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Climate Change Research in Scotland

Friday 13 May 2011, Battleby, Perth

 Call for Speakers and Poster Presentations

 A one day seminar for researchers and climate change professionals, with workshops, posters and networking.

 The aim is to improve co-ordination of research and highlight research outputs to policy makers and other professionals.

 Speakers are invited for any of the following four themes in climate change research:

• Drivers and Pressures
• State of the Environment and Impacts
• Responses
• Communicating Research.

• Economics
• Environment
• Society

Interested? Please contact Clive Bowman and Adean Lutton, email:

 ClimateConnections@perth.uhi.ac.uk.

Managing Alpine Future II
“Inspire and drive sustainable mountain regions”

24 February 2011

The second international conference “Managing Alpine Future II” will be organised by alpS in Innsbruck (21-23 November 2011) and will be co-hosted by the University of Innsbruck and the Institute for Mountain Research: Man and Environment of the Austrian Academy of Science.
Successful adaptation to the challenges of global climate change and its effect on complex human-environment systems in mountain regions necessitates effective cooperation and exchange of international scientists, experts and practitioners. MAF II will again provide an ideal platform of global span and interdisciplinary scope.

Call for Abstracts: Deadline 1. March 2011

For further information, registration and submission of abstracts please go to www.alpinefuture.com

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Centre for Mountain Studies staff awarded £5000 for research 
 

Jayne Glass and Rob Mc Morran (Centre for Mountain Studies) have been

awarded a £5000 Innovation Voucher by the Scottish Funding Council to carry out a sustainability assessment of four community-owned estates in the Highlands and Islands. 

Working in partnership with the North Harris Trust, the Knoydart Foundation, the Assynt Foundation and Stòras Uibhist over the next few months, the two researchers will provide the four estates with robust evidence on how the management of these estates contributes to wider sustainability goals.

The sustainability assessment will be carried out using the ‘Opportunities for Sustainable Estates Toolkit’, which was developed by land management stakeholders between 2008 and 2010, and facilitated by Jayne Glass as part of her PhD research at the Centre for Mountain Studies.

The research forms part of the wider ‘Sustainable Estates for the 21st Century’ project, which has been studying a range of topics concerning estate management in Scotland’s uplands.

New module on Sustainable Deer Management to be available soon!
 

20 January 2011

 

A new module on Sustainable Deer Management will be available on the Managing Sustainable Mountain Development and Managing Sustainable Rural Development MSc streams and for continuing professional development (CPD) very soon!

 

Deer management represents a key issue within sustainable land management and rural development generally in Scotland. In recent decades a move away from management of deer solely for sporting purposes has occurred on many estates in Scotland – incorporating a switch in emphasis from one of maintaining high deer densities and managing deer separately to forestry towards considerably lowering deer densities and managing deer in a more integrated way which follows an ‘ecosystem management’ or ‘sustainable deer management’ perspective. In conjunction with this changing emphasis a new postgraduate module is under development at the Centre for Mountain Studies on sustainable deer management. This module will address the multiple facets of sustainable deer management within a sustainable rural development context, aiming to unite both the sporting and commercial elements of deer management and the environmental or conservation-based approaches to deer management evident in the Scottish Highlands. The new module offers an exciting opportunity for those wishing to learn about applied deer management in Scotland, as well as achieving academic recognition for those already practising sustainable deer management.

 

The module will be available through the existing UHI MSc streams ‘Managing Sustainable Mountain Development’ and ‘Managing Sustainable Rural Development’, as well as being available as a standalone module for those wishing to take the course as part of their continuing professional development (CPD). The module will be designed to complement existing qualifications in gamekeeping and wildlife management available through UHI’s North Highland College in Thurso. The development of the module is to be led by Dr Rob Mc Morran and supported by a collaborative team, which include representatives from North Highland College, the John Muir Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland. The input of the private sector is also being sought through the Association of Deer Management Groups and other bodies. The module is planned as running for the first time as a CPD module and as an optional module on existing MSc streams either in Semester 1 (From September 2011) or 2 (From January 2012) of the 2011-2012 academic year. A finalised module descriptor will be available on the MSc page of the CMS website very soon. Watch this space!

 

 If you have any further queries on this module contact Rob Mc Morran at:
Robert.mcmorran@perth.uhi.ac.uk

Phone: 01738 877757/0131 6299852 

 

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10th Anniversary Celebration of the
Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI 

Colin Prior, one of the world’s leading outdoor photographers, is presenting 'Mountains of Inspiration’ at Perth Concert Hall on Wednesday 19 January at 7.30pm. Colin has established an international reputation as a freelance professional photographer, with his critically acclaimed images including many panoramic scenes from mountain ranges around the world.

Other speakers at the event include Perth College UHI Principal, Dr Thomas Moore, and Dr John Francis, Vice Chair of the UK National Commission for UNESCO Scotland. Tickets cost £8 (£5 for Perth College UHI staff and students and Royal Scottish Geographical Society members), and are available from Horsecross. Call 01738 621031 or visit www.horsecross.co.uk.

Please click here for the anniversary poster.

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Post Legislative Scrutiny of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 

 
1 October 2010 

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Europe's ecological backbone: recognising the true value of our mountains

20 September 2010

In 2003/2004, Prof Martin Price - Director of the Centre for Mountain Studies -  was the scientific coordinator of the first major integrated study on Europe's mountains, commissioned by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional Policy.

Since then, there has been a considerable increase in the availability of European-level data which can be analysed to present the current situation in the continent's mountain areas. In this context, from 2008 to 2010, he coordinated an integrated assessment of Europe's mountains for the European Environment Agency in cooperation with the European Topic Centre for Land Use and Spatial Information (ETC-LUSI).

The report, "Europe's ecological backbone: recognising the true value of our mountains" provides a comprehensive integrated assessment of the current status of, and trends relating to, the environment and sustainable development of the mountains of Europe, in order to inform the implementation and development of relevant policies. 

The report can be found here.

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International conference: ‘Global Change and the World's Mountains’
Perth, Scotland, 26-30 September 2010

The international conference  organised by the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development at the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI, in collaboration with the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), a joint project of the International Human Dimensions of Global Change Programme (IHDP) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation is expecting 460 participants from 59 countries.

The conference aims to bring together leading scientists and others working in, and concerned with, mountain areas around the world in order to:

• present, evaluate and synthesise progress in our understanding of global change in mountain regions since 2005;

• evaluate progress with regard to the implementation and impacts of the GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy;

• work proactively on a global agenda for research and action relating to global change and mountain regions, taking into consideration global assessment and policy processes, such as those relating to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as the consideration of mountains by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 2012, 20 years after the Rio Earth Summit.

For further information and updates about the conference, please visit the conference website.

We look forward to seeing you in Perth!

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Jayne Glass - Research Student of the Year at UHI

14 July 2010 

CMS PhD student Jayne Glass has been named the research student of the year at UHI, the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands.

For more details about Jayne and her work please click here.

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Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the Cairngorms National Park Authority started at CMS

 01 July 2010 

The CMS has started a short Knowledge Transfer Partnership in collaboration with the Cairngorms National Park and with support from the Scottish Government.  

The main goal of the Partnership is to engage recent and ongoing research with practitioners, communities, landowners and other stakeholders in the Park Area and set up a process for knowledge transfer from knowledge providers (researchers) to users on the ground. We are planning to achieve this through setting up a web-presence for knowledge transfer, improve available materials (on web) on research activities, active institutions, stakeholders, organise a public event to engage and link research and practice in the Park and support the Park Authority in preparing their new Management Plan.

For more information on this project and how you can participate please click here or contact our Knowledge Exchange Associate, Catalina Munteanu.

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Professor Martin Price wins teaching award for Most Innovative Lecturer

28 May 2010 

   CMS Director, Martin Price has been voted  most innovative lecturer by UHI (University of the Highlands and Islands) students for teaching the MSc online Module Managing Sustainable Mountain Development on environmental and societal issues in mountain areas.

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The Centre for Mountain Studies Annual Report 2009 is now available!

(please click the related link on the right to view the report)

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CMS PhD student joins IUCN peatland research team

31 March 2010

 

Jayne Glass, member of the Sustainable Estates for the 21st Century team, is joining a prestigious group of academics in conducting a technical review of policy measures for the sustainable management of UK peatlands.  Commissioned by the IUCN UK Peatland Programme and the Relu Programme, the research is led by the University of Aberdeen and will draw on widespread research on peatland conservation in order to produce robust guidelines for policymakers on how to secure the long-term future of these habitats.

Jayne’s own PhD research has enabled the development of a toolkit for monitoring sustainable management processes on upland estates in Scotland, designed with a representative panel of estate practitioners, researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders. She will assist the peatlands research project as a co-author inputting sustainable management options and information on the differing sustainability perceptions of upland stakeholders.

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Global change, including a wide range of inter-connected processes ranging from global climate change to economic globalisation, disproportionately affects mountain areas and the billions of people who depend on them for their livelihoods and for various goods and services.  Mountain systems are particularly fragile, and subject to both natural and anthropogenic drivers of change.  These range from volcanic and seismic events and flooding to global climate change and the loss of vegetation and soils because of inappropriate agricultural and forestry practices and extractive industries.  Thus, many mountain ecosystems are moving along trajectories that couple high rates of environmental change with strong economic changes.  The collective effect may be to alter the ability of these ecosystems to provide critical goods and services to both mountain and lowland people.

In October 2005, many of these issues were addressed in the Open Science Conference of the GLOCHAMORE (Global Change and Mountain Regions) project, funded principally by the EU 6th Framework Programme, with further support from UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme, which took place in Perth, Scotland.  The event was organised by the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI in collaboration with the other GLOCHAMORE project partners, and was attended by 210 people from 41 countries.  Published outcomes included the GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy, the proceedings, and a number of special issues of peer-reviewed journals.

Five years later, ‘Global Change and the World’s Mountains’ is being organised by:

• the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development at the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College UHI, in collaboration with
• the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), a joint project of the International Human Dimensions of Global Change Programme (IHDP) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The conference is also endorsed by the Global Land Project of the IGBP and IHDP, UNESCO’s MAB programme, and the Commission on Mountain Response to Global Change of the International Geographical Union.

Conference aims

To bring together leading scientists and others working in, and concerned with, mountain areas around the world in order to:

• present, evaluate and synthesise progress in our understanding of global change in mountain regions since 2005;

• evaluate progress with regard to the implementation and impacts of the GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy;

• work proactively on a global agenda for research and action relating to global change and mountain regions, taking into consideration global assessment and policy processes, such as those relating to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as the consideration of mountains by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 2012, 20 years after the Rio Earth Summit.

Registration/Funding

Please click here for information on registration.

For further information and updates about the conference, please visit the conference website.

Conference Supporters