Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA)

New book: Safeguarding Mountain Social-Ecological Systems

Safeguarding Mountain Ecosystems: A Global Challenge provides an overview of the relevant research in mountain regions worldwide, identifying existing challenges and providing an understanding of the diversity of mountain ecosystems in different regions. Mountain ecosystems are increasingly vulnerable to modified climate conditions and other global changes (demographic, migration, urbanization). In this time of change, efforts for sustainable development in mountain ecosystems deserve all the attention, especially in synergy with the United Nations’ International Frameworks, including the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement, and the New Urban Agenda.Sections underline the importance of mountain regions for humanity at global, regional and local scales, describe the challenges of safeguarding mountains and possible solutions worldwide, and scrutinize regional specificities of the major mountain ranges, describing the challenges and opportunities of each. Final sections reflect on applications and technologies that address and solve major problems

New book: Illustrated flora of Alborz Mountain Range (Iran)

The Irano-Anatolian region is a global biodiversity hotspot harbouring an enormous number of plant species and a high proportion of endemics. Alborz is one of the richest mountain ranges of this region with more than 3,600 vascular plant species. Close to 20 years research experience on the flora and vegetation types of this mountain range and adjacent regions gave the authors the opportunity to photograph the plant species of the area and to illustrate them. In this book, a total of 1,584 vascular plant species of Alborz mountain range in 647 genera and 117 families are presented.

MRD Call for papers: Woodland Resurgence and Sustainability in Mountains—Patterns, Drivers, and Social-Ecological Consequences

What drives woodland resurgence in mountain areas, and how can it best benefit local communities and ecosystems? Mountain Research and Development invites systematic assessments of innovative interventions or action research, empirical studies and meta-analyses on trends, drivers, and consequences, as well as review-based agendas for research, policies, or action. Notices of intent are due by 8 January, full papers by 15 April 2024. Read more...

New book: Climate Change on Mountains

This book by Olivier Dangles presents an interdisciplinary and sensitive approach to the question of the ecological effects of climate change, with the tropical mountains as a study region. Find out more...

Canadian Mountain Assessment: now published!

The Canadian Mountain Assessment is a groundbreaking work of knowledge co-creation that showcases the diversity and significance of mountain areas in Canada, clarifies challenges and opportunities facing mountain systems, and will inform and inspire future mountain-focused research, policy, and action. Read more...

Africa has its first alpine and transboundary long-term socioecological research platform

The austrotemperate alpine system of southern Africa’s Maloti–Drakensberg is the only alpine system south of Mount Kilimanjaro, making it unique on the continent. With a difference in elevation of only 300–600 m and characterized by an undulating Gondwanan mature erosional land surface plateau around 2865–3500 masl, it is threatened by unsustainable land uses and climate change. To better understand these challenges, the Afromontane Research Unit of the University of the Free State, South Africa, is setting up the 1200 km2 Mont Aux-Sources Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) platform. It is the first alpine-focused, long-term monitoring protocol implemented in the Maloti–Drakensberg. Straddling the border between South Africa and Lesotho, it is also the only alpine and transboundary LTSER area in Africa. Read more...

MRD Talk #06 | How Can Knowledge Support Restoration and Conservation of Mountain Ecosystems for the Benefit of People and Nature?

Conserving and restoring mountain landscape functions is an important focus of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030. With MRD Talk #06, we aim to contribute to this global effort. An MRD author and three other panelists will present their experiences of how different types of knowledge can support evidence-informed restoration of mountain landscapes for resilient mountain communities. Based on these insights, the panelists will explore with the audience how such transformative knowledge is best generated, shared, and put into action. 06 December 2023, 17:00 CET on Zoom. Read more and register...

AlpWeek 2024: Alps in our hands

The next AlpWeek will take place in September 2024 in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Under the theme of "Alps in our hands", the Alpine Convention will look at the last 20 years of Alpine development and discuss how to shape the next 20 ones. Stay tuned...

Centennial Celebration and Congress of the International Union of Soil Sciences: call for abstracts

Centennial Celebration and Congress of the International Union of Soil Sciences will take place in Florence, Italy, May 19-21, 2024. The event will also empower the linkages with different disciplines, policy makers, stakeholders, institutions, and associations to effectively address civil society needs within agriculture, forestry, environment, urban planning, energy, education, and other societal issues. A special session on mountain soil biodiversity will collect research, best practices, and success stories on mountain soils. Read more and submit your abstract by 15 January 2024...

PECS-3: Pathways to Sustainability - Save the date

The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society, the Resilience Alliance, and NSERC ResNet invite the world’s foremost thinkers and advocates of place-based social-ecological scholarship to PECS3 in Montreal Canada (12-15 August 2024) to share ideas on how to transform sustainable development to better contend with the challenges of the Anthropocene informed by issues and solutions in multiple knowledges and values. Save the date and stay tuned...

ForumAlpinum 2024: The Alps - A Refuge of Bio- and Geodiversity? - Call for contributions open!

ForumAlpinum 2024 titled "The Alps – a Refuge of Bio- and Geodiversity?" will take place 12 - 14 June, 2024 in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. It will focus on biodiversity and geodiversity that are under severe threat - worldwide and especially in sensitive ecosystems like the Alps. This ForumAlpinum will identify hotspots of bio- and geodiversity, their monitoring and management in the Alps, analyse land use conflicts and their impact on bio- and geodiversity, and assess the relevance of bio- and geodiversity protection in the regional, national or international context to discuss possible solutions. Submit your abstracts until 24 November and stay tuned...

International Biogeography Society 11th Biennial Conference 2024

The 11th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society will be held at at the Prague Congress Center in Prague, Czechia, from January 7-11th, 2024! Register as an early bird by November 15 and stay tuned ...

New GMBA publication - Subnational biodiversity reporting metrics for mountain ecosystems

Biodiversity indicators are used to assess progress towards conservation and sustainability goals. However, the spatial scales, methods and assumptions of the underlying reporting metrics can affect the provided information. Using mountain ecosystems as an example, we compare biodiversity protection at subnational scale using the site-based approach of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG indicator 15.4.1) with an area-based approach compatible with the targets of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Read more...

Global Land Program Open Science Meeting 2024 - Save the date

The GLP is thrilled to announce that it will hold its 5th Open Science Meeting “Pathways to sustainable and just land systems” from 4-8 November 2024 in Oaxaca, Mexico. Save the date for this 3-day conference plus associated workshops and field trips. Stay tuned with GLP updates...

Southern African Mountain Conference 2025: save the date

The next Southern African Mountain Conference is schedule for 17-20 March 2025 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Save the date!

Mountain Research and Development Vol 43, No 2 available online and open access

Articles show how newcomers help preserve the cultural landscape in the European Alps, discuss the implications of a post-pandemic increase in visitors to the Swiss National Park, investigate Italian mountain farmers’ attitudes to herd protection, propose an agenda for integrated, transdisciplinary monitoring to improve the management of Andean social–ecological systems, and present a transformative citizen science project in a Swiss mountain valley. Read more...

Podcast: Soils in Mountain Systems

Podcast on soils in mountain systems by GMBA mountain soil biodiversity working group leader Julia Seeber. Listen...

Call for papers for MRD’s MountainDevelopment and MountainAgenda sections

Mountain Research and Development (MRD) invites submissions focusing on transformation knowledge and target knowledge. How can we solve problems and tap opportunities for greater sustainability? Articles in the MountainDevelopment section should offer validated insights from development interventions, local practices, and policy efforts. And: What sustainable development do we want? Articles in the MountainAgenda section should systematically review—and conclude with agendas for—research, development, or policy. Submissions are welcome anytime. Read more...

GMBA Mountain Inventory v2.0 now released

The new GMBA inventory of the world’s mountains for global comparative mountain science is now released and available for unrestricted download and use. This new release introduces a hierarchical classification of the >8600 inventoried mountain ranges of the world, which allows for the partitioning of mountain systems into smaller ranges and subranges and enables spatially explicit and comparative mountain research across scales. The clearly defined, globally consistent and hierarchical nature of this new inventory offers a standardized resource for referencing and addressing mountains across science, policy, communication, and education. Read more...

Release of a new version of the USGS Global Mountain Explorer

June 2021, USGS releases the second version of the Global Mountain Explorer (GME) developed in partnership with GMBA, the Center for Development and Environment, the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), and ESRI. This tool was developed to provide a detailed view of the world's mountains according to the three most commonly used definitions of mountains. Important: in this new version, two of the three original layers have been replaced following the discovery that data handling in preparing the first version increased their global coverage of mountains considerably. More information is available in the release note online. Access the GME....

Policy Brief: Indicators for Elevating Mountains in the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Today, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), GRID-Arendal (GRIDA), Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA), and the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) released a key policy input highlighting the indicators considered the most effective important for safeguarding mountain biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. The document provides also rationale for adoption of such indicators at multiple levels and suggests additional indicators for further considerations. Read more...

Alpine Plant Life - New edition

Fresh out of the press: the third edition of Christian Körner's seminal book "Alpine Plant Life - Functional Plant Ecology of High Mountain Ecosystems"! This 500 page volume has been largely rewritten and greatly expanded since the last version that appeared in 2003. This is a must read for students and professionals alike, freely accessible via University Springer links. Read more...

Swiss Academy of Sciences Factsheet on Biodiversity and the SDGs

The new factsheet "Achieving the SDGs with Biodiversity" by the Swiss Biodiversity Forum (SCNAT) and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN Switzerland) shows the contribution biodiversity for each SDG. The authors, including GMBA, conclude, among other things, that biodiversity should be mainstreamed into all policy areas.

Compendium of EO contributions to the SDG Targets and Indicators

The objective of the Compendium of EO contributions to the SDG Targets and Indicators was to conduct an in-depth review of the relevance of satellite observations to the SDG Targets and Indicators, and more specifically to analyse how these observations can be embedded in the computational methods of the SDG indicators and be fitted into national statistical systems for monitoring progress on SDGs. It illustrates how satellite observations can directly or indirectly support SDG indicators, and how countries can set and plan their SDG targets using EO-based support tools.

GMBA editorial in Mountain Research and Development - Focus Issue: Mountain Biodiversity and Sustainable Development

This short editorial sets the stage for an ongoing Focus Issue on Mountain Biodiversity and Sustainable Development in Mountain Research and Development. Read more...

New GMBA publication: mountain biodiversity and sustainable development

In this commentary, we first illustrate the importance and challenges of safeguarding healthy mountain ecosystems. We then outline how integrated strategies that enable transformative changes across socio-economic sectors and segments of society can place well-conserved mountain biodiversity at the core of a just, equitable, and sustainable world. Read more...

New GMBA publication: nature and people in mountains

In this paper we applied the IPBES conceptual framework to assess and compare the contents of 631 abstracts on the interactions among biodiversity, ecosystem services, human wellbeing, and drivers of change and formulate a set of research recommendations. Read more...

Infographics for International Mountain Day

In preparation of International Mountain Day we have collaborated with the Mountain Partnership to develop an infographic on why mountain biodiversity matters. This is for unrestricted use and we encourage you to disseminate it widely. Access and download...

New GMBA publication: Endemism in island-like systems – Are true islands and sky islands alike?

Endemism in island-like systems – Are true islands and sky islands alike? To answer this question, Suzette Flantua and co-authors reviewed the theoretical concept of isolation and asked themselves what it means to be isolated and what relevance it has for species in mountains and islands. Their conclusions are published today in Global Ecology and Biogeography. Read more...

Wildflower App celebrates Beauty of Sagarmatha National Park

Wildflowers of Mount Everest is the first-ever wildflower identification app for Nepal. The richly illustrated app includes 557 species of wildflowers, shrubs, and trees and is meant for anybody who wants to identify or learn about plants in the Mount Everest region. Read more...

New GMBA publication on past changes in the diversity of mountain species

Mountains host a spectacular diversity of species. Yet current species distribution is only a snapshot in time that bears the memory of past geomorphological and climatic changes. Understanding past changes is key to interpret current patterns and inform mountain biodiversity conservation and management in the future. Read more about it in a short GMBA co-authored contribution in the latest issue of the PAGES magazine. Read more...

Policy Brief: Elevating Mountains in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework 2.0

Today, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), GRID-Arendal (GRIDA), Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA), Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), Mountain Partnership, Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention, Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, Government of Austria, Government of Hungary, and Government of Poland are convening country delegates attending the Second meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework in Rome to an informal mountain gathering. This gathering will serve as the occasion to launch the second version of the Policy Brief "Elevating Mountains in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework 2.0" co-developed by UNEP, GRIDA, GMBA, and MRI. Read more...

New GMBA publication on biodiversity monitoring, species distribution models and remote sensing

GMBA working group on species distribution models & remote sensing publishes in Remote Sensing of Environment on Monitoring biodiversity in the Anthropocene using remote sensing in species distribution models. The paper first surveys the literature on remote sensing data products available to ecological modelers interested in improving predictions of species range dynamics under global change. Focus is on key biophysical processes underlying the distribution of species in the Anthropocene including climate variability, changes in land cover, and disturbances. The paper then discusses potential synergies between the ecological modeling and remote sensing communities. Specific attention is given to how synergies could lead to new opportunities to report on progress towards global agendas - such as the Agenda 2030 or the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and help guide conservation and management strategies. Get free access to the paper for another until early March...

10 New Insights on Climate Change 2019

UNFCCC’s Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa officially receives “10 New Insights in Climate Science” as it is launched at COP25, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain. These Insights are a collaborative product of Future Earth and the Earth League. Insight 3 "Climate change leaves no mountain summit behind" is co-authored by GMBA and MRI. Read more...

GMBA Sponsored workshop on the contribution of Long-Term Social Ecological Research to global conventions and agendas

On October 02-04, 2019, 22 experts from science and policy got together in the botanical garden of Champex-Lac (Switzerland) to discuss the contribution of Long-Term Social Ecological Research (LTSER) in mountains to global agendas and conventions. The objective of the workshop was to deliver a synthetic overview of how mountain LTSER currently support global policy agendas and UN conventions and how their contribution could be improved and strengthened in the future. Read more...

Mountain Portal: new online data uploader

It is now possible to upload occurrence as well as inventory data directly online! Map of Life’s online tool is designed to help you easily load your biodiversity data to the Map of Life and Mountain Portal database, map them, compare and integrate them with other datasets, set permissions to share them publicly for use in other platforms, and publish them with a minted DOI. Try the tool with your own data!

PEGASuS blog

Future Earth posted a blog that we wrote about our PEGASuS Project entitled "Toward biodiversity-related opportunities for sustainable development: a global social-ecological mountain comparison". Enjoy the read...

GMBA database search tool: online in beta version!

An important role for GMBA is to connect mountain biodiversity scientists. For that purpose, we have developed an online tool for the query of our database of members. The beta version is now online! Check it out!

The Mountain Partnership's new Indigenous Mountain Peoples Database is online!

During the past months, the Mountain Partnership Secretariat (MPS) in close collaboration with GMBA has developed an interactive webportal for the query and visualization of information about indigenous mountain communities worldwide. Read more...

Release of the new USGS Global Mountain Explorer

On 24.10.2017 USGS releases the Global Mountain Explorer developed in partnership with GMBA, the Center for Development and Environment, the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), and ESRI. This tool was developed to provide a detailed view of the world's mountains according to the three most commonly used definitions of mountains. With this product, MRI, who led the effort, achieves the first objective of the Group on Earth Observations - Global Network for Observation and Information in Mountain Environments (GEO-GNOME) work program. Read the full press release...

Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment Mountain Portal V2.0

The Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) and Map of Life (MOL) launch the Mountain Portal V2.0, now with more data and an improved user experience to the mountain biodiversity science community.

Alpandino - Free online course on the principles of alpine plant ecology and treeline ecology

Alpandino (https://www.alpandino.org) is an e-learning course on alpine ecology developed by the University of Basel. The course contains lectures on various aspects of alpine ecology, including climate, microclimate, water issues, and soils, and also offers a photo-excursion to alpine habitats and treeline locations around the globe.
This course is a great entry point for a diverse audience, ranging from alpine zoologists and microbiologists to conservation experts and nature reserve managers. It serves also as an ideal preparation for field excursions or field weeks with students.
The course is available in English and Spanish.