Deadline for registration and payment of fees March 15, 2007

This 7th edition of the ForumAlpinum is focusing on mountain landscapes. The choice of this topic is related to the Swiss national research programme “Landscapes and habitats of the Alps” (NRP 48), which started in 2001 and will end in 2007 by presenting results from 35 projects and 5 thematic syntheses. The ForumAlpinum 2007 will integrate results from NRP 48 to debate landscape development in mountain regions.

Mountain landscapes are perceived as sensitive to change and as focal elements in sustaining mountain regions with attractive living spaces and valuable habitats. In terms of ecology, mountain landscapes represent high diversity and high natural integrity (wilderness), and they are part of the services provided by ecosystems – mostly free of charge. From the angle of culture and society, mountain landscapes are both archives of past human activities (cultural landscapes) and objectives for the shaping of activities by today’s (local) populations (developing landscapes). On the economic side, landscapes are resources (tourism) and location factors – but do not appear on the balance sheets of enterprises.

How will and how should future mountain landscapes look? Do we have sufficient scope (options open) to govern and manage landscape development? ForumAlpinum intends to develop perspectives for future landscape-related research and for the governance of landscape change.