Building up and sharing knowledge for better decision making on soil and water conservation in a changing mountain environment - the WOCAT experience

For successful implementation of any soil and water conservation (SWC) or sustainable land management practice, it is essential to have a proper understanding of the natural and human environment in which these practices are applied. This understanding should be based on comprehensive information concerning the application of the technologies and not solely on the technological details. The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) is documenting and evaluating SWC practices worldwide, following a standardised methodology that facilitates exchange and comparison of experiences. Notwithstanding this standardisation, WOCAT allows flexible use of its outputs, adapted to different users and different environments. WOCAT offers a valuable tool for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of SWC practices and their potential for application in other areas. Besides collecting a wealth of information, gaps in available information are also exposed, showing the need for more research in those fields. Several key issues for development- oriented research have been identified and are being addressed in collaboration with a research programme for mitigating syndromes of global change.

The Tajik Pamirs: Challenges of sustainable development in an isolated mountain region

Promoting sustainable development in the high mountain region of the Tajik Pamirs is a great challenge in political, economic, social, and ecological terms. The Pamirs, along with other mountain regions in the former Soviet Union, have been particularly affected by economic and political transition after 1991. Using an innovative apporach, the Pamir Strategy Project (PSP) supported stakeholders in their search of solutions an in developing strategies to address the manifold problems they face in their mountain region. The project also contributed to the development of methodological approaches for other mountain regions. The present publication provides a summary of the outcomes of the PSP. It portrays life in the Pamirs, along with development challenges and options, and presents practical an participatory approaches that can lead to sustainable mountain development. In addition, this publication outlines the lessons learnt within the PSP by presenting and evaluationg methods and apporaches such as participatory villages studies, multi-level stakeholder workshops for strategy development, knowledge generation processes, and Geographic Information Systmes as decision support tools for sustainable mountain development.

The challenge of applying Geographic Information Systems to Sustainable Mountain Development

In recent years, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have increasingly been used in a wide array of application contexts for development cooperation in lowlands and mountain areas. When used for planning, implementation, and monitoring, GIS is a versatile and highly efficient tool, particularly in mountain areas characterized by great spatial diversity and inaccessibility. However, the establishment and application of GIS in mountain regions generally presents considerable technical challenges. Moreover, it is necessary to address specific institutional and organizational issues regarding implementation.

Rapid responses of high-mountain vegetation to early Holocene environmental changes in the Swiss Alps

1 The Early Holocene sediment of a lake at tree line (Gouillé Rion, 2343 m a.s.l.) in the Swiss Central Alps was sampled for plant macrofossils. Thin (0.5 cm) slices, representing time intervals of c. 50 years each from 11 800 to 7800 cal. year bp, were analysed and the data compared with independent palaeoclimatic proxies to study vegetational responses to environmental change. 2 Alpine plant communities (e.g. with Salix herbacea) were established at 11 600–11 500 cal. year bp, when oxygen-isotope records showed that temperatures increased by c. 3–4 °C within decades. Larix decidua trees reached the site at c. 11 350 cal. year bp, probably in response to further warming by 1–2 °C. Forests dominated by L. decidua persisted until 9600 cal. year bp, when Pinus cembra became more important. 3 The dominance of Larix decidua for two millennia is explained by dry summer conditions, and possibly low winter temperatures, which favoured it over the late-successional Pinus cembra. Environmental conditions were a result of variations in the earth's orbit, leading to a maximum of summer and a minimum of winter solar radiation. Other heliophilous and drought-adapted species, such as Dryas octopetala and Juniperus nana, could persist in the open L. decidua forests, but were out-competed when the shade-tolerant P. cembra expanded. 4 The relative importance of Larix decidua decreased during periods of diminished solar radiation at 11 100, 10 100 and 9400 cal. year bp. Stable concentrations of L. decidua indicate that these percentage oscillations were caused by temporary increases of Pinus cembra, Dryas octopetala and Juniperus nana that can be explained by increases in moisture and/or decreases in summer temperature. 5 The final collapse of Larix decidua at 8400 cal. year bp was possibly related to abrupt climatic cooling as a consequence of a large meltwater input to the North Atlantic. Similarly, the temporary exclusion of Pinus cembra from tree line at 10 600–10 200 cal. year bp may be related to slowing down of thermohaline circulation at 10 700–10 300 cal. year bp. 6 Our results show that tree line vegetation was in dynamic equilibrium with climate, even during periods of extraordinarily rapid climatic change. They also imply that forecasted global warming may trigger rapid upslope movements of the tree line of up to 800 m within a few decades or centuries at most, probably inducing large-scale displacements of plant species as well as irrecoverable biodiversity losses.

Late Glacial and Holocene vegetational changes on the Ulagan high-mountain plateau, Altai Mountains, southern Siberia

Three well-dated pollen diagrams from 1985 m, 2050 m, and at the tree line at 2150 m asl show the vegetational succession in the central Altai Mountains since 16 cal ka BP. Pioneer vegetation after deglaciation was recorded first at the lowest site. Subsequently, dense dry steppe vegetation developed coincident with the change from silt to organic sediments at the two lower sites, but silt lasted longer at the highest site, indicating the persistence of bare ground there. Forests of Pinus sibirica, Pinus sylvestris, Picea obovata, Larix sibirica, Abies sibirica, and Betula pendula started to develop about 12 cal ka BP with the change to a warmer and wetter climate at the beginning of the Holocene. Results indicate that the timberline did not rise above the highest site. Mesophilous dark-coniferous forests were fully developed by 9.5 cal ka BP. The role of Abies and Picea decreased by about 7.5 cal ka BP suggesting cooler climate, after which the forests changed little until today. The vegetational development in this portion of the central Altai Mountains is compatible with that described in neighbouring areas of the Altai, southern Siberia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan.