The Mountains Biome Blog
Ideas, information, issues, and alerts from the IUCN-WCPA Mountains Biome
Health Benefits of The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative - Australia
Linda McMillan
One of the world’s most ambitious and visionary conservation plans — to establish a conservation corridor spanning 2,800 km of the Great Eastern Ranges — has been shown to be critical for the long term health of the nation in a major study by leading Australian researchers.
The report by Professor Brendan Mackey, Dr James Watson and Dr Graeme Worboys of ANU Enterprise, examines the scientific evidence for a continental scale, “conservation corridor” focused on the Great Eastern Ranges which runs the length of the eastern seaboard from the Australian Alps in Victoria as far north as the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland... [download full text of the Press Release]
Information on Cycling the Silk Road
To promote value of Transboundary Conservation and Connectivity Conservation, our energetic and undaunted Mountains Network member Kate Harris and her partner Mel Yule plan to cycle the length of Asia's Silk Route in 2011. Last year they cycled Marco Polo's route through western China. Along the route, Kate and Mel will pause to study these six existing or potential Transborder Protected Areas...
Natural Solutions: Protected Areas helping people cope with Climate Change
A product of the PACT 2020 partnership, called "Natural Solutions: Protected Areas helping people cope with Climate Change" was just released at a news conference at the Copenhagen Climate Summit...
Potential Mining Threat to New Zealand Protected Areas
Our WCPA Mountain Biome’s team is reacting to potential mining activities in Mount Aspiring National Park and other NZ protected areas. Correspondence has been sent to the New Zealand Prime Minister and others...
K2's glacier comes clean
The Italian NGO Ev-K2-CNR is famous for studying and protecting the world's highest alpine environments. This year they accomplished a massive "clean up" of the Baltoro Glacier at the base of K2 in Pakistan. Here you can read their report (in Italian). plus an English translation of the report, courtesy of Sara Sottocornola of Montagna.org...
Clarifying Connectivity
Dr. Graeme Worboys has alerted us that our Mountains Protected Areas Network member Gary Tabor -- Director of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation in Bozeman, Montana -- has co-authored a terminology guide and very informative article about landscape fragmentation and connectivity conservation in the July/August 2009 newsletter for Landscope America: Clarifying the Terminology and Connectivity 101
Important new publication on Mountain Biodiversity and Climate Change
An important new public interest book relating to linking landscapes, transboundary connectivity conservation, and climate change is now available in hard copy and online from ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development). This valuable and visually-stunning book, Mountain Biodiversity and Climate Change, was developed from the presentations and other contributions made at the International Mountain Biodiversity Conference in November 2008 at the ICIMOD headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal. Several of our Mountains Biome Network members attended the conference and contributed material for this book.
MOUNTAINS BIOME SYMPOSIUM AT WILD9 - Large Landscape, Connectivity Conservation and Climate Change
Invitation from Harvey Locke, Mountains Biome Network -- Please join the IUCN Mountains Biome team for a 3-day symposium "Large Landscape, Connectivity Conservation and Climate Change" November 10-12, 2009 as part of the ninth World Wilderness Congress (http://wild9.org) in Merida, Mexico...
Could you outrun a glacial lake outburst flood? Everest region uses the answer for climate change education
The massive task of understanding and responding effectively to climate change can be crucial for peoples’ physical, economic, and cultural survival. But how can people with few resources tackle a task that large? During two days of events in June 2009, the innovative people of the Khumbu (Everest region) of Nepal showed the world how leveraging their special place and culture has helped them to start this task by making it educational, exciting, inclusive, and downright fun...
CALL FOR PAPERS -- Mountain session at the World Forestry Congress
As The XIII World Forestry Congress (WFC) will take place in Buenos Aires (Argentina) from 18-23 October 2009. A session on mountains has been recently approved and included in the Congress Programme, and will take place on Friday 23 October. The session will last 1.5 hours and will be in addition to the two mountain side events being organized, one by the Argentinean Committee for Mountains and the other by CONDESAN, which will focus on the Mountain Partnership at global and Andean levels respectively. Also, in the context of the “Forests and Water” sessions, an entire slot will be devoted to watershed management. The new session on mountains will be inserted shortly in the official programme under section 3: “Forests in the service of people”.