International conference: `Global Change and the World’s Mountains’ Perth, Scotland, 26-30 September 2010 – Final call for papers: Deadline 1 March 2010
Global change, including a wide range of inter-connected processes ranging from global climate change to economic globalisation, disproportionately affects mountain areas and the billions of people who depend on them for their livelihoods and for various goods and services. Mountain systems are particularly fragile, and subject to both natural and anthropogenic drivers of change. These range from volcanic and seismic events and flooding to global climate change and the loss of vegetation and soils because of inappropriate agricultural and forestry practices and extractive industries. Thus, many mountain ecosystems are moving along trajectories that couple high rates of environmental change with strong economic changes. The collective effect may be to alter the ability of these ecosystems to provide critical goods and services to both mountain and lowland people.
In October 2005, many of these issues were addressed in the Open Science Conference of the GLOCHAMORE (Global Change and Mountain Regions) project, funded principally by the EU 6th Framework Programme, with further support from UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme, which took place in Perth, Scotland. The event was organised by the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI in collaboration with the other GLOCHAMORE project partners, and was attended by 210 people from 41 countries. Published outcomes included the GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy, the proceedings, and a number of special issues of peer-reviewed journals.
Five years later, `Global Change and the World’s Mountains’ is being organised by:
the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development at the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI, in collaboration with
the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), a joint project of the International Human Dimensions of Global Change Programme (IHDP) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
The conference is also endorsed by the Global Land Project of the IGBP and IHDP, UNESCO’s MAB programme, and the Commission on Mountain Response to Global Change of the International Geographical Union.
Conference aims
To bring together leading scientists and others working in, and concerned with, mountain areas around the world in order to:
1) present, evaluate and synthesise progress in our understanding of global change in mountain regions since 2005;
2) evaluate progress with regard to the implementation and impacts of the GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy;
3) work proactively on a global agenda for research and action relating to global change and mountain regions, taking into consideration global assessment and policy processes, such as those relating to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as the consideration of mountains by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 2012, 20 years after the Rio Earth Summit.
Abstracts
Abstracts for papers for any of the 32 session themes will be accepted until 1 March 2010. Please visit the conference website at http://www.perth.uhi.ac.uk/mountainstudies/2010 to see the themes and download an abstract form.