From 3 to 5 October 2016, around 260 mountain actors (researchers, farmers, environmentalists, elected representatives from local and regional authorities, representatives of chambers of commerce and development adeclaration finale bragancagencies) met in Bragança, Portugal during the X European Mountain Convention organised by Euromontana.

Their specific potentials and opportunities of mountain areas need to be considered as much as their challenges. Mountain areas are too diverse to elaborate an integrated European strategy. However, a framework for development strategies in mountain areas can be developed, taking into account the specific challenges and importance of mountain...

Pacific Island countries and territories already face a range of development challenges due to their specific geographic and socio-economic characteristics, and their generally high exposure to natural hazards. The projected changes to the climate of the Pacific Island region over the coming decades present another challenging dimension that the region...

Livestock farming is facing major challenges at a global level due to increasing uncertainty in markets, policies, socio-cultural trends, and the environment. One of the hot topics in research and policy design is to reconcile the sometimes conflicting objectives of delivering both animal products and environmental services. On mountain pastures...

The goal of this film is to provide an overview of herders’ traditional ecological knowledge. The herders interviewed are traditional herders who possess a rich knowledge mostly inherited from the family and previous generations, and tested and adapted during their personal life. This film was made for the Regional Assessment...

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-the-art of the situation in...

Yak is specially adapted to high-altitude environments and is a flagship species for the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. It plays a key role not only in agrobiodiversity conservation and maintaining high-altitude rangeland ecosystems, but also in cultural traditions, livelihood strategies, and all aspects of socioeconomic development in high mountain...

This short film is showing a bit from the daily life on a summer mountain goat farm I Western Norway. It shows a modern and mechanized summer mountain farm with mechanized milking. The milk is preceded and on the farm. The chesse is sold from the farm and delivered to...

A group of coffee farmers in Turrialba, Costa Rica, is successfully exploring diversification options with horticultural food crops. This is being done in collaboration with two vegetable seed banks that allow family farmers to use varieties freely under the multilateral system of FAO´s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for...

Globalisation, climate change, population growth and urbanisation are all having an impact on the world’s agriculture. Through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which accounts for the biggest share of the EU budget, the EU is driving developments in this strategic sector. Latest figures show that farming employs over 20 million...

Nestled at the foot of the Vladeasa Mountains lies Sancraiu, a commune composed of five villages in Transylvania. One of the villages is Alunisu that provides an exquisite example of Romania’s subsistent peasantry. Here, Lars Veraart and Robyn Bors-Veraart set up their farm called Provision, the Transylvania School of Self Sufficient Living, which not only...

Since 1990, in 25 European countries the populations of a group of common farmland birds have been reduced by roughly 25% and in some cases as much as 50%. This decrease in bird numbers along with the wider decrease in biodiversity in the EU is largely related to loss of...

The forest not only supplies the raw material for paper and solid wood products, it also has a great potential for renewable energy production. As the EU designs its energy and climate policy for post-2020, it is essential to consider this remarkable asset. Without a congruent EU bioenergy policy with the...

Fundația ADEPT Transilvania  is listed among the 1.000 worldwide cultural institutions on the Google Cultural Institute, which brings together millions of artifacts from multiple partners, with the stories that bring them to life, in a virtual museum

Various agro-ecological practices have existed in the region, primarily as an alternative to conventional chemical-intensive farming based on Green Revolution prescriptions. These alternatives are often directed at enhancing soil fertility, through organic matter management and water conservation. Throughout Asia and the Pacific, different terms are used for specific practices including:...

USAID/Sweden FARMA II project is the third generation of USAID and Government of Sweden projects focused on the agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Previous projects assisted Bosnia and Herzegovina to increase sales and exports for certain crops and food products within the agricultural sector.

This short report is produced within the frame of the BiodivBalkans project (2012-2016). This project is dedicated to foster rural development in mountainous regions through the construction of Signs of Quality and Origin (SIQO). One of its main outputs was to shed the light on the pastoral and localized livestock...

Mountain people learn, live, love and unite for life – to awaken and search for the treasure within the mountain. By combining our wisdom, we can co-exist and develop to our fullest potential, working towards holistic dignity and sustainability. This initiative involves 1,144 families, mainly concentrated in Mae Win, Mae...

In the Mediterranean, the diversity of production systems and value chains is seen as an asset for sustainability. More than anywhere else, the Mediterranean zone boasts a wide range of sheep and goat farming situations, products and natural resources. This diversity of production systems has provided many different products, shaped...

Based on the success of the 1st edition, the Alpine Convention is organizing the Reading Mountains festival The “Reading Mountains” festival is an opportunity to celebrate the cultural diversity of the Alps – its many languages, different, yet similar cultural heritage and its arts in all shapes and forms. For this...