Conserving and restoring mountain landscape functions is an important focus of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030. With MRD Talk #06, we aim to contribute to this global effort. An MRD author and three other panelists will present their experiences of how different types of knowledge can support evidence-informed restoration of mountain landscapes for resilient mountain communities. Based on these insights, the panelists will explore with the audience how such transformative knowledge is best generated, shared, and put into action.
Estefanía Quenta will offer insights into a UNEP-commissioned analysis of mountain restoration activities and how they contribute to the principles of the UN Decade. Tatenda Lemann will share experiences from the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies, a global network on sustainable land management, and show how use of its knowledge base supports restoration and sustainable land management in mountains. MRD author Devin Holterman will present a social science research agenda that was developed with a view to better informing conservation and restoration efforts within the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative in North America. And Rob Marchant will emphasize the role of evidence-informed policies in mountain ecosystem restoration based on his collaborative research efforts in the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania. These inputs will be followed by a discussion among all participants on how knowledge can be effectively leveraged to support the conservation and restoration of mountain ecosystems for the benefit of mountain communities.
Register by 5 December 2023
RegisterPresenters
Estefanía Quenta
Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia | Mountain Partnership Secretariat FAO and UNEP
Estefanía Quenta
Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia | Mountain Partnership Secretariat FAO and UNEP
Estefanía Quenta is a research associate at the Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia. She holds a PhD in freshwater ecology. Her research focuses on understanding the responses of Andean mountain freshwater ecosystems to climate-related impacts, such as glacier retreat and warming. Moreover, she is an active member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and involved in outreach activities to raise awareness on the importance of mountains as main water resources and also to support science culture in Bolivia. Recently, she has worked for FAO and UNEP conducting an analysis of mountain restoration activities in the context of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030.
Tatenda Lemann
WOCAT Executive Team | Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Switzerland
Tatenda Lemann
WOCAT Executive Team | Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Switzerland
Tatenda Lemann is a senior research scientist at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Switzerland, and member of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) Executive Team. He holds a PhD in geography and sustainable development, which he earned with research on the impact of changing climate and land use/land management on drainage ratios, land degradation, and sedimentation in the Ethiopian Highlands. He specializes in water resources management, soil and water conservation, sustainable land management, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. He leads various WOCAT-related projects and is involved in several Horizon 2020 projects.
Devin Holterman
Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative | University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Devin Holterman
Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative | University of Northern British Columbia, Canada
Devin Holterman is a postdoctoral fellow leading a collaborative research project between the University of Northern British Columbia and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) that looks to explore and develop the conservation social sciences across the Yellowstone to Yukon region. An emerging expert in the field, Devin has worked over the past two years to grow a social science network and help identify key research priorities throughout the region. His goal is to mobilize social science research to inform effective decision-making. He has worked with several not-for-profit groups around the world and publishes on a range of topics, including the political, economic, and ecological dynamics of biodiversity conservation and the resource extraction industries.
Rob Marchant
Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, United Kingdom
Rob Marchant
Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, United Kingdom
Rob Marchant is a Professor of Tropical Ecology at the University of York. His research and teaching interests focus on ecosystems and how they change. He uses paleoecology, vegetation modelling, and archeological, biogeographical, and ecological data to determine the role of past events in shaping present-day tropical ecosystems. With much of his research focusing on East African mountains, he has developed close collaborations with numerous university, NGO, UN, and government institutions in the region. He is a member of the Mountain Research Initiative’s Science Leadership Council. Rob strives to enhance opportunity and build collaborations, innovations, and impact to support the development agenda and deal with the challenges around changing climate and their impact on our ecosystems and societies, particularly across African mountains.
Moderators
Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel
Associate Editor, Mountain Research and Development | Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Switzerland
Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel
Associate Editor, Mountain Research and Development | Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Switzerland
Sarah-Lan Mathez-Stiefel is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development and Environment of the University of Bern and Special Advisor to the Wyss Academy for Nature. She has 20 years of experience working in the field of sustainable development in Latin America, Eastern Africa, and the Mediterranean. She holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Bern and did a postdoc at World Agroforestry (ICRAF). She has also been active in the NGO sector, first as Executive Director and then Board Member of A Rocha Peru. She is President of the International Society of Ethnobiology and serves as a Trustee of the Global Diversity Foundation and A Rocha Portugal. She has been Associate Editor of Mountain Research and Development since 2016.
Resources
Featured MRD article
Other resources
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Union for the Conservation of Nature Commission on Ecosystem Management, Society for Ecological Restoration. 2021. Principles for Ecosystem Restoration to Guide the United Nations Decade 2021–2030. Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- Parisi F, Lee Y, Bitsch J, Schmoeker G, Quenta Herrera E, Wang J, Hofer T, Marchant R, Chettri N, Liniger H. 2022. Ecosystem Restoration in the Mountains. Policy Brief. Kathmandu, Nepal: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and Mountain Partnership Secretariat.
- WOCAT – the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (Website)
- Critchley W, Harari N, Mekdaschi-Studer R. 2021. Restoring Life to the Land: The Role of Sustainable Land Management in Ecosystem Restoration. Bonn, Germany and Bern, Switzerland: UNCCD and WOCAT.
- Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. 2023. Understanding the human perspective: Key to successful conservation from Yellowstone to Yukon. News and Updates: Science. Canmore, Canada: Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
- UN Environment Programme, GRID-Arendal, Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment, Mountain Research Initiative. 2021. Indicators for Elevating Mountains in the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Policy Brief. Arendal, Norway: GRID-Arendal.
- Cuni-Sanchez A, Sullivan MJP, Platts PJ, Lewis SL, Marchant R, Imani G, Hubau W, Abiem I, Adhikari H, Alrecht T, et al. 2021. High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests. Nature 596:536–542.
- Thorn JPR, Klein JA, Steger C, Hopping KA, Capitani C, Tucker CM, Nolin AW, Reid RS, Seidl R, Chitale VS, Marchant R. 2020. A systematic review of participatory scenario planning to envision mountain social-ecological systems futures. Ecology and Society 25(3):6.
