Promoting the consumption of mountain products could contribute to the sustainable development of mountain areas, as it enables the preservation of traditional production methods while yielding positive socioeconomic outcomes. Labeling is an important marketing tool that supports mountain food supply chains and sustainable mountain development, since it guarantees the origin and specific quality attributes of the mountain product to consumers and thereby supports producers in marketing mountain food products. The European Union (EU) quality term “mountain product” was created for these reasons. However, so far, using this new labeling scheme for wine has not been allowed. The aim of this study is to contribute to the ongoing debate surrounding the possible extension of the EU quality term to the wine sector from a consumer perspective. An online auction was conducted to identify whether Italian consumers are willing to pay more for a wine with an EU mountain product logo on the label. Furthermore, a cluster analysis was run to segment the market of potential customers of mountain wine based on the “greenness” of their lifestyle. While the results of the online experiment did not indicate any significant difference between the prices paid in presence or in absence of the mountain product logo, our findings revealed the existence of clusters of consumers characterized by a green lifestyle who value mountain wines and are willing to pay a price premium for the EU mountain product logo. This is an encouraging signal for wine growers in the mountains who have already started investing in wines that are produced in a more sustainable way and who want to stay competitive.

Understanding the complex socioecological relationships between farmers' practices and landscape changes is critical to developing more successful agroecological management strategies. A restructuring of agricultural landscapes to include a larger proportion of natural habitats is routinely promoted in sustainable agriculture. However, our knowledge of how different landscape features (eg natural versus social) and associated functions influence farmers' decisions about their daily practices remains limited. Here, we explored how smallholder farmers perceive agricultural landscapes and their related functions along a gradient of agricultural intensification (from 11 to 3% of natural habitats) in the Ecuadorian Andes. To this end, we used real-time high-precision aerial images acquired with an unmanned aerial vehicle. Our analysis of 199 free-listing surveys revealed that farmers equally valued natural (eg hedges, watercourses) and social features (eg roads, arable land availability) of the agricultural landscapes when deciding where to grow their crops. These features were related to a large array of functions, some of which were perceived as a service by one farmer and as a nuisance by another. Among ecological services, farmers identified a potential strategy to improve several agricultural regulation services based on vegetation and hedgerow management. This suggests that incentives to preserve natural vegetation in agricultural landscapes could be perceived favorably by farmers. Finally, we found that Indigenous farmers value agricultural landscapes differently from non-Indigenous farmers. This needs to be taken into account when promoting the adoption of landscape management strategies such as ecological intensification.

People living in conflict-affected areas are particularly vulnerable to climate-related impacts. However, few comparative studies have examined differences in adaptation practices across different conflict-affected mountain areas in Africa. This study focuses on 2 mountain areas, the Bamboutos Mountains (western Cameroon, affected by sectarian conflict) and the Itombwe Mountains (eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, affected by political instability). Semistructured interviews were conducted with 282 smallholder farmers living in these 2 mountainous areas. Farmers in both areas reported climatic changes and impacts on crops, animals, and human health. Some adaptation strategies were used across sites (eg increasing use of improved seeds and changing planting dates), but some differed (eg using inputs) in relation to differences in impacts observed, conflict characteristics, and farmers' cultural backgrounds. For example, in the Itombwe Mountains, herding was preferred over crop production (as cows could be moved when insecurity increased), whereas in the Bamboutos Mountains, crop production was preferred over rearing large animals (as these could be easily stolen by the separatists). We discuss the perceived major barriers to adaptation and their implications.

Cities and their networks play a significant role in spatial development. This holds true for settlement systems in general, and there is no reason that this should differ in mountain contexts. However, research on this subject is scarce, and it remains a relatively niche topic. Against this background, our article presents a scoping review of settlement systems in mountain regions, reflecting on thematic foci, temporal developments, and regional differences in the global scientific debate. The results show that the scientific discourse has been a rather Eurocentric debate of modest intensity for several decades. The discussion has become more intense in the past decade because of a substantial number of contributions on Asia. Our findings suggest that the current academic debate does not fully address the potential of settlement systems for sustainable spatial development in mountain areas. Recent articles have been predominantly based on improved data availability and methodological innovation, often in the form of case studies. We conclude that a significant research gap exists in terms of comparative perspectives on settlement systems in mountain regions.