The science-policy interface for regional mountain governance

Abstract/Description

The Alpine Convention, established in 1991, is an international treaty aimed at the sustainable development and protection of the Alps. It involves eight Alpine countries along with the European Union and addresses various environmental challenges from a unique transboundary perspective. Its framework convention and Protocols emphasise the importance of scientific research and observation activities to inform policy decisions, and in them, the Contracting Parties commit to cooperate in carrying out research activities and scientific assessments. The convention’s Multi-Annual Work Programme encourages the sharing of Alpine knowledge through ongoing initiatives like the System for the Observation and Information on the Alps, whose aim is to optimise communication on research and observation activities and spread relevant results. These include the Alpine Convention Atlas and the biannual Report on the State of the Alps. To understand how regional governance structures can serve to integrate science into policymaking, the role and use of scientific research and collaboration in the Alpine Convention’s foundations and activities will be reviewed and presented.

Abstract/Description

The Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention, the Andean Mountain Initiative, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Scientific Committee on Research in the Alps (ISCAR), the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), and the ARCOS Network are all committed to bridging the gap between science and policy in regional mountain governance, with each of these organisations bringing its own expertise, scientific knowledge and perspectives on managing mountain ecosystems, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development. As co-conveners of this workshop session, the above organisations intend to present their views and contributions on the science-policy interface for regional mountain governance, with a focus on their ongoing efforts to better integrate scientific research into regional governance frameworks to support better decision-making and the specific research needs of decision makers in mountain regions.

Abstract/Description

International and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) can play an important role in environmental protection by providing collaborative frameworks for governments and other actors to address issues that transcend national borders. International environmental policy instruments such as MEAs could be especially important and relevant in mountains, given their transboundary nature and their role in safeguarding ecosystems and their governance.

Despite their recognized global importance, mountains appear underrepresented in international environmental law or explicitly mentioned in MEAs, such as the Alpine Convention and the Carpathian Convention. Nevertheless, and despite many MEAs existing, few analyses have been conducted that identify if and how MEAs that don’t explicitly mention mountains could have thematic relevance over mountainous territories.

To address this gap, and as a contribution to GEO Mountains, an analysis was conducted by spatializing over 1400 treaties contained in the International Environmental Agreements Database (IEADB) to provide an overview of the extent to which agreements listed in this database directly relate or are relevant to mountainous territories, both spatially and thematically. Following an in-depth text analysis of the treaties, we categorised treaties across three categories: mountain-specific, potentially mountain-relevant, and all others. Agreements counted as “potentially mountain-relevant” do not necessarily mention mountains, explicitly, but which nevertheless can relate to mountainous territories given their thematic scope to issues of relevance to mountains. A spatial dataset representing the coverage of all treaties across these categories was produced. This output enables the visualisation of treaties coverage, which can further facilitate the identification of gaps and opportunities to mainstream efforts and support broader mountain governance goals.

Our results show that while numerous treaties indirectly relate to mountain areas, with only a handful explicitly targeting them, opportunities exist to leverage on the thematic scope of non-mountain specific MEAs and highlight their relevance and application in context. The dataset could be used for further exploration of these opportunities, and many other applications, thereby serving as an important tool for future research or for monitoring and evaluation purposes in the field of international mountain governance.