Links
Global Initiatives
The Convention is an international structure that offers every nation a binding legal document to assist in the conservation and sustainable use of its biodiversity. GMBA became the official major scientific partner of the CBD for the main theme "Mountain Biodiversity" of the 7th Conference of the Parties in 2004.
Future Earth is is a major international research platform providing the knowledge and support to accelerate our transformations to a sustainable world. GMBA is one of the 20 research projects under this umbrella.
IPBES is the intergovernmental body which assesses the state of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services it provides to society, in response to requests from decision makers.
GEO BON is an initiative to improve the acquisition, coordination and delivery of biodiversity observations and related services to users including decision makers and the scientific community
The Catalogue of Life is the most comprehensive and authoritative global index of species currently available. It consists of a single integrated species checklist and taxonomic hierarchy. The Catalogue holds essential information on the names, relationships and distributions of over 1.5 million species. This figure continues to rise as information is compiled from diverse sources around the world.
GBIF is an international non-profit organisation to provide free and universal access to data regarding the world's biodiversity. A wide range of countries and organisations participate in GBIF and have made their data available there.
MoL is a interactive web tool to view species range map, inventory, and occurence data; select locations, filter by distance or group, and view lists of species along with source data; and explore habitat suitability and reserve gaps for various speices. GMBA has provided a mountain filter for the specific query of mountain biodiversity.
CODATA is an interdisciplinary Scientific Committee of the International Council for Science (ICSU). It works to improve the quality, reliability, management and accessibility of data of importance to all fields of science and technology.
MA was an international work programme, active from 2001-2005, designed to meet the needs of decision makers and the public for scientific information concerning the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and options for responding to those changes. GMBA significantly contributed to the chapter on mountains.
Mountain-Specific Global Initiatives
GLORIA is a global network aiming to assess impacts of climate change on high mountain biota. GLORIA has established a site-based network and monitoring carried out with standardized protocol targeting vascular plant, bryophytes, and lichens (on an optional basis).
MIREN aims at understanding the effects of global change on plant invasions and plant biodiversity in mountainous areas by evaluating and quantifying processes and mechanisms shapping mountain plant communities.
MRI promotes and coordinates global change research in mountain regions all over the world by implementing projects that link researchers with diverse disciplinary, geographic and cultural backgrounds to explore areas of mutual interest and define possibilities for common action.
Mountain Forum is a global network of individuals and organisations concerned with the well being of mountain people, their environments and cultures. It seeks to bring lessons and experiences of mountain people into policy discussions at national and international levels with the aim to improve their livelihood and promote the conservation of mountain environments and cultures.
Regional Initiatives
ICIMOD coordinates mountain research and development projects in the eight countries of the Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region and is committed to improving livelihoods of their mountain people.
INBio is a non-governmental organisation in Costa Rica. It gathers data on the country’s biological diversity, advocates its sustainable use and promotes awareness of the value of biodiversity.
The Swiss Biodiversity Forum of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) is the competence center for biodiversity research in Switzerland. Its objective is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity by advocating biodiversity research in Switzerland and making available up-to-date knowledge on biological diversity to conservation practitioners, policy makers, teachers and the public.
ICAS initiates and promotes interdisciplinary and international, national and regional collaboration in the field of alpine research
The goal of RECHALP is to support and encourage interdisciplinary research in fields of natural and social sciences in a priority study area in the Alps of Canton de Vaud (the Alpes Vaudoises).
The goal of COAT is to become the world’s most comprehensive and management relevant long- term research and monitoring enterprise for arc- tic terrestrial ecosystems.
Since 2010 the Tropical Plant Exploration Group (TroPEG) has been exploring the tropical forest vegetation in the Congo Basin block, using plot sample parameters throughout different vegetation types. The group’s main goal is to document the most important and threatened species of plants within the Congo Basin forest block.
Individual projects
In a warming climate the biota of the coldest places on Earth appear particularly threatened. Microclim explores the case of European high-mountains floras and evaluates to which extent microclimatic variation at high elevations may buffer their species against a warming macroclimate.
The Past, Present and Future of Alpine Biomes Worldwide (PPF-Alpine) aims to take a deep dive into the biogeographical history of alpine systems on a global scale and decipher the drivers of present-day alpine biodiversity.
Others
MRD publishes peer-reviewed articles presenting original research on mountain environments and people, sustainable mountain development, and mountain development experiences. Target audiences are the scientific community and policy- and decision-makers.
CDE Its overarching goal is to produce and share knowledge for sustainable development in cooperation with partners in the global North and South. The datablog is a source of inspiration for efficient and elegant data visualization.