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Our vision and approach

Our vision of mountain areas

Our mountains are territories with a future and opportunities for Europe

plitwitz-67175_1280We assert that mountains are distinctive areas of Europe, because of their altitude, their slopes, their population density, their challenges and their opportunities, and consequently should be addressed specifically.

We call for public and private investment in these areas. The return on investment might indeed be longer in these areas than in urban areas or lowlands, but the investment itself will undeniably be more sustainable.

 

We are proud of our strengths

Mountain territories have numerous assets on which they can build their development :

  • mountain-bike-55368_1280The quality of life of mountain populations :
    an intense community life, a privileged living environment, very rich culture, traditions and heritage ;
  • The positive image of mountain areas ;
  • Rare, preserved and renewable resources (air, forest, water)  ;
  • The production of goods and services : tourism, handcrafts, agriculture, industry ;
  • Efficient factors of production : human capital, natural resources capital (space, water, air, timber); business partnerships (clusters…) ;
  • Conditions for sustainable production : respect for the environment, preserved biodiversity, landscape management, innovative management of natural resources ;
  • Modern and often dynamic governance; natural ‘handicaps’ have always been a source of imagination, and territorial innovation is more developed in the mountains than elsewhere; hence these innovations have often inspired those living in other areas.

 

Weaknesses to overcome

icy-channel-962_1920(1)Mountain people must however confront specific and heavy constraints, that they must turn into opportunities to meet the challenge of sustainable development :

  • Problems of remoteness and accessibility : lack of services, lack of knowledge and skills, sometimes difficult relationships between residents and non-residents; infrastructures that, in some cases, remain to be developed ;
  • Problems related to competition in sustaining both economic activities and the environment ;
  • Sparseness of businesses, size of businesses, and difficulty in passing them on to younger generations;
  • Sparseness of population; difficulty of reaching the critical mass necessary to provide services of general interest ; low attractiveness of seasonal jobs (low and precarious income) ;
  • Constraints on agricultural activity due to soils and climate ; difficult access to land ;
  • Mountain specificities are not sufficiently integrated in regional, national and European policies.

 

Our approach

Our action respects some fundamental principles

To always be consistent with the concept of sustainable development:

Euromontana’s proposals will always seek to put forward the three pillars of sustainable development:

  1. environmental,
  2. social,
  3. economic.

 

To promote quality :

In order to bring added value, our mountains must play the card of quality : quality of life but also quality of products and projects. Euromontana’s proposals will systematically ensure that quality is promoted, especially through marks of quality.

 

To operate as a network :

Each project will be carried out by several organizations with a leader responsible for implementation and reporting to the Board of Directors. Communities of shared interests will be created to better analyse problems and to design solutions, building on the collective intelligence and solidarity among mountain populations.

 

To use new technological tools :

The physical distance between Euromontana’s members is a constraint to our efficiency. Hence we will use new technologies to communicate and work on a day-to-day basis: this will be our first contribution to minimizing energy expenditures. However, human contacts will never be replaced by technologies and each member organization will commit to participating in at least one event every year (seminar, colloquium, general assembly, conference).

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Euromontana sur Facebook

2 weeks ago

Euromontana
This morning we were at the first 🇪🇺 EU CAP Network Thematic Group on Forest-Dominant Rural Areas and Municipalities!🌲A key issue in the mountains for:🪵 local wood chains🌱 unique biodiversity🔥 forest fires, which we are currently addressing with Fire-ResElena Feo (Euromontana) shared the outputs of her group: The need to take a multi-actor approach, which is under-represented compared to agriculture 👥Forestry should be integrated in the innovation system #AKIS 🤔Find out more: bit.ly/tg1forest ... See MoreSee Less
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2 weeks ago

Euromontana
🆕 FIRE-RES published its first deliverable!It goes through the lessons learned from Extreme Wildfires and creates a common basis for action to improve resilience to fire 🔥🌲 Check it out! ⤵fire-res.eu/fire-res-publishes-its-first-deliverable-on-lessons-learned-on-extreme-wildfire-events/Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya, CTFC Instituto Superior de Agronomia CEF - Centro de Estudos Florestais CEABN InBIO European Forest Institute (EFI) Tecnosylva Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου Ειδικός Κονδυλίων Έρευνας Πανεπιστημίου Αιγαίου CoLAB ForestWISE INRAE Cnrs.fr Tiems Escola Nacional de Bombeiros Euromontana Wageningen University & Research Agenzia Regionale Forestas VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research NIBIO Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa Institut i Geològic de Catalunya CONAF INESC TEC Spire Global TESAF Dipartimento Territorio e Sistemi Agro-Forestali UNIPD Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil Corma Chile ... See MoreSee Less
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2 weeks ago

Euromontana
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3 weeks ago

Euromontana
Women matter for our mountains! 💪🌄 They are professors, project leaders, researchers, heads of policy units, directors or presidents of associations ➡️ Discover 13 testimonies from women who make a change in their territory in this booklet co-produced with Moving - Mountain Valorisation through Interconnectedness and Green Growth for the 11 December!📗 Read now: www.euromontana.org/en/women-move-europes-mountains-a-booklet-to-celebrate-mountains-women/ ... See MoreSee Less
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Euromontana sur Twitter

Today is #WorldWaterDay! Freshwater from mountains is fundamental for achieving global food security, as it is used by farmers to irrigate crops in many lowland agricultural regions. #MountainsMatter

https://t.co/OCdnyhl5y4

📢Attention everyone! 🎉Our first @YouTube video is now live!🎥 Check out highlights from RUSTIK's Pilot Region Kick-off event, where we had our first in-person knowledge exchange, training, and networking event with partners from the 14 Pilot Regions https://t.co/85Y89WO1PA

🌳 #Forests provide us with many ecosystem services & contribute to our well-being! But forest health and #resilience must be a priority in the face of climate change! ☀️🌡

Discover our actions for fire resilient forests ⬇
https://t.co/gUAiNvwobV

#IntlForestDay #WorldForestDay

Happy International Day of Forests! Protecting #mountain forests and making sure they are carefully managed is an important step towards sustainable mountain development. #MountainsMatter

@FAOForestry

https://t.co/OCdnyhl5y4

Our @MOVINGH2020 workshop on sustainable mountain tourism concluded with a lunch of delicious #localfood...but (much to our delight🙂) the discussions just kept going! Would the last person to leave please turn the lights off #horizon2020 #ecotourism #carpathians #mountainsmatter

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