Adaptation At Altitude, an MRI flagship activity, officially launched Mountains Connect, a new online source of information about transboundary mountain governance. The project promotes interregional knowledge exchange and experiences for collective action in mountain regions.

As the impacts of the climate crisis in mountains are felt across borders - answers and adaptation efforts should be transboundary. Mountains Connect explores insights on seven dimensions of mountain range governance (MRG): territoriality, institutional formality, sectoral integration, vertical coordination, civil society participation, science-policy interface, funding arrangements across eight mountain regions: Alps, Andes, Carpathians, Caucasus, Central Asia, East Africa, Hindu Kush Himalayas, and the Pyrenees. Each MRG section features a regional profile, governance dimension, video overview, and links to additional resources.  

“We’re excited to see this project come to life." We hope that learning about the various approaches for collaboration and joint decision-making can inspire and support regional mountain governance around the world.” Jörg Balsiger, Mountains Connect Principal Investigator.

Watch the Mountains Connect workshop video on interregional exchange.

The launch of Mountains Connect is particularly special as 2022 is the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development. This project contributes explicitly to increasing awareness of the importance of transboundary collaboration for sustainable mountain development.

Mountains Connect is carried out by the University of Geneva’s Research Hub for Environmental Governance and Territorial Development at the Institute for Environmental Sciences, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme. The website is part of the Adaptation at Altitude (A@A) collaborative programme launched and supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

Visit the Mountains Connect website


Cover image courtesy of Mountains Connect.

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