Mountain Agriculture and Mountain Forestry Working Group

Chair: Italy

The Mountain Agriculture and Mountain Forestry Working Group was established by the XV Alpine Conference in 2019. The Working Group is aligned with the three priorities of the Alpine Convention’s new Multi-Annual Work Programme 2023-2030: “Conserving and valuing Alpine biodiversity and ecosystems”, “Taking ambitious climate action”, and “Enabling a good quality of life for the people in the Alps”.

In the last few years, the Working Group has contributed to the concrete operationalisation of the Alpine Convention’s Alpine Climate Target System 2050, focusing on climate-friendly mountain agriculture and the sustainable management of mountain forests. Another focus has been on defining new connections and interactions between sustainable mountain agriculture, sustainable management of mountain forests, tourism, and biodiversity in an Alpine context, as well as developing sustainable urban-rural relationships. The Working Group focused on promoting climate-friendly agriculture as defined by the Alpine Climate Board (ACB), developing organic agriculture scenarios for the Alpine region. The Working Group also aimed to analyse and strengthen the sustainable value chains in forestry and farming sectors by involving the relevant actors. A focus was also placed on linkages between mountain farming and forestry and the urban centres.

The current mandate until the XVIII Alpine Conference is based on four fundamental objectives:

• Defining the future role of mountain agriculture in sustainable food systems, also considering livestock.
• Identifying new opportunities for mountain territories in terms of agricultural and forestry productions and management approaches that favour or are already in line with ecological transition and circular economies.
• Understanding which physical, social or demographic risks threaten mountain agriculture and forestry and what actions should be taken.
• Evaluating the introduction of technical and technological innovations in small and medium-sized farms and forest activities targeting a good balance of innovations and traditional practices, an efficient use of inputs, and favouring reduction of greenhouse gases emissions or an increase in GHG sink.

Through a series of technical workshops, the Working Group aims to develop several themes in support of mountain territories: indications on possible policies (objective 1), possible paths for socio-territorial development (objectives 2 and 3), and paths of technical and infrastructural development (objective 4).

Contact:
Giorgio Matteucci (giorgio.matteucci@cnr.it), Institute of BioEconomy (IBE), Italian National Research Council (CNR)
Simonetta Mazzarino (simonetta.mazzarino@unito.it), Department of Economics and Statistics "Cognetti de Martiis", University of Turin