Workshop "Quels indicateurs écosystémiques pour mieux appréhender et gérer les changements globaux en montagne"

By bringing together regional players and researchers in mountain ecosystems in Chamonix for the workshop "What ecosystem indicators to better understand and manage global changes in mountains?" the Research Centre for Alpine Ecosystems (CREA) and the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) have set themselves the goal of creating a space for exchange and dialogue around the issue of biodiversity indicators in mountain environments. In doing so, they responded to a growing need for the co-creation of knowledge between scientists and practitioners and for tri-national cooperation around the Espace Mont-Blanc.
Organized into three thematic groups - forest, tourism, mountain pastures - the 25 participants first co-formulated issues as well as management and research objectives relevant to their group. On the basis of this work and drawing on the concepts of adaptive management presented in the introduction to the workshop, the groups then chose a specific management objective on which to focus and then work to co-develop a first draft of conceptual model of the socio-environmental system in question. The tourism group worked on the issue of carrying capacity and threshold effects in the specific case of the Lac Blanc site in summer, while the forest group focused on optimizing the four functions of mountain forests (productivity, biodiversity, recreation, protection).
At the end of intensive discussions, the participants met in a final plenary session. The latter served as a conclusion and an invitation to continue the dialogue towards a management of mountain territories based on science. This co-creation work should continue on the basis of shared working documents and one-off workshops to consolidate understandings and validate current developments.