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20 Years of Our Changing Mountains

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Dear MRI Community,

I started studying Geography many years ago out of a passion for mountains. Although I had not grown up in family where mountains or mountaineering were of any interest, I had shortly before discovered the joy of climbing and hiking, as well as a fascination for glaciers. While fully focusing my interests as a student on the physical aspects of mountains and glaciers, I realised at some point that the people living in those areas are the ones responsible for maintaining the beauty of intact mountain ecosystems – or else eroding it.

In the more recent years of my professional life I have concentrated, broadly speaking, on research for sustainable development with one major focus, among others, on the sustainability of food systems and their centrality for the well-being of humans and nature. Instead of seeing food systems only as a cause for CO2 emissions and the destruction of natural habitats, I ask what is needed to create beneficial human-nature interactions, manifesting themselves in sustainable food systems. More recently, I started to go more into detail about the role of mountain food systems. The difference between enhancing the natural environment or ruining it is maybe even more prominent in mountains than in other areas. Topography as a strongly shaping context for human activities contributes to unique expressions of food cultures and ways of living. However, challenges of global change processes and their impacts are also more prominent in mountains, and the question of how to best address them includes aspects of self-determination, local governance processes, and interlinkages between different scales from the local to the global. These complex interactions within food systems play a key role in sustainability transformations and keep driving my curiosity.

It is therefore very exciting for me to engage in the MRI network with its activities directed towards mountains as social-ecological systems. The focus on system, target, and transformation knowledge defined in the MRI's objectives for the current funding period builds on the transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge, which is also at the core of most of my own research activities. I see it as a fundamental requirement for bringing sustainability transformations in mountains, as well as in other places, forward while also considering justice questions about what should be done, where, and for whom.

As we approach the end of the MRI’s 20th anniversary year and turn our attention to the future, I look forward to further collaboration within the MRI network and the opportunity to connect to similar interests in mountain research.
Warm regards,

Theresa Tribaldos
MRI Principal Investigator

Dr. Theresa Tribaldos joined the MRI team as a Principal Investigator in September 2021. 
 
 

MRI News & Events

MRI News

Taking place as part of COP26 on 8 November, the focus of this session was on the impacts and risks of climate change in the cryosphere in Latin America, Central Asia, and the Andes, and how communities in our changing mountains can adapt. This session was contributed to by several representatives of the MRI.
As part of the UNFCCC COP26 Cryosphere Pavilion, Mountain Research Initiative Executive Director Dr. Carolina Adler was invited to participate in a discussion of 'Snow and Ice in Climate Change' organized by the Government of Tajikistan, the WMO, and UNESCO.
The European Geosciences Union General Assembly will be held 3–8 April 2022. This event includes a number of exciting mountain-related sessions, including several convened by representatives of the MRI. Abstract submission closes 12 January 2022.

Upcoming Events

Join UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme and the Mountain Research Initiative as we come together online to launch the World Network of Mountain Biosphere Reserves. The launch event will be followed by a webinar on Sustainable Tourism in Mountain Biosphere Reserves, which will present several cases around the world. The event will take place 9 December 2021 from 14:00 to 16:00 (CET) via Zoom. To attend, please register before 7 December 2021.
With new mountain events added regularly, don't forget to check out our online calendar.
View Events Calendar

GEO Mountains News

Taking place as part of the COP26 Geneva Cryosphere Hub on 3 November, the focus of this session was on the potential offered by Earth observation technology to observe, monitor, and assess the Earth’s cryosphere. The event kicked off with GEO Mountains Scientific Project Officer Dr. James Thornton presenting the work GEO Mountains is undertaking to enhance the discoverability and accessibility of existing mountain data and information – both in situ and remotely sensed – across global mountain regions.
On 28 October, GEO Mountains hosted a workshop as part of the Adaptation at Altitude global mountain programme. The goal of this workshop was to better understand the current interdisciplinary data landscape across Central Asia.
GEO Week 2021 was held 22-26 November, and highlighted the many activities of the GEO work programme that address this year's major milestones linked to global policy agendas, such as the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

News From Our Network

Featured Research & Publications

“If everyone were working together to manage water rather than working independently for their own purpose, there would be more water to go around.” With mountain snowpacks shrinking in the western U.S., a new Berkeley Lab study analyzes when a low-to-no-snow future might arrive and the implications for water management.
The latest issue of the Journal of Mountain Science explores topics ranging from a multi-scale analysis of ecosystem service trade-offs in an ecotone in the Eastern Margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to an examination of 30 years of the transformation of non-urban public transport in Poland.
On the occasion of 50 years of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, the Austrian MAB National Committee has organized and financed a special issue on Biosphere Reserves in Mountain Regions in the Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management (eco.mont). 

List of New Publications

This list, updated each week, contains articles relevant to mountain research that you won't want to miss this month.

Watch Now

The Sustainable Summits film was released at COP26 on 7 November. It aims to raise awareness and political support for action to tackle the impacts of climate change in the mountains and promote solutions for sustainable mountain development.

Blog Post

"It has been a long time since I felt so vulnerable, so unprotected…. Yesterday I felt the weight of my reality as a woman from the Mexican periphery." Mexico City is one of the most disaster-prone urban areas in the world. Following an earthquake, marginalized communities living on the city’s periphery are exposed to more dangers than just collapsing buildings.
Have an idea for a blog post or mountain news to share?
Get in touch!

New Opportunities

Open Calls

Help shape the programme of SRI2022, which will consist of over 100 online and hybrid international sessions and events, highlighting the latest research and innovation in the field of sustainability. Submission deadline is 5 February 2022.
The external review of the draft scoping report for the IPBES business and biodiversity assessment is open from 2 November to 13 December for qualified experts, including scientists, decision makers, practitioners, and other knowledge holders.

Get Published

Past Forward: Using Long-Term Data as Part of an Interdisciplinary Approach to Biodiversity Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Management of Ecosystem Services
This Frontiers research topic explores the role of long-term data as part of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding landscape history and applying that knowledge to conserve biodiversity and resilience into the future. 
Abstract submission deadline 25 February 2022.

Geographical Research 60th Anniversary Issue
The journal Geographical Research seeks contributions to its special sixtieth anniversary issue. 
Submission deadline 4 March 2022.

Forests Special Issue | 'Mountain Timberlines: Tree Growth and Plant Ecology Under Climate Change'
The Special Issue of the MDPI journal Forests aims to explore forest and tree growth response to climate change at the Alpine tree line, including shifts in vegetation patterns and plant soil interactions. Research articles and well-funded review articles on the topic are welcome.
Deadline for manuscript submissions is 30 June 2022.

Call for Papers: Learning Sustainability
How do people and communities learn about sustainability, learn to become sustainable, and help others learn the same? This article collection in the journal Sustainable Earth aims to examine and improve the learning of sustainability.

Integrating Water Resources Research and Management in the Central and South American Andes
Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies solicits submissions to a special issue on 'Integrating Water Resources Research and Management in the Central and South American Andes,' guest-edited by MRI Co-PI and Conéctate A+ Co-Head Christian Huggel and Conéctate A+ Associate Partner Fabian Drenkhan.
Check out the MRI website for a full list of open calls and publication opportunities.
More Open Calls

Funding

The Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) offers project grants for pluri-disciplinary research teams. The project grants run for two years and range from 100’000 to 300’000 Swiss Francs.
Submission deadline 20 January 2022.
 
The Future Earth Pathways Communication Grants programme seeks to ensure that scientific contributions enhancing the understanding of pathways for sustainability reach relevant audiences beyond the scientific community. To promote wider uptake and understanding, the grant supports the dissemination of findings via innovative dissemination formats and practices.
Deadline 31 January 2022.
 
The European Commission and Switzerland are issuing a call for projects for the 2021-2027 Alpine Space programme. The aim of the programme is to enable Alpine regions to become climate neutral, enhance their competitiveness and to equip themselves to address climate change.
The call will run until 28 February 2022.
For a full list of open funding opportunities, please see our website.
All Funding Opportunities

Featured Job

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), Boulder, Colorado, USA.
The successful candidate will work to better understand landscape change and methane emissions from permafrost environments in Alaska.
Position open until filled. 
A regularly updated compilation of mountain job opportunities can be found on our website.
All Mountain Jobs

MRI Expert Database

Our Expert Database has been helping to bring the mountain research community together for many years – and now we've made it better! If you're already a member and you have not yet done so, please log in to the new database to update your profile information and give permission for it to be displayed publicly on the MRI website. And if you aren't a member, why not join now and make connections for our changing mountains? 
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