News

Mountain Research and Development, Volume 31, Issue 4 available online and open access

05.12.2011

The “energy crisis” has been defined as one of the key issues of a “green economy” and is therefore on the agenda of the Earth Summit Rio +20. This issue of MRD is the third in 10 years that is devoted to sustainable production and use of energy in mountain areas (see also MRD 26.2 and MRD 21.1). It aims at contributing to the debate about how mountains are affected by the global energy crisis and whether the crisis might offer opportunities for mountain communities. The 6 papers devoted to the energy theme in this issue—1 MountainDevelopment, 3 MountainResearch, and 2 MountainNotes papers—cover a broad range of topics, thus reflecting the multidimensional challenge that mountain communities face today in light of the global energy crisis. The papers also highlight the need for a comprehensive understanding of the human–energy–environment nexus and for approaches that take into account the increasing connectedness between the energy situation at the local, national, and global levels. Apart from these papers on the ‘‘global energy crisis,’’ this issue of MRD contains several other articles dealing with issues of relevance to mountains and mountain communities.