Sustainable agriculture and forestry in mountain regions: the “Mountland” project
Future climate and land-use changes are key challenges to maintain forest ecosystem goods and services especially in mountain regions. In this context, the goal of the “Mountland” project was to investigate the sensitivity of the provision of mountain ecosystem services to both climatic and land-use changes, and to suggest policies and governance structures for mitigating the impact of such changes and enhancing sustainable management practices in mountain regions. An integrative approach was applied in the project, combining methods from economics and the political and natural sciences. This introductory article of the present special issue illustrates the conceptual framework, presents the case study regions and the overall research questions of the project. This forms the basis for the five articles of this special issue which summarize the research with respect to forest ecosystems and policy.