“Southern African Mountains – Overcoming Boundaries and Barriers”

About

Building on the highly successful 1st Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022), SAMC2025, to be held at the Champagne Sports Resort in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains, from the 17th to 20th March 2025, is organised by the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU – University of the Free State) in partnership with the African Mountain Research Foundation (AMRF), and Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS – United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, and Eurac Research).

Focusing on mountains in the southern African region, SAMC2025 will be a fully face-to-face event, bringing together academics, researchers, early career professionals, practitioners, policymakers, postgraduate students and government officials, amongst others, to engage and exchange experiences, research findings, problem-solve and foster partnerships toward the transboundary and transdisciplinary sustainability of southern African mountains.

Postgraduate And Early Career Researcher’s Summit

A first comprehensive Student and Early Career Academic’s Summit will be held as a capacity development add-on to contribute to strengthening the southern African mountain community of practice and help grow the pipeline of future research expertise.

Originally planned as a post-conference event (21 March), it has been decided to shift it to a mid-week event (Wednesday 19 March), to minimise costs to participants, and allow them to start enjoying the long weekend which starts on 21 March.

Possible topics to be presented and discussed are:

• How to get your paper published (a training session with the editors of Mountain Research and Development)
• Grant writing
• Communication and public engagement (including policy & advocacy)
• Crafting a winning resumé
• Early career challenges
• Alternatives to academic careers
• Engaged scholarship
• Teamworking, collaboration and networks

Cost: R750

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to learn from those who have been there, and to network with plenty of potential colleagues. If you are interested in participating or contributing, please indicate on your registration form or contact the SAMC2025 Conference Secretariat (secretariat@samc.africa). We hope to see you there at what is going to be a fun, interactive session!

MRI Activities at the SAMC2025

MRI Co-PI Theresa Tribaldos, along with Associate Editor of Mountain Research and Development Susanne Wymann von Dach, will host a special event at the SAMC2025 called “How to get your mountain paper published: A Training session with the editors of Mountain Research and Development.” Publishing in peer-reviewed journals is essential for researchers to share their findings, but navigating the peer-review process can be challenging. This session will provide practical tips for submitting to journals and responding to reviewers, and presents an opportunity to gain insights from an editor’s perspective and improve scientific writing. Junior researchers are especially encouraged to attend. This event takes place on 19 March 2025 as part of the “Postgraduate and Early Career Summit” section.

MRI Science Leadership Council (SLC) Member and “Mountain Social-Ecological Futures” Working Group Co-Lead Rob Marchant will also be in attendance, hosting three presentations:

• “African Mountains are Underrepresented in Adaptation Science: A Systematic Review” (17 March 2025)
• “The Role of Diverse Farming Systems for Supporting Sustainable Mountain Development” (18 March 2025)
• “Transformation Pathways for African Montane Forest Carbon Stores: Potential, Pitfalls, and Possibilities” (20 March 2025)

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 Cover image by Tim Johnson.