Framing the Human Dimensions of Mountain Systems: Integrating Social Science Paradigms for a Global Network of Mountain Observatories

Flint, Courtney G.

doi:10.1659/mrd-journal-d-15-00110.1

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Southern Africa's third-world context necessitates a sensitive and strategic approach to addressing change in its mountain regions. Embracing its social environment through social engagement [133], public-assisted monitoring [32], and the crafting of innovative solutions for mountain futures [134] are key features to consider in future LTSER, given that mountains and their associated ecosystem services are critical for people [24,41,135,136] and are cradles of cultural and ethnic diversity [137,138]. The first pioneering form of mountain LTSER in South Africa took place in the impoverished rural Okhombe and Obonjaneni communities in the upper Tugela catchment of the northern Maloti-Drakensberg [139].…”

Section: Moving Towards Systems-based Landscape-scaled Ltsermentioning

confidence: 99%

Mountain Watch: How LT(S)ER Is Safeguarding Southern Africa’s People and Biodiversity for a Sustainable Mountain Future

Carbutt

Thompson

2021

Land

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Southern Africa is an exceptionally diverse region with an ancient geologic and climatic history. Its mountains are located in the southern hemisphere mid-latitudes at a tropical–temperate interface, offering a rare opportunity to contextualise and frame our research from an austral perspective so as to balance the global narrative around sustainable mountain futures for people and biodiversity. Limited Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) was initiated more than a century ago in South Africa to optimise catchment management through sound water policy. The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) has resurrected many government LTER programmes and added observatories representative of the country’s heterogeneous zonobiomes, including its mountain regions. LTER in other southern African mountains is largely absent. The current rollout of the Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network (EFTEON) and the Southern African chapters of international programmes such as the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA), RangeX, and the Global Soil Biodiversity Observation Network (Soil BON), as well as the expansion of the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN), is ushering in a renaissance period of global change research in the region, which takes greater cognisance of its social context. This diversity of initiatives will generate a more robust knowledge base from which to draw conclusions about how to better safeguard the well-being of people and biodiversity in the region and to balance livelihoods and environmental sustainability in our complex, third-world socio-ecological mountain systems.

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Section: Moving Towards Systems-based Landscape-scaled Ltsermentioning

confidence: 99%

Mountain Watch: How LT(S)ER Is Safeguarding Southern Africa’s People and Biodiversity for a Sustainable Mountain Future

Carbutt

Thompson

2021

Land

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“…Mountains are rich in natural resources-providing raw materials that support people's livelihoods and underpin the economies of communities and nations [6]. Mountains are also centres of cultural and ethnic diversity, crucial for the survival and sustainability of many human societies, while simultaneously holding significant recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual values [7,8]. Healthy, resilient mountain ecosystems equally buffer natural hazards, mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions via carbon sequestration, and they can serve as early-warning systems of global change [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Decision-Support Tool to Augment Global Mountain Protection and Conservation, including a Case Study from Western Himalaya

Jacobs¹,

Carbutt

Beever

et al. 2023

Land

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Mountains are remarkable storehouses of global biodiversity that provide a broad range of ecosystem services underpinning billions of livelihoods. The world’s network of protected areas includes many iconic mountain landscapes. However, only ca. 19% of mountain areas globally are protected (excluding Antarctica); many mountain areas are inadequately (<30% of their total terrestrial area) or completely unprotected. To support the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Global Biodiversity Framework goal of protecting at least 30% of the world’s lands by 2030, we have developed a strategic decision-support tool for identifying and prioritizing which candidate mountain areas most urgently require protection. To test its efficacy, we applied the tool to the Western Himalaya Case Study Area (WHCSA). The six-step algorithm harnesses multiple datasets including mountain Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), World Terrestrial Ecosystems, Biodiversity Hotspots, and Red List species and ecosystems. It also makes use of other key attributes including opportunities for disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, developing mountain tourism, maintaining elevational gradients and natural ecological corridors, and conserving flagship species. This method resulted in nine categories of potential action—four categories for follow-up action (ranked by order of importance and priority), and five categories requiring no further immediate action (either because countries are inadequately equipped to respond to protection deficits or because their KBAs are deemed adequately protected). An area-based analysis of the WHCSA identified 33 mountain KBAs regarded as inadequately protected, which included 29 inadequately protected World Mountain Ecosystems. All 33 inadequately protected KBAs in the WHCSA are Category A1: first-priority mountain KBAs (located in the Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot in developing countries), requiring the most urgent attention for protection and conservation. Priorities for action can be fine-filtered by regional teams with sufficient local knowledge and country-specific values to finalize lists of priority mountain areas for protection. This rapid assessment tool ensures a repeatable, unbiased, and scientifically credible method for allocating resources and priorities to safeguard the world’s most biodiverse mountain areas facing myriad threats in the Anthropocene.

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The maturation of ecosystem services: Social and policy research expands, but whither biophysically informed valuation?

Chan

Satterfield

2020

People and Nature

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Framing the Human Dimensions of Mountain Systems: Integrating Social Science Paradigms for a Global Network of Mountain Observatories

Cited by 8 publications

References 35 publications

Mountain Watch: How LT(S)ER Is Safeguarding Southern Africa’s People and Biodiversity for a Sustainable Mountain Future

Mountain Watch: How LT(S)ER Is Safeguarding Southern Africa’s People and Biodiversity for a Sustainable Mountain Future

A Decision-Support Tool to Augment Global Mountain Protection and Conservation, including a Case Study from Western Himalaya

The maturation of ecosystem services: Social and policy research expands, but whither biophysically informed valuation?

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