Stakeholder role-playing workshop

Mountain areas are not only spaces for nature, but also for people. The European Alps are the most extensively development mountain areas in the world, where its people rely on the supply of ecosystem services for safety, livelihood, and basic materials (i.e. timber, clean water, fertile soil). Under climate change, we expect the supply of ecosystem services to change and the adaptation of the human systems in response will dictate the resilience of the social-ecological system. However, with many stakeholder groups acting and managing within a single space, responses and decision-making can be highly complex. The high concentration of ecosystem service use can lead to conflict between groups.

Under drought conditions, which are expected to increase in frequency and intensity in the future, systems experience low supply but constant demand for fresh water. To understand how a situation like this could play out, we will take on the roles of different stakeholder groups and advocate for their wants and needs.