MRI News
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- Category: MRI News
The MRI Expert Database has served as a useful tool for connection and collaboration for the mountain research community for many years. It comprises thousands of profiles of people involved in mountain research, management, governmental and non-governmental institutions, and the private sector.
The new MRI Expert Database builds on the strong foundations that were already in place, while offering updated features such as improved search functionality and data privacy.
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- Category: MRI News
The Mountain Research Initiative are delighted to welcome Dr. Theresa Tribaldos, who joins the team as a Principal Investigator in order to help guide the MRI's strategic direction.
A very warm welcome to Dr. Theresa Tribaldos, who joins the Mountain Research Initiative team as of 1 September 2021. Dr. Tribaldos will be serving as an MRI Principal Investigator; a group of established academics based in Switzerland who help guide the MRI's strategic direction. We are delighted to have her with us, and very much look forward to her input as we enter the MRI Coordination Office's 21st year.
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- Category: MRI News
The latest issue of the open access journal Mountain Research and Development (MRD), Vol 41, No 2, includes new research by the MRI's Mountain Governance and Mountain Observatories Working Groups.
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- Category: 20 Years of Our Changing Mountains
For over 20 years, the Mountain Legacy Project has been capturing change in Canada’s mountain landscapes through repeat photography. This interactive photo essay offers a glimpse at some of these incredible images and the landscapes of our changing mountains over time.
As the MRI Coordination Office celebrates its 20th anniversary, we also take this opportunity to reflect on our changing mountains past, present, and future, and the role of the research community in both shaping and telling their stories. In this interactive photo essay, Mary Sanseverino of the Mountain Legacy Project shares some of this project's amazing work capturing change in Canada's mountains through the world’s largest collection of systematic high-resolution historic mountain photographs and a vast and growing collection of repeat images.
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What are the main challenges that impede sustainable mountain governance at the local level? Research undertaken by the MRI’s Mountain Governance Working Group seeks to shed light on this important question.
There is growing consensus that securing a sustainable future for our changing mountains requires effective governance. However, the biogeophysical complexity and diversity of mountain social-ecological systems, their vulnerability to climatic and global change processes, their status as commons, and the vital importance of their ecosystem services for people living both in and far from mountains mean that mountains pose a particular set of governance challenges – few of which are well understood. New research conducted by the MRI’s Mountain Governance Working Group and published this month in the journal Mountain Research and Development seeks to address this knowledge gap.
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- Category: MRI Anniversary Lecture
The first Conéctate A+ academic exchange webinar took place this week, helping students in the Andes+ region discover study and scholarship opportunities in Switzerland.
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- Category: MRI News
Conéctate A+, the Cluster of Cooperation (CLOC) in the Tropical Andes and Central America region, initiated its second phase this week. The MRI, CONDESAN, and the University of Zurich (Co-Heads) met with the CLOC's Founding Partners to begin developing a work plan.
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- Category: MRI News
New research undertaken by the MRI Mountain Observatories Working Group identifies both gaps and recent advances in the monitoring of key biophysical and socioeconomic variables in the mountains, and proposes ways to improve and connect existing initiatives – with the ultimate aim of developing a global mountain observatories network. Lead author Maria Shahgedanova explains why making these connections for our changing mountains is so crucial.
Mountains matter. Covering up to 30 percent of the planet’s land surface, mountains are home to between 0.9 and 1.2 billion people, host approximately a quarter of the planet’s biodiversity, and the enormous range of ecosystem services they provide are vital to human well-being. Over half of humanity’s freshwater, for example, originates in the world’s mountains. Unfortunately, mountains are also particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate and other global changes – with significant implications for ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health, safety, and security. In order to meet future challenges and identify appropriate sustainable development pathways, we need to understand the complex biological, social, and physical processes in mountain social-ecological systems.
