highly than those in the urban green spaces, and of mitigation of pollutants and carbon sequestration, for which the urban green spaces were valued more highly. Major differences were further identified for preferences in future land management, with nature-oriented management preferred by about 57% of the interviewees in the Pentland Hills, compared to 31% in the urban parks. The study highlights the substantial value of upland areas in close vicinity to a city for physically using and experiencing nature, with a strong acceptance of nature conservation.

Tourism—with its social, economic, and ecological dimensions—can be an important driver of sustainable development of alpine communities. Tourism is essential for local people's incomes and livelihoods, but it can also have a major impact on the local environment, landscape aesthetics, and (mainly through tourist transport) global climate change. A project currently underway is developing the Austrian mountain municipality of Alpbach into a role model for competitive and sustainable year-round alpine tourism using an integrated and spatially explicit approach that considers energy demand and supply related to housing, infrastructure, and traffic in the settlement and the skiing area. As the first outcome of the project, this article focuses on the development of the Model of Alpine Tourism and Transportation, a geographic information system–based tool for calculating, in detail, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from travel to a single alpine holiday destination. Analysis results show that it is crucial to incorporate both direct and indirect energy use and emissions as each contributes significantly to the climate impact of travel. The study fills a research gap in carbon impact appraisal studies of tourism transport in the context of alpine tourism at the destination level. Our findings will serve as a baseline for the development of comprehensive policies and agendas promoting the transformation toward sustainable alpine tourism.

Using 2 models, this article illustrates different forms of in-migration in the Alps, the motivations for relocation, and effects of newcomers on their destination areas. Since the 1990s, more and more communities in the European Alps, which had suffered from depopulation for many decades, have become in-migration destinations. This new demographic trend is particularly pronounced in the French and Italian western Alps and on the periphery of the central Alps. Up to the end of the millennium, the western and southern Alps were considered the major demographic problem areas within the Alpine arc. During the past decade, however, the picture has changed significantly: while communities in the western Alps have gradually recovered from massive outmigration, the situation now appears precarious in the eastern Alps. Even though many regions in the eastern Alps are still characterized by depopulation, we can find demographic processes similar to those in the western Alps, where in-migration contributes to population gains in peripheral mountain villages. This article demonstrates 2 models developed to explain these trends by applying the models to 2 villages in the Italian Alps. Model 1 outlines the diverse composition and dynamics of the population, potential migration flows, and the main motivations for relocation. Model 2 depicts the impacts of amenity migrants on socioeconomic, cultural, and infrastructural aspects in a mountain village as well as on the cultural landscape and building stock. In order to allow regional comparisons of individual hamlets, villages, or valleys, the degree of the models' abstraction was kept low; this also enables their application to other mountain areas.

Migration is increasing in the middle hills of Nepal, and it has diverse consequences for the people remaining behind, their livelihoods, and the way they manage their land. This study explored the complex and interrelated effects of migration on land and people in the Harpan watershed, Kaski District, western Nepal. Surveys and focus group discussions were used to explore the reasons for decisions on land management and migration. In addition, remote sensing and fieldwork were used to map the extent of land abandonment. Our study found that almost three quarters of the households have at least 1 migrant member receiving on average US$ 206 per month in remittances. Remittances were used mainly for food and goods and to a much lesser extent for agriculture. In addition to international migration, substantial migration occurs within the area. Once livelihoods permit, whole families choose to migrate to market areas, from uphill to downhill communities. This has led to land abandonment and an increase in forest cover in the upper part of the watershed and has also increased pressure on the land and exposure to flooding in the lower part.

The 2009 Law On Pastures in Kyrgyzstan led to implementation of a community-based pasture management plan (CBPMP) as of 2010, aimed at strengthening pasture governance through improving current pasture use practices and controlling stocking rates at pastures. In the context of implementing CBPMP tools, this research explored farmers' decision-making on herd sizes and land use. This contributes to addressing the theme “Transformations Towards Sustainability” of the Future Earth Strategic Research Agenda 2014, especially how environmental and socioeconomic changes affect individual and collective attitudes and behaviors. Questionnaire-based interviews were conducted with 127 pasture users who obtained pasture tickets (ie the right to use a certain pasture) from 5 Pasture Committees. We divided pasture users into large-herd owners and herders, based on livestock numbers owned and herding practices. In its first use of this type, we employed the Heckman 2-stage model to examine the likely impact of diverse factors on farmers' decisions on herd size and land use change. We found that increases in livestock numbers were significantly associated with insecurity and economic factors, while decreases were related to environmental changes. Similarly, decisions on land use change were significantly influenced by farming-practice difficulties, changing condition of pastures, and increasing incidences of livestock disease due in part to the impact of climate change. We also found that some of the infrastructure provided by pasture committees appears to be ineffective and may even worsen the condition of pastures. As we found indications that large-herd owners in particular were interested in maintaining pasture quality (eg decreasing animal numbers if pastures were in poor condition), we suggest that CBPMPs should include different incentives for distinct groups of farmers to address the ecological and socioeconomic problems associated with land use changes.

The mountain research community is still contending with the need to monitor ecosystems, both to improve local management practices and to address regional and global science questions related to the Future Earth themes of Dynamic Planet, Global Sustainable Development, and Transformations Towards Sustainability. How such efforts may be designed and coordinated remains an open question. Historical climate and ecological observatories and networks typically have not represented the scope or spatial and topographic distribution of near-surface processes in mountains, creating knowledge gaps. Grassroots, in situ investigations have revealed the existence of topoclimates that are not linearly related to general atmospheric conditions, and are also not adequately represented in gridded model products. In this paper, we describe how some of the disconnects between data, models, and applications in mountains can be addressed using a combination of gradient monitoring, uniform observational siting and standards, and modern technology (cyberinfrastructure). Existing observational studies need to expand their topographic niches, and future observatories should be planned to span entire gradients. Use of cyberinfrastructure tools such as digital telemetry and Internet Protocol networks can reduce costs and data gaps while improving data quality control processes and widening audience outreach. Embracing this approach and working toward common sets of comparable measurements should be goals of emerging mountain observatories worldwide.

The Global Network of Mountain Observatories (GNOMO) is an international initiative seeking to increase communication and collaboration and align methodologies to assess commonalities and differences across the world's mountain landscapes. Oriented toward sustainable mountain development, GNOMO requires the integration of social and natural sciences, as well as a diverse array of stakeholder perspectives. This paper highlights challenges associated with integrating social sciences because of the inherent paradigmatic differences within the social sciences. The value orientations of mountain researchers, as well as the divergent societal and institutional values regarding mountains, create a need for new approaches to observing mountain landscapes. A framework is presented to organize complex information about mountain social–ecological systems based on human conditions (from vulnerability to wellbeing), environmental actions (from degradation to stewardship), and environmental conditions that vary across time, space, and scales. A multiparadigmatic, multimethod approach is proposed to combine theory-driven quantitative indicators, qualitative perspectives from diverse knowledge standpoints, and critical inquiries into power relationships to fully represent dynamic mountain systems.

The Perth conferences, held every 5 years in Perth, Scotland, bring together people who identify as mountain researchers and who are interested in issues related to global change in mountain social-ecological systems. These conferences provide an opportunity to evaluate the evolution of research directions within the mountain research community, as well as to identify research priorities. The Future Earth Strategic Research Agenda provides a useful framework for evaluating the mountain research community's progress toward addressing global change and sustainability challenges. Using a process originally set up to analyze contributions to the 2010 conference, the abstracts accepted for the 2015 conference in the context of the Future Earth framework were analyzed. This revealed a continued geographic underrepresentation in mountain research of Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia but a more even treatment of biophysical and social science themes than in 2010. It also showed that the Perth conference research community strongly focused on understanding system processes (the Dynamic Planet theme of the Future Earth research agenda). Despite the continued bias of conference contributions toward traditional observation- and conservation-oriented research, survey results indicate that conference participants clearly believe that transdisciplinary, transformative research is relevant to mountains. Of the 8 Future Earth focal challenges, those related to safeguarding natural assets, promoting sustainable land use, increasing resilience and understanding the water-energy-food nexus received considerable attention. The challenges related to sustainable consumption, decarbonizing socioeconomic systems, cities, and health were considerably less well represented, despite their relevance to mountain socioeconomic systems. Based on these findings, we outline a proposal for the future directions of mountain research.

The diversity of membership in the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) is one of its principal assets. This diversity is now exemplified in MRI's Science Leadership Council, composed of active mountain researchers from around the world and charged with leading the MRI. The first major task of the Science Leadership Council was the development of MRI's Strategic Plan, a document that makes explicit what has been implicit for years in MRI's activities. The Strategic Plan provides a common vision, a focused mission, a set of guiding principles, long-term goals, and more specific and measurable objectives. It provides the framework for MRI's most recent grant application to the Swiss National Science Foundation and similarly guides the progress of the MRI toward its vision.

The Centre for Mountain Studies (CMS), located at Perth College, University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland, hosts the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development. Since 2000, CMS staff and students have been active in research and knowledge exchange activities at scales from the local—in Scotland—to the global (Price 2011; Glass et al 2013). In addition to hosting the Mountains of our Future Earth conference (Perth III), recent international activities have focused on climate change, biosphere reserves, social innovation, and stakeholder engagement in biodiversity research. Projects in Scotland have mainly addressed land management and local communities. The CMS also runs a part-time online MSc program in Sustainable Mountain Development.