The world is facing numerous and severe environmental, social, and economic challenges To address these, in September 2015 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the resolution Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development The United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their 169 targets are ambitious, broadly encompassing, and indivisible They are intended to guide nations and communities toward attaining healthy and peaceful livelihoods free of poverty and hunger Collectively the goals envision sound and safe environments, where global threats like climate change are successfully combated through both mitigation and adaptation Agenda 2030 envisages sustainable production patterns with inclusive, effective economies and institutions It is of specific relevance to mountain communities, where the population is predominantly rural and half of the rural inhabitants experience food insecurity and are often highly dependent on forest resources Mountain f

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Mountain Forests and Sustainable Development: The Potential for Achieving the United Nations' 2030 Agenda

Forest transition theory provides a framework for understanding scenarios where coun tries shift from a period of decreasing to increasing forest cover, through forest regrowth or plantation establishment. National-level research has helped elucidate some of the common pathways among countries that have undergone forest transition. However, the conditions that promote plantation establishment among rural landowners are not well understood. An evaluation of three plantations in the Ecuadorian Andes indicated that rural landowners responded to different priorities, opportunities, and constraints, which translated into different levels of importance for each of the proposed pathways to forest transition. In these cases, the most important pathways were associated with globalization and decisions by smallholders to use tree-based strategies to try to restore land or provide economic diversification. This study suggests that these pathways de serve further attention, particularly in developing country contexts or cases where forest transition is dominated by plantations.

Pathways to forest transition: Local case studies from the Ecuadorian Andes

. In Turkey, an average of 24 people die in snow avalanches every year, mainly in the eastern part of Anatolia and in the eastern Black Sea region, where high-mountain ranges are close to the sea. The proportion of people killed in buildings is very high (87%), especially in comparison to other European countries and North America. In this paper we discuss avalanche occurrence, the climatic situation and historical avalanche events in Turkey; in addition, we identify bottlenecks and suggest solutions to tackle avalanche problems. Furthermore, we have applied the numerical avalanche simulation software RAMMS (rapid mass movements simulation) combined with a (digital elevation model) DEM-based potential release zone identification algorithm to analyze the catastrophic avalanche events in the villages of Uzengili (Bayburt province) in 1993 and Yaylaonu (Trabzon province) in 1981. The results demonstrate the value of such an approach for regions with poor avalanche databases, enabling the calculation of different scenarios and the estimation of run-out distances, impact pressure and flow height.

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Avalanche situation in Turkey and back calculation of selected events

Synergistic impacts of sediment generation and hydrotechnical structures related to forestry on stream fish communities.

The recreational value of forests in mountain areas creates significant potential for local growth. Indeed, in recent decades, it has been noted that there has been an increase in the popularity of forests recognized as tourism destinations with a strong recreational importance. In the forest area of Metsovo, the locals are aware of the role of tourism in local growth, and it is considered, along with forestry and livestock farming, as the major critical advantage for sustainable development. Research Highlights: Although the locals are satisfied with the quality of their lives, they consider that mountain tourism should be enhanced with certain prerequisites, such as forest infrastructure and improvement of the road network. Background and Objectives: The case study aims to examine and interpret the locals’ views in the mountain area of Metsovo on different factors that are able to support and encourage the growth of mountain tourism. Materials and Methods: Simple random sampling was applied, and data collection took place in 2018. In order to analyze and synthesize the locals’ views, reliability, factor, and hierarchical cluster analyses were used. Results: The main findings of the survey indicate that according to the locals’ views, there is a need for strategic organization addressing primarily forest recreation infrastructures from the Forest Service. Conclusions: The locals’ views are focused on mountain tourism-related exploitation with the aim of forest recreation infrastructures. Indeed, the locals acknowledge the important role of the forest service in conservation schemes, but they also identify that there are forest recreational potentials in their area that need to be enhanced by the central administration and locally by the Forest Service.

Nathalie Butt

Papers

Forests in Sustainable Mountain Development