Through the walk-in research laboratory Alpine Community Economies Lab, which is based in the train station of Rovereto (Trentino, IT), I mobilise my expertise in design-led civic participation and feminist economic geography to support local actors in the creation of economies that have both people and the environment at their core.

To do so, on the one hand, I collaborate on already existing civic initiatives, such as La Foresta – Accademia di Comunità, a co-managed hub for the contamination between civic actors and public administration, and Comunità Frizzante, a project that fosters social inclusion and a connection to the territory by producing fizzy drinks with local flavors through participatory activities throughout all production, retail and re-investment processes. Here I explore issues of (trans)local scale and the connection to more-than-human inhabitants of the valley district where these projects unfold.

On the other hand, with research-through-design activities, I explore how virtuous collaborations between local and translocal change makers can be fostered in order to create practices of alpine commons that are up to date with today’s needs and desires.

The Alpine Community Economies Lab is running over two years, funded via a Marie Curie Fellowship, but aims at establishing itself also beyond this time span.

The 21st century is marked by a tension between an unprecedented commodification of nature and a global awareness of the “finitude” of resources (Bridge, 2009). The “commodity race” to ensure access to and control of raw materials (Magrin, 2013) allows the operation of diffuse deposits previously unprofitable (Deshaies, 2005). It also encourages the development of new policies of resources diversification: non-conventional hydrocarbons or energy transition models help to reduce the dependency to one kind of commodity. In Latin America, the Andes are privileged territories for large-scale extractive activities. Situated at the margins of national States, lithium deposits in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile acquire a new centrality when considering extractive processes and flows generated (resources, investment, research) weaving global links. Identified as the ‘resource of the future’, lithium provokes the reconfiguration of power relations between stakeholders and the emergence of new territorialities. In Argentina and Chile, lithium is perceived by public servants as a mere but profitable commodity, exploited by foreign companies without transforming the local patterns of development (Fornillo, 2018). On the contrary, in Bolivia, the biggest possessor of this mineral reserves, the national government focuses for a decade on ways to develop a new industrialisation process based on the resource to locally produce and export ion-lithium batteries for the Global North, replacing both Bolivia and these territories at the centre of national and global relations (idem). But the local transformations and the global energy transition policies start raising concerns. Its capacity to generate a local hub of development that benefits to local populations, during and after the resource boom; or the non-disorganisation of socio-ecological relations in an arid climate territory, the availability of water and the existence of those salty desert landscapes, where many inhabitants depend on for agricultural and pastoral patterns and tourism activities is questioned.

The poster aims at presenting an investigation in progress. It will focus on the complexity of the energy transition, which, beyond its justification as a vital part of the response to global change, reveals enormous contrasts between the logics operating in raw material-extraction territories and territories transitioning towards new ways of producing energy. These contrasts raise the question of how this transition, enacted mostly in the Global North by moving from carbon-based energy production to a more sustainable system, impacts extractive regions, mostly in the Global South, where perceptions of the environment, resources and territorial organisation are underlain by other values. The project focuses on mountain territories because they represent an ideal of “Nature” that environmental protection and energy transition polices are intended to preserve, but they are also particularly vulnerable to the effects of global change. Hence, it is essential to confront this idealised view of mountains with the reality experienced by mountain regions where the minerals, metals and rare earths needed for new energy technologies are mined, with all that implies in terms of societal breakdown, the “denaturing” of indigenous landscapes and irreversible environmental damage. It will then focus on the raw materials needed for the energy transition, rather than just society’s ability to adapt by adjusting to technical solutions and by taking a fresh look at the resource-transition nexus with respect to the territorial trajectories of European versus Latin American mountain socio-ecosystems.

Highland in Thailand is located in mountainous regions covering 53% of twenty provinces in the North and West. The mountains originate major water towers serving the nation and more than 1 million ethnic farmers has lived in upstream mountains. The mountain people is the poorest defined by cash income (972 U$/household/year) and food accessibility. Income disparities has been derived by spatial, social and resources access. Located in highly remote area discourages public service access. Harsh conditions of sloping complex and climatic conditions drops off agricultural productivity. Recent government proclamation of protected areas in mountains has limited farmland size and rights.

Highland Research and Development Institute (HRDI), public-funded organization has adopted area approach research and development in mountains since 2005. Realizing diverse elevation, micro-climate, economy and ethnic groups, the study reveals different capital and driving forces in five agro-ecological zones in mountains classified by dominant land use in agriculture; agroforestry, opium poppy cultivation, terracing paddy rice, emerged maize cultivation in sloping land and dry zone.

Food security and income generation interventions has been collectively designed with local people, relevant ministry and private sectors. Collective livelihood assessment includs physical, economic, natural resources, human and social capital. The agro-ecosystem analysis reveals the zone properties; productivity of food and economic crops/husbandry, stability of price, market and pest/disease outbreak, environmental-friendly production and equity of stakeholders. Disclosed assets and properties has brought priority list of research questions and extension program that meet genuine needs of local people.

The study affirms that mountain development in Thailand must comply with agro-ecological zone and embrace three parties partnership; public, local people and private sectors. Participatory process with local people and stakeholders facilitates joint assessment, decision making, engagement and claim of results. Despite of favourable result, income and social equity of mountain people in Thailand has been still in challenges.

Much attention is given to the serious challenges facing mountain peoples in contexts of climatic, social-ecological and demographic transformations. Our study explores how local mountain communities from around the world are confronting their challenges, with particular attention to the governance arrangements and actors that support or impede sustainability and local development. Drawing on in-depth case studies and a recent survey of interdisciplinary researchers working in different mountainous regions, we examine promising local efforts and successes as well as shortcomings and obstacles for mountain system governance and development. Our work is informed by theories of environmental governance, social-ecological systems approaches, and research on collective action, which point to the capacity of local groups and communities – in certain circumstances -- to organize collaboratively, draw on local knowledge, and form alliances to address shared problems. We pay close attention to the specific characteristics of local and regional governance that shape outcomes for sustainability, and emergent patterns and practices that may have broader implications and applications for sustainable governance and human well-being in mountain social-ecological systems.

My research explores human-environment interactions through a transdisciplinary approach focused primarily on mountainous regions. My approach encompasses environmental and economic anthropology, social-ecological systems, environmental governance, political ecology, and participatory research. For the most part, I study the Latin American experience, especially Mesoamerica and Andean countries. My current projects address community-based forest and water management, coffee production and value chains, interactions between people and protected areas, governance of common-pool resources, adaptation to climate change, sustainability, globalization, and belief systems.

Recognizing the importance of forests for delivering environmental services, Nepal made great achievements in the area of community forestry and participatory conservation. There are, however, still vast forest areas in a poor condition due to unsustainable management practices. Against this background, a consortium of Universities and other institutions from Nepal and Austria have started a Carbon Offset Initiative in the Gaurishankar Conservation Area with a scheduled project duration of 25 years. Besides the main target of carbon offset, the initiative aims at a better understanding of social and economic implications of clean development mechanism projects and its effects on ecosystem services. The consortium focusses on strengthening involvement of community people whose livelihood and daily activities are linked with forest, and the services and resources generated from the forest they manage. Project activities are based on participatory decision making. We introduced the project in facilitated Mobilisation, Motivation & Mutual Learning Events and community members described their land use related demands and experiences with previous interventions by NGOs and governmental institutions. They expressed opinions on ecosystem status, formulated expectations and made suggestions for interventions. In parallel, students investigated social and economic status and resilience (sustainable livelyhoods framework) and land use effects on plant species diversity, forest structure and carbon stocks. As regeneration of important native tree species was missing, a follow up study on their regeneration ecology was conducted. A study on transformative learning is on the way. Implementation is a slow process: A nursery was established with project and governmental funds, supported by labour resources of the communities. Main products will be fodder trees to be planted on farm, and native forest species to be used for afforestation and enrichment planting. Training courses on forest operations and wildfire management were well received. Frequent presence of project team members is a premise for project success.

Community based forest management and its long-term effects upon ecosystem services and Livelihoods resilience – A series of MSc studies in a carbon offset initiative in the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, Nepal

Urmila Tamang, Niko Eidenmüller, Owen Bradley, Jokin Idioate, Lauren Dietemann

In the social-economical part of the study the livelihoods of the two communities are compared regarding their resilience with a special emphasis on the impact of the recent earthquakes in 2015. One community (Bulungkhani) which had support from a development cooperation project for more than 20 years starting at the beginning of the 1980’s is compared with a neighbouring community (Ladhuk) which did not participate in the described activities. The research method is based on the “sustainable livelihoods framework” which was developed on the basis of the sustainable livelihoods concept by Robert Chambers and Gordon Conway in 1991. In the natural science part of the study compares the communities/VDC’s with respect to biomass and soil carbon stocks and stock changes and biodiversity. After pre-stratification of the area (Pine plantations & natural (mostly intensively utilized) forest, grazing land and agriculture), inventories of biomass and soil have been conducted at representative plots. Subsistence hill agriculture is widely practise in the mid hill areas of Nepal, which creates a big dependence and pressure on the forests, and on Quercus semecarpifolia and Q. lanata species in particular. These species have an important provisioning service value due to their capacity of supplying fodder, leaf litter, firewood and timber. They are however being overexploited and moreover, Q. semecarpifolia forests are facing an imminent threat due their failure to regenerate. A botany study has successfully summarized the overall status of floristic diversity and vegetation pattern in different land use types in the community managed forests of Former Laduk and Bulung. Participatory NRM development projects operate within complex and dynamic systems, this presents many unique challenges. In order to creat long-lasting, transformative social change towards sustainability, projects must orient their activities to integrate educational aspects. By integrating theories of leverage points and transformative learning during the implementation phase, participatory NRM development projects can improve their project activities and catalyze a transformation to sustainability.

In many European countries, as Norway, Austria and Italy, a long-term decline in population and employment is observed in rural areas, particularly in mountain areas. The issue has received much attention from strategy and policy points of view. An increased focus on local resilience and “smart-thinking” is proposed. “Smart thinking” may be understood as developing measures to counteract the decline in population and development, i.e. by taking advantage of increasing global trends, as tourism by a use of local resources. Of particular interest is the role of municipal planning as a means for growth and “smart thinking”, because planning is supposed to consider a broad range of interests, including environmental issues.

Some mountain municipalities have managed to turn the spiral of decline to a spiral of growth, by linking to the global trend of tourism, by the means of municipal spatial development planning and efforts. Taking advantage of local resources, including cultural and material, and being aware of potential environmental problems has been important to develop the growth. Although a local focus on environmental issues has been a prerequisite for development, their growth strategy has been so successful that they now face environmental challenges. It is also reason to question a tourism strategy based on massive tourism transport, which is potentially problematic to the climate. This paper discusses the issue particularly related to the municipality of Aurland, a mountain and fiord community at the west coast, which managed to place their fiords on the IUCN world heritage list. This has caused environmental engagement from the Parliament, which has decided that transport in those fjords are supposed to be based on zero emissions. Electrical ferries are introduced, but it is also the question on how electricity is produced. Maybe it is just an offset of environmental problems

Mountain municipalities cover about 40 per cent of the total area in Norway, but have only just more than 5 per cent of the inhabitants. Norway holds about 90 per cent of the remaining wild reindeer population in Europe. Dovrefjell, a large mountain in the center of Southern Norway represents the origin of the entire reindeer population. Different other interests at Dovrefjell, both concerning industry, recreation and transport, are more or less conflicting. A large part of Dovrefjell is protected according the Nature Diversity Act. We find numerous planning and management initiatives in the Dovrefjell area. It ranges from the population-based management of the wild reindeer stock according to the Wildlife Act, to several area-based planning regulations, like the land-use part of the municipal master plans and different types of regional plans for Dovrefjell according to the Planning and Building Act, and different protected area plans according to the Nature Diversity Act. A greater extent of decentralization of nature management from national to local level and a more dynamic approach to
integrate use and protection, have generated multi-level management approaches and a landscape-scale response to protected area challenges which consider issues that cross the boards between the protected and the adjacent areas. Dominating planning approach based on instrumental and communicative rationality is suggested supplemented by agonistic approaches to more consider conflicts as legitimate and normal. Inspired by the garbage can model of decision making, common arenas could be organized to facilitate planning processes. The purpose of this paper is to examine different land-use planning and management
processes at Dovrefjell the last decades performed in the light of conflicting
interests and common arenas and to discuss how land-use planning and management approaches in Dovrefjell might be improved.

Development and building of second homes is one of the most important environmental and economic issues in the mountain areas within the recreational hinterland of Oslo, Norway. The most obvious, and debated, environmental issue connected to this development is land use, and its potential consequences for biodiversity and climate change, and for landscape aesthetics and access to recreation and leisure for both locals and visitors. Problems of displacement etc. which characterise many other regions with second homes, is more or less absent in these mountain areas as the local settlements are located down in the valleys while the second home agglomerations is located at the mountain plateaus.

In the region of Gudbrandsdalen (12 municipalities) several of the municipalities now have more second homes than homes, and where second homeowners thus owns land and a house in these municipalities. Facing this situation, these municipalities have worked together the last four years on how to find new and innovative ways to cooperate and include these growing, and often powerful, group of new “part-time residents”, as they have been called in this work, in local planning and development (together with other actors and citizen groups). I have been following this work and have both contributed to the knowledge base for the project, and participated as an “action researcher” through the whole process. I can contribute in this workshop with the experience I have from this work, especially how the local municipalities are considering how they can facilitate and institutionalize arenas for a more direct dialogue and collaboration, while still balancing it to the traditional governance structure connected to the established representative local democracy.

The recent need for energy storage opportunities (e.g. electromobility) has led to a strong increase in worldwide lithium demand. As the world's major lithium resevoirs are located in the South American so-called lithium triangle, the area is experiencing a highly dynamic phase of resource exploration and exploitation. While the business-friendly mining legislation in Argentina is strongly attracting international investments, enormous expectations are generated within the local population. In this context, in my dissertation I am dealing with the social-ecological impacts of lithium mining in Jujuy Province, Northwest Argentina. From a political ecological perspective, I focus on the regional (Global) Production Network of lithium, examining the distribution of power and value among actors as well as possible socio-environmental conflicts associated with lithium mining.

In my poster, I want to present and discuss a first outline of Jujuy's regional lithium production network. Applying the concept of Global Production Networks (GPN), I examine how a highly globalized resource is spatialized and materialized in the regional context. Thereby, I will highlight the distribution of power and value among different actors of the network.

Tourism has become part of development strategies in Georgia and Armenia, aiming to revitalize mountain areas, which are facing rural exodus and anemic economic structures.

Association Agreements between EU-Georgia (2014) and EU–Armenia (2018) promote Community-Based Tourism (CBT) as an important field of socio-economic development facilitating cooperation among all stakeholders. The agreements emphasize the inclusion of local communities, preservation of cultural heritage, and positive interaction between tourism and the environment.

This study aims to describe the current state of CBT in Georgia and Armenia, the acceptance and interpretation of the concept, and to identify the challenges hindering implementation of CBT projects. The results provide the foundation for a more holistic study of CBT projects for the Caucasus region and for providing guidelines for the implementation.

This research employs the case study methodology including the analysis of policy documents; semi-directed interviews with tourism and rural development authorities, civil society organizations, entrepreneurs and the local community, and three focus group discussions in Tsagveri, Stepantsminda (Georgia) and Dilijan (Armenia).

While CBT is endorsed as a tool for sustainable development, and more specifically for the inclusion of rural communities, it also often yields mitigated results, essentially as a result of inconsistencies during implementation. This study revealed similar gaps and patterns in the application of CBT projects in Georgia and Armenia, such as external intervention, a deficit in capacity and skills at the local level and shortage of time for the mobilization of the local stakeholders. It also demonstrated the link between the low participation of the local community, the lack of informed policies and discrepancies in project management.

 

In the 1970s, the only ski resort existing in Galicia was developed and opened in the summit area of the Manzaneda Massif (Cabeza Grande de Manzaneda being its highest peak at 1,781 m). Since its origins, it has received strong media attention because of its controversial nature, including collective dismissals, business failures and contentious investments (currently, the purchase of snow-guns to make artificial snow, which challenges, further still, the sustainability of the complex). However, the Manzaneda ski resort is the main activity of the local economy of the mountainous region where it is located, characterised by low densities, depopulation, ageing and a sinking economy.

Its operations are highly seasonal, as the resort has not succeeded in working properly in other seasons than winter. In addition, the comparatively low altitude where it is located and, apparently, the effects of climate change have meant that snow is increasingly absent across most of the winter season. Besides, the public sector has kept a strong role in the management of the ski resort, permanently under pressure to close down, and has even gone so far as to buy the company that manages the complex.

The aim of this paper is to question the ambiguous local development and sustainability implications of this ski resort. The agency in charge of the ski resort holds low levels of accountability (for instance, data on demand is not available). For this reason, this research has developed interviews with stakeholders in order to gain a better understanding of what is at stake in this tourist attraction.

Today, peripheral rural areas in mountain regions are indispensable to achieve global and national conservation goals or a post-carbon transition. Simultaneously they struggle for quality of life and economic development. Biosphere Reserves have the ambition to overcome this dichotomy of environmental protection and regional development e.g. by fostering and upscaling (social) innovations within their World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

For the last couple of years, I studied innovations resp. innovative firms and projects as well as initiatives (grassroots movements, charities, community interest groups etc) in Biosphere Reserves in Europe; in rural mountain regions as well as in urban environments. With different Social Network approaches I was explicitly interested in how they are stimulated and embedded –or not – in practice by the Biosphere Reserve. I found that innovations in the peripheral regions are multi-level arrangements where the Biosphere Reserves (1) provide platforms for new ideas and needs, (2) foster the development, funding and diffusion of products or services and (3) act as gatekeepers between actors of different areas and spatial scales.

I therefore conclude that the role of the Biosphere Reserve in the two regions goes far beyond the protection of nature. They are social innovations themselves, which support the co-production of knowledge and learning. However, if UNESCO's Man and Biosphere program truly wants to have an impact on sustainability transitions, the integration of local actors and their projects into their WNBR has to be their top priority for the future.

I contribute to this workshop with the conceptual underpinnings and experience of these projects. Especially, the role of intermediaries and multi-level interactions as well as of Biosphere Reserves as transition arenas can be valuable for the participants of the workshop.

My area of interest lies in natural resource management and the science-policy-practice interface of sustainable development including climate change adaptation, capacity building of local institutions towards resilience and social upliftment. Since 2011, I have been involved in development and implementation of conservation and sustainable livelihood programmes in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering Bhutan, China and Myanmar and, a part of the Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot. Community stewardship for conservation has been an important factor and basis for conservation action and protection of crucial ecosystems and wildlife habitat in the region.

One such ecosystem is the High-altitude Wetlands (HAWs) in the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau which play crucial roles in hosting unique biodiversity, wildlife habitat and socioeconomic aspects besides their hydrological significance in water storage and formation of major river in Southeast Asia namely the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong, Amu Darya, Hilmand, Yangtze, and Yellow River. During my research in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, it was evident that the high-altitude wetlands play a significant role in the ecological and socio-cultural but need much attention in terms of management to reduce impacts of climate change, unplanned infrastructure development and problem of waste. Currently, I am involved in developing adaptation strategies for the conservation and management of high-altitude wetlands in the state by analysing the management status, policies, scientific evidence and local knowledge in the region. The outcome of the developed strategies is expected to be integrated in the state climate adaptation plan.