RUMRA board member Euromontana, the European Association of Mountain areas, in association with the Mountain Research Centre (CIMO) of the Polytechnic institute of Bragança (IPB) and the Association for the Development of Viticulture in the Douro Region (ADVID) in Portugal are organising the X European Mountain Convention – “Mountains’ vulnerability to climate change: how can people and territories adapt and mitigate its effects?. The event will take place from the 3rd till the 5th October 2016 in Bragança (Portugal).
The European Mountain Convention is the main event in the European political agenda for mountains. Every other year, 300 to 400 delegates from mountain areas across Europe participate, all willing to work together on the sustainable development of mountain areas. They include members and non-members of Euromontana – representatives of local and regional authorities, farmers’ organisations, environmental agencies, and research institutes from the EU as well as Switzerland, Norway and the Balkans.
This edition will be dedicated to climate change. Indeed, mountain areas have difficult climatic and environmental conditions, but mountain people are used to adapting to these. Thanks to their great experience of innovation and adaptation, they have already started to tackle the challenge of climate change. This X European Mountain Convention will present a state-of-play of the situation in mountain areas and of how experience and technical knowledge have been used to provide solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. The focus will be on solutions not only at the policy level, but also at the practitioners’ level, on different issues such as agriculture, forestry, energy, water, biodiversity, transport, tourism and natural hazards.
Thanks to this event, participants will gain a better understanding of the impacts of climate change in mountain areas and have a better overview of integrated strategies for mitigation and adaptation already adopted in different mountain ranges. In addition, they will explore responses/actions of mountain actors to reduce impacts and benefit from opportunities, and facilitate exchange of ideas between mountain stakeholders so that they can compare, improve and transfer good practices, and interesting adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Participants will also have the possibility to develop new contacts with mountain actors from all over Europe and enjoy great field visits in the Portuguese mountains.
Finally, the X European Mountain Convention will be followed by the First International Conference on Research for Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions on Ecosystem Services that will take place from the 5th to the 7th October in Bragança (Portugal). Both events are combined to promote sustainable development in mountains, based on science, knowledge and innovation, under the name “Mountains 2016”.
For more information and registration, please have a look at Euromontana’s website or directly at the website of the Mountains 2016 events