UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development UHI ...

United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization
UNESCO Chair
in Sustainable
Mountain Development
UHI Millennium Institute
2 0 0 0 – 2 0 1 0

1
IntroductIon
this document celebrates the tenth anniversary of the centre for Mountain Studies (cMS), which was established at Perth college uHI on
1 August 2000. the following pages summarise the themes on which cMS staff and research students have worked over the last decade and lists
key publications. As a preface, I would like to take this opportunity to provide a personal reflection on the origins of the cMS and some of the
highlights of the past decade, and to thank some of the people who have helped it to grow and prosper.
Mountains have been an important part of my life since my parents first took me to
Snowdonia when I was five and, when I was seven, to the Swiss Alps, where I remember
looking up at the green colour of a cave in the snout of a glacier. In my teens, rock-climbing
and mountaineering were a passion that led to a gap year in Zambia as an outward Bound
instructor, concluding with climbing Kilimanjaro – still the highest place I have been. Since
my Master’s degree at the university of calgary, with research in Banff national Park, mountain
environments and the people who live in and visit them have also been my professional focus.
For my Phd at the university of colorado, I undertook a comparative study of policies relating
to forests in the Swiss Alps and colorado rockies: the beginning of an international scientific
career which continued as a post-doctoral fellow at the national center for Atmospheric
research, where my main focus moved away from mountains to the human dimensions of
global change. Subsequently, climate change continued to be my focus at the university
of oxford where, after a few years, I was fortunate to receive funding to start a mountain
programme and organized the first of many conferences of mountain scientists. However,
oxford is far from the mountains, so when I was invited to validate a course on sustainable
development at uHI, I was glad to discover that a higher education institute with the word
‘Highlands’ in its name needed to develop its research capacity on mountain issues.
A key question was where in the uHI network to establish such a capacity: Mike Webster, then
Principal of Perth college uHI, was very welcoming; and the Millennium commission and
Perth and Kinross council provided some initial funding. And so the cMS was born.
A year later, I was included in the uHI submission in Environmental Science to the uK-wide
research Assessment. this submission achieved a rating of 4 – the highest in Scotland –
ensuring medium-term security of funding for the cMS. In 2002, the International Year of
Mountains (IYM), it was natural that the cMS should organise the Scottish activities. Scottish
natural Heritage (SnH) provided most of the funds necessary to employ a Project officer,
Andrew Macpherson, and a broad partnership of conservation and recreational nongovernmental
organisations (nGos) and public bodies provided further support for a diverse
range of activities across Scotland. Scottish IYM activities raised awareness of the diverse ways
in which mountains are important to Scots, and also raised the profile of the cMS, particularly
through an international conference organised with SnH and other conferences in London
and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. 2002 was also the year in which Angela Paterson joined the cMS as
Administrator, a ‘part-time’ role in which she has continued for the same number of hours a
week but with significantly increasing responsibilities, on which she always cheerfully delivers.
tomas nilsson also joined the cMS in 2002, and rhys Evans in 2003, both staying until 2004
when they left for new horizons. In 2004, rob Mc Morran became our first Phd student,
funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise; he continues today as a post-doctoral research
associate who is a valued member of the team. I also concluded my role as coordinator of the
first overview of Europe’s mountains, for the European commission, with the publication of a
substantial report after two years’ work. And, after three years’ preparation, the first students
began to study on our on-line MSc in Managing Sustainable Mountain development; ten have
now graduated from the course with a full MSc, and nine with Postgraduate certificates and
diplomas.
2005 was a year of growth, challenge, and change. clive Bowman and cróna o’Shea joined
us to work on the Spatialnorth project, funded by the European commission’s northern
Periphery Programme (nPP) and a number of Scottish partners. In october, we were the main
organisers of an international conference on global change in mountain regions at Horsecross,
Perth’s new conference centre/concert hall and, at the end of the year, we moved into the
purpose-built offices (for which both the Millennium commission and the Scottish Funding
council were important donors) where we remain. the staff of the centre grew again in 2006,
with the arrival of Jeremy Milne and, for six months, Miriam Macchi from Switzerland. the
year ended with good financial news on a number of fronts: from the European commission
for our involvement in the 6th Framework EuroMArc project, on quality mountain foods,
and for a preparatory project for a new nPP project (clim-AtIc); and, most importantly, from
Henry Angest, who very generously agreed to support a major project, including four doctoral
studentships, on ‘Sustainable Estates for the 21st century’. the arrival of the Phd students –
Pippa Wagstaff, Jayne Glass, Annie McKee, and Amanda calvert – in September 2007 was very
welcome. Almost all the available space in the cMS was now taken; though both cróna and
Jeremy left during the year for new positions.

In 2008, clive took on the major responsibility of running the clim-AtIc project on community
adaptation to climate change; the largest project supported by the nPP, with partners and
activities in Finland, Greenland, norway, Scotland and Sweden. rob successfully defended his
Phd and worked on the EuroMArc project, as well as teaching on the MSc; and Jin Park joined
us to work on MSc course development and delivery and a number of projects. All of these
activities, as well as the ‘estates’ Phds, continued into 2009; and at the end of the year, catalina
Munteanu, from romania (via Austria), joined us to begin our involvement in a new 7th
Framework project, mountain.trIP (transforming research Into Practice). the cMS also gained
greater prominence with the establishment of the unESco chair in Sustainable Mountain
development, the first unESco chair in Scotland.
2010 has been a year to celebrate. the highlight was in September: the international
conference on ‘Global change and the World’s Mountains’, again at Horsecross, which attracted
450 people from 60 countries, making it the largest international science conference ever held,
with more than twice as many people as for the conference in 2005. It stretched everyone in
the cMS, and the enthusiastic additional staff we hired, christiane nitsch and Karen Wright,
to the limit: the result was widespread agreement that it was a very successful conference
in many ways, and that we should organise another in 2015! the cMS team also expanded
in 2010. In January, calum Macleod joined us as deputy director, taking over some of my
responsibilities, including the MSc, and soon brought in a project on the Land reform Act,
funded by the Scottish Parliament. In May, our first visiting fellow, Fiona Mackenzie from
carleton university, canada, joined us until the end of the year, to conduct research on land
reforms in crofting communities. In June, deborah davies joined the clim-AtIc project, and
spent most of the next four months visiting projects from Greenland to Finland to produce
case studies which were presented at the final conference in norway in october. In July, diana
Borowski joined us from Germany (via Poland) to start work on a new project funded by the
European observation network for territorial development and cohesion (ESPon). And also
in September, two weeks before the conference, the European Environment Agency published
the latest state-of-the-art report on Europe’s mountains, which I had been coordinating for
three years.
over ten years, all of these activities – as well as many more, detailed in these pages – mean
that the cMS is now recognised in Scotland and Europe, and around the world, as a significant
and valued actor in mountain research and knowledge exchange. the key element to this
success has been the staff and doctoral students of the cMS, whom I should thank for their
commitment and work of the highest quality. I would also like to thank my successive
Principals at Perth college uHI – Mike Webster, Mandy Exley, and thomas Moore – for their
encouragement and flexibility. there are also very many others who have provided support
in different ways, particularly the Steering Group of the IYM in Scotland, the Advisory Group
of the ‘estates’ project, and the representatives of the very diverse range of organisations
that have provided funding for projects and events. Finally, I would like to specifically
thank six individuals: Alan Blackshaw, who introduced me to uHI – the essential first step
towards founding the cMS; Henry Angest, for financing what will, I hope, be regarded as a
landmark study on estates; Frank Gaskell, for involving me in the world of European mountain
policies and politics; Lt. col. John Moncreiff for contributing both to our new offices and to a
scholarship for an MSc student from Bulgaria; colin Prior, for providing the photographs for
this document; and my wife, randi Kvinge, for her love and patience, especially on the many
occasions when I am away from home. one defining characteristic of most mountain societies
is planning and working in partnership; I believe that this exemplifies the cMS and that, with
this in mind, we will continue to prosper and to undertake and – at least as importantly –
communicate high-quality research to the benefit of mountain people and their environments
all around the world.
Professor Martin Price
director, centre for Mountain Studies
chairholder, unESco chair in Sustainable
Mountain development
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GEnErAtInG And IntEGrAtInG KnoWLEdGE
over the past ten years, together with many partners, the cMS has been involved in applied
research projects, often with an important knowledge exchange component, at three scales:
Europe; the northern Periphery of Europe, which extends from Greenland to Finland and as far
south as the Highlands and Islands of Scotland; and Scotland.
Europe: Characterising the mountains
Mountains cover 36% of Europe’s area and are home to 17% of its population. they are of vital
importance to all Europeans for at least four main reasons. First, they are ‘water towers’; they
provide a high proportion of the continent’s water, especially in summer, which is important
as a source of hydro-electricity and for agriculture. Second, they are centres of diversity, both
biological and cultural. Most of Europe’s ‘biological hotspots’, in terms of both total numbers
of species and numbers of endemic species (those with very restricted distributions) are in
mountain areas, and 15% of Europe’s mountain area has been designated as national parks,
nature reserves, and other types of protected areas. Mountains are also the home of many of
Europe’s ethnic minorities, with specific cultures and traditions. third, these mountains provide
many varied opportunities for recreation and tourism, often linked to their natural and cultural
heritage. Finally, mountain systems – ecological, hydrological, and human – are particularly
sensitive to environmental change. the impacts of climate change are already evident
throughout Europe’s mountains, and both gradual changes and extreme events deriving from
climate change are likely to have significant consequences both in the mountains and across
the continent.
All of these issues have been addressed in the first two comprehensive evaluations of
Europe’s mountains, both coordinated by Martin Price: the first for the European commission’s
directorate-General for regional development – with nordregio, the nordic centre for
Spatial development, and 20 other partners from across Europe – published in 2004; and the
second for the European Environment Agency – with the European topic centre for Land use
and Spatial Information in Spain and its partners in Austria, the netherlands, and romania –
published in 2010. the first focused particularly on demographic and economic issues and
policies for mountain areas, with detailed analysis at the national level for the countries of the
current European union, norway, and Switzerland. the second placed particular emphasis on
ecosystem services (especially water and biodiversity), trends in land cover and uses, protected
areas, and the impacts of climate change. this work is now being taken further by diana
Borowski and Martin Price in a two-year project funded by the European observation network

for territorial development and cohesion (ESPon) on ‘geographical specificities’; all the parts
of the European union – such as mountains, sparsely-populated areas, and islands – which
may be seen to have special characteristics which require particular types of support. In this
project, the cMS is responsible for the work on mountains and on development possibilities
linked to biodiversity and protected areas. All of these activities have placed the cMS in the
forefront of analysis of Europe’s mountain areas, providing crucial evidence to inform European
union policies.
European commission (2004) Mountain areas in Europe: Analysis of mountain areas in Eu
Member States, acceding and other European countries. report 2004: 1, nordregio, Stockholm.
European Environment Agency (2010) Europe’s ecological backbone: recognising the true
value of our mountains. European Environment Agency, copenhagen.
Price, M.F. (2004) Europe’s mountains: Similarity and diversity. In Ó cinnéide, M. (ed.) territorial
cohesion: Meeting new challenges in an Enlarged Eu, department of community, rural and
Gaeltacht Affairs, Galway: 41-46.
Price, M.F. and copus, A. (2002) A preliminary characterisation of the mountain areas of Europe.
Euromontana, Brussels.
Price, M.F., Lysenko, I. and Gloersen, E. (2004) La délimitation des montagnes européennes/
delineating Europe’s mountains. révue de Géographie Alpine/Journal of Alpine research
92(2): 61-86.
Europe: Policies for quality mountain foods
Food and drink represent an essential characteristic of every culture; high-quality foods can
offer important opportunities for supporting mountain communities and their cultures
and, often, the biological diversity of their local environments. However, there are many
challenges to realising these opportunities along the entire food chain from farmers to
consumers, which may also include processors, retailers, and those involved in marketing and
tourism. Various policies, at all scales from the local to the global, can both support or hinder
these processes. From 2007 to 2009, rob Mc Morran and Martin Price were involved in the
EuroMArc (European Mountain Agrofood products, retailing and consumers) project, funded
by the European commission’s 6th Framework Programme for research and development.
Its aims were to increase understanding of the challenges of adding value to foods produced
in mountain areas, particularly those represented by the partners in the project, from Austria,
France, norway, romania, Scotland and Slovenia, where detailed research was undertaken;
and to develop recommendations both to those in the food chain and to policy-makers at all
levels. rob Mc Morran’s main contribution was to review the diverse national and European
policies in this field. the project’s results have been well-accepted, and have also become
the basis for further policy development by the European commission, particularly through
the efforts of Euromontana, the European multisectoral association for cooperation and
development of mountain territories, which coordinated the EuroMArc project.
Euromontana (2009) designation and promotion of mountain quality food products in Europe:
Policy recommendations. Euromontana, Brussels.
Euromontana (2009) Guidelines for the development, promotion and communication of
mountain foods. Euromontana, Brussels.
Northern Periphery: Large-scale regional planning
A key need identified in the two evaluations of Europe’s mountains is for better coordination
and integration of the policies and activities of different institutions as a basis for sustainable
development. In order to address this need in northern Europe, with a focus on spatial data
and planning, the cMS was one of 13 partners in the 2005-7 Spatialnorth project, funded
by the European commission’s northern Periphery Programme (nPP) and, in Scotland, the
crofters commission, Forestry commission, Highlands and Islands European Partnership,
Scottish council of Voluntary organisations, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and
Scottish Executive. other partners came from Västernorrland (Sweden), north Karelia (Finland)
and East Iceland. In each region, partners assessed levels of policy coordination and evaluated
case studies of policy development, to identify good practice. In Scotland, the case studies
considered coastal management, transport, wind farms, local plans and, across the Highlands
and Islands, the use of spatial data and the degree of coordination between organisations
in implementing policies relating to biodiversity. clive Bowman and cróna o’Shea from the
cMS also took a lead in research on the alignment of plans from European to local level and
the use of ‘visions’ and targets in strategic plans. the lessons learned in all four partner regions
were shared through meetings, study tours, conferences (the final conference was organised
by the cMS), and a dedicated website with a ‘toolbox’ of good practices, available at www.
spatialnorth.org and thus accessible to planners across all of Europe, as well as for teaching.
Bowman, c.d. (2006) An evaluation of spatial planning policy alignment in the Highlands and
Islands. International Journal of Biodiversity Science and Management 2: 174-177.
Bowman, c.d. (2008) Lessons from the Spatialnorth Project, Scottish Planner 123,
(June 2008): 12.
o’Shea, c.J. (2006) GIS and spatial data management: a tool to planning in the Highlands and
Islands of Scotland. International Journal of Biodiversity Science and Management 2: 178-181.
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Northern Periphery: Local adaptations to the impacts of climate change
climate change is likely to bring both challenges and opportunities to communities across
Europe’s northern Periphery. At all levels from the European to the local, considerable
attention has been paid to mitigating the impacts of climate change; much less on adapting
to them. to address this gap, clive Bowman and partners from across the northern Periphery
developed the clim-AtIc project, which has been the largest project funded by the nPP, which
provided 60% of the total budget of €2.4 million; in Scotland, funding has been provided
by the cairngorms national Park Authority, Forestry commission, Highlands and Islands
Enterprise, and Hitrans. the cMS, with the support of the uHI Millennium Institute, is the lead
partner; the 13 other partners are from Finland, Greenland, norway, Scotland, and Sweden.
the project runs from March 2008 to April 2011.
In each participating region, public sector and academic institutions, communities, and other
stakeholders have undertaken a linked series of activities: a comprehensive review of the likely
short- and long-term implications on communities; the development of ‘climate change
vulnerability scenarios’ using climate change data and models, social change scenarios, and
local knowledge and experience; identification of barriers and opportunities for communities
to adapt to climate change, leading to ‘community climate change adaptation strategies’; and
adaptation projects, which are on four themes – energy management, risk management and
response, tourism, and transport. In Scotland, activities – all coordinated by clive Bowman –
included three in cairngorms national Park, on wood fuel, an electric car for community use,
and using mobile phone applications to provide information to tourists on alternative activities
when snow sports are not possible; and one on river restoration and flood management in
Glen urquhart. the results of all of the activities in the five participating countries have been
shared among stakeholders in the participating regions through a number of exchange visits
and conferences, and are being brought together in the website www.clim-atic.org, which
includes information in easily-accessible formats including podcasts in various regional
languages, compiled by deborah davies. the website will be linked to national websites in
nPP countries to provide a long-term source of information available to anyone interested in
climate change adaptation at the community scale, and is also one of the main resources for
a short ‘train the trainers’ course developed during the project and piloted in norway in early
2011. clim-AtIc has been regarded as one of the nPP’s most effective projects, providing
results which are valuable within and beyond the northern Periphery, and its case studies
are also being considered for inclusion in the European Environment Agency’s web-based
Environmental Atlas of Europe. It is anticipated that many of the adaptation projects will
continue after clim-AtIc concludes.

Scotland: Sustainable estates after devolution
Scotland’s uplands are characterised by a unique pattern of land ownership, with much of
the land within privately-owned estates. In recent decades, a number of estates have been
purchased by non-governmental organisations (nGos) with conservation and recreation
interests. Following Scottish devolution in 1999, one of the key pieces of legislation was
the Land reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which facilitated the purchase of estates by local
communities. However, as shown by a 2010 study led by calum Macleod of the cMS and
other partners for the Scottish Parliament’s rural Affairs and Environment committee, the
community right to Buy has been little used, due to the infrequency of eligible land coming
onto the market, its administrative complexities, and a preference by community groups to
conclude purchases outwith the Act if possible.
Since 2007, the main in-house project at the cMS, generously funded by the Henry Angest
Foundation, has considered ‘Sustainable estates for the 21st century’. It is the first major
project to take an integrated look at estates in the Scottish uplands, and also goes beyond
previous studies – all conducted before devolution – which generally looked at a narrow range
of issues or focused on individual estates. Its primary objective is to understand the complex
driving forces that influence large upland multi-functional estates, and how their owners and
managers make decisions that permit them to ensure that their estates fulfill their diverse roles
– which may include any combination of field sports, agriculture, forestry, tourism, renewable
energy, and property development – and promote sustainability. to ensure the project’s
on-the-ground and policy relevance, it has an advisory board with representatives from the
Scottish Government, Scottish rural Property and Business Association (SrPBA), Scottish
Environment Link, cairngorms national Park Authority, and the Knoydart Foundation. the
project comprises three Phd studies, supervised by Martin Price, charles Warren (university of
St. Andrews) and Alister Scott (Birmingham city university) and a post-doctoral study.
At the core of the project is the concept of sustainability, and one of the Phd students, Jayne
Glass, has focused primarily on the development of a ‘toolkit’ to monitor and assess progress
towards this goal. the toolkit has been developed using an adapted ‘delphi’ approach,
in which a panel of 19 academics, consultants, estate management and sustainability
professionals, policy makers and members of representative bodies have anonymously
interacted in a collaborative and participatory process. the commitment of these
participants to the process, and their strong interest in it, has been shown by their very
high level of involvement throughout four rounds over two years: 88%, far higher than
usual for studies using similar approaches. the resulting toolkit has been piloted on two
estates owned by nGos, and wide interest has been expressed in its use on upland
estates of various ownership types.
two of the Phd studies focus on privately-owned estates. In 2008, the two students, Annie
McKee and Pippa Wagstaff, designed a survey that the SrPBA kindly distributed to its
members, achieving a highly satisfactory 34% response rate from owners of estates covering a
total of 1.7 million acres. this was the first major survey of private landowners since the Land
reform Act, and provides a detailed evidence base with regard to the highly diverse range of
private estates. Subsequently, Annie conducted in-depth case studies on six estates which
had been identified as showing ‘good practice’ in facilitating sustainable rural communities in
and around their estates. Her two-to three-week stays on each estate, using a wide range of
methods, have produced a very rich understanding of the threats and opportunities facing
both communities and landowners, and of the key role of landowners in the sustainability of
these communities, in particular through supporting both estate ‘business’ sustainability to
maintain employment and community-generated entrepreneurship. one outcome of the
research will be a series of good practice recommendations for mutually-beneficial landownercommunity
partnerships. Pippa’s research addresses landowners’ motivations and perceptions
of sustainability on a dozen estates chosen from the results of the 2008 survey, using a range
of complementary techniques to understand the difficult issues involved in balancing the
conflicting demands of the environment with economic and social priorities. this research
provides a rare insight into the ‘hearts and minds’ of those who ultimately control a significant
proportion of the Scottish uplands.
A fourth study, by rob Mc Morran, aims to assess the sustainability of four large upland
community-owned estates (Assynt, Knoydart, north Harris, South uist), focussing on the
interactions of community and external stakeholders in the process of community buyouts,
the impacts of these buy-outs on the involved communities, and the key issues and
opportunities for such buy-outs, as envisaged when the Land reform Act was drawn up.
All four studies should be completed in early 2011; there has already been wide interest in the
outcomes of the project as a whole, as shown by requests for briefings from local and Scottish
government institutions, as well as representative bodies. A further means of dissemination
will be a book to be edited by Jayne Glass and the three Phd supervisors, which will provide
a synthesis based on the four studies. It is expected that the book will be published by an
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academic publisher in 2012, and that this will establish a coherent and ‘state-of-the art’ picture
of Scottish upland estates and provide an input to future well-founded management and
policy.
Glass, J.H., Scott, A.S. and Price, M.F. (in press). developing a sustainability assessment tool for
upland estates. In: S.J. Marrs, S. Foster, c. Hendrie, E.c. Mackey, and d.B.A. thompson (eds.) the
changing nature of Scotland. the Stationery office, Edinburgh.
Macleod, c., Braunholtz-Speight, t., Macphail, I., Flyn, d., Allen, S., and Macleod, d. (2010) Post-
Legislative Scrutiny of the Land reform (Scotland) Act 2003. the Scottish Parliament.
McKee, A.J. and Warren, c.r. (in press) the Scottish revolution? Evaluating the impacts of post
devolution land reform, Scottish Geographical Journal.
reed, M.S., Bonn, A., Slee, W., Beharry-Borg. n., Birch, J, Brown, I., Burt, t.P., chapman, d.,
chapman, P.J., clay, G., cornell, S.J., Fraser, E.d.G., Glass, J., Holden, J., Hodgson, J.A., Hubacek,
K., Irvine, B., Jin, n., Kirkby, M.J., Kunin, W.E., Moore, o., Moseley, d., Prell, c., Price, M.F., Quinn, c.,
redpath, S., reid, c., Stagl, S., Stringer, L.c., termansen, M., thorp, S., towers, W., and Worrall, F.
(2009) the future of the uplands. Land use Policy 26 Supplement 1: S204-216.
Scotland: an increasing diversity of forest functions
Across Europe’s mountains as a whole, forests are the predominant land cover, occupying 40%
of the total area. though forests cover a far smaller proportion of Scotland’s mountains, twothirds
of Scottish forests are in private ownership, much higher than the European average.
nevertheless, as in many other mountain areas, a central challenge is to manage forests for a
diversity of uses. this emphasis on multi-functionality was the main focus of rob Mc Morran’s
Phd research from 2004 to 2008, funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and supervised
by Martin Price and charles Warren (university of St. Andrews). the research focused on the
forests of the cairngorms, and revealed four main types of constraints and opportunities:
spatial fragmentation and integration within and between estates; globalization, timber
price, and market availability; the complexity of bureaucracy and potential for organisational
integration; and unpredictability in social and natural systems. As many constraints appear to
result from scale ‘mis-matches’ – spatially, temporally, and at the organisational level – a key
recommendation was to match scales at the management, organizational and market levels.
Similar challenges were recognised in two studies of forests in caithness and Sutherland,
conducted for Forestry commission Scotland (FcS) in 2007 by Jeremy Milne and in 2009 by
rob Mc Morran. the forests of this area are primarily coniferous plantations, many originally
planted to gain tax benefits, and now reaching harvestable age. However, the range of

enefits expected from forests has expanded, now including not only economic, but also
social and environmental benefits. In particular, the Scottish Government has set a target of
25% forest cover in Scotland by 2050. the two studies recognised this changing context, and
the wide range of resulting opportunities, including the potential for the development of the
regional woodfuel market, the expansion of native riparian and semi-natural woodland, and
widespread forest restructuring. the 2009 report was put out to consultation by FcS, and is
now contributing to the debate on how to manage the area’s forests.
Price, M.F. (2005) Forests in sustainable mountain development. In Huber u.M.,
Bugmann H.K.M. and reasoner, M.A. (eds.) Global change and Mountain regions:
An overview of current Knowledge. Springer, dordrecht: 521-529.
Mc Morran r. (2008) the opportunities and constraints for multifunctional forest management
in the cairngorms region of Scotland. unpublished Phd thesis, uHI Millennium Institute.
Mc Morran, r. (2008) Scale mis-matches in social-ecological systems: A case study of
multifunctional forestry in the cairngorms region of Scotland. Aspects of Applied Biology 85:
Shaping a vision for the uplands: 41-48.
Scotland: Game species and wild land
the management of privately-owned mountain land with the primary aim of hunting game
species – deer and game birds, especially red grouse – is a particularly Scottish phenomenon
which has led to very specific landscapes. the cMS has undertaken a number of studies in this
context. the first were undertaken for the deer commission for Scotland by tomas nilsson
and Martin Price in 2004: a scoping study on how to monitor the ‘diffuse’ impacts of deer in the
‘wider countryside’, i.e., outside areas designated for nature conservation; and how different
approaches to defining hunting seasons in other European countries and north America
might be relevant in Scotland. the results of this research informed subsequent Scottish
policy. More recently, in 2009, rob Mc Morran undertook an in-depth case study, funded
by the Scottish countryside Alliance Environmental trust, of the benefits and impacts of the
grouse shooting industry from the perspective of the community of tomintoul and Strathdon,
around which grouse shooting is a common activity. the study found that nearly 20% of the
people in the community directly depend on grouse shooting for their livelihood, while almost
80% use the managed moors for recreation, work, or food.
Another perspective – especially among non-hunting recreational users – on upland estates,
including many that are managed primarily for hunting, is that they are ‘wild land’, with
outstanding scenery, important wildlife, and diverse opportunities for outdoor recreation.
this complex concept refers especially to areas that are particularly remote and rugged, with
little evidence of human influence – and therefore has contested recreational, ecological,
and cultural dimensions. However, empirical information appropriate for managing these
landscapes – concerning their social, environmental, and economic benefits and opportunities
– has been limited. In 2005-6, the cMS, in collaboration with the Scottish Agricultural college,
was contracted by Scottish natural Heritage to provide a stronger basis for discussion and
policy developments regarding these landscapes. A key recommendation of the research, led
by rob Mc Morran, was that specific criteria should be developed for wild landscapes within
Scottish Government policy, and that a Scottish Landscape Strategy should be developed,
taking due account of the multiple values of wilder areas. rob Mc Morran has subsequently
been involved in two studies led by the Wildland research centre (WrI) at the university of
Leeds – on wild land in the cairngorms for the cairngorms national Park Authority in 2009;
and on wild land in Europe for the Scottish Government in 2010 – and also organised a 2010
workshop on ‘Scotland’s wild landscapes: new ways forward’, attended by 94 people. All of
these activities have informed Scottish policy development and implementation; it is likely that
the work done in the cairngorms will inform the next national Park Plan.
carver, S., comber, L., Fritz, S., Mc Morran, r., taylor, S. and Washtell, J. (2008) Wildness Study in
the cairngorms national Park. university of Leeds.
comber, A., carver, S., Fritz, S., Mc Morran, r. Washtell, J. and Fisher, P. (2010) different methods,
different wilds: Evaluating alternative mappings of wildness using fuzzy McE. computers,
Environment and urban Systems 34: 142–152
Fisher, M., carver, S., Kun, Z, Mc Morran, r., Arrell, K. and Mitchell, G. (2010) review of the status
and conservation of wild land in Europe. Scottish Government commissioned report.
Mc Morran, r. (2009) red grouse and the tomintoul and Strathdon communities - the benefits
and impacts of the grouse shooting industry from the rural community perspective; a case
study of the Strathdon and tomintoul communities in the cairngorms national Park. the
Scottish countryside Alliance Educational trust commissioned report.
Mc Morran, r., Price, M.F. and McVittie, A. (2006) A review of the benefits and opportunities
attributed to Scotland’s landscapes of wild character. commissioned report 194, Scottish
natural Heritage, Inverness.
Mc Morran, r., Price, M.F. and Warren, c.r. (2008) the call of different wilds: the importance of
definition and perception in protecting and managing Scottish wild landscapes. Journal of
Environmental Planning and Management 51:177-199.
8

ExcHAnGInG And uSInG KnoWLEdGE
As noted above, all of the research done by the cMS in the past ten years has had an applied
focus. While many of these activities have had an important element of knowledge exchange,
the cMS – often working with partners – has also undertaken many activities in which
knowledge exchange has been the main focus, at a diversity of scales from the globe to
Scotland. over 2,000 people from all continents have attended meetings organised by the
cMS. In 2009, the global dimension of the activities of the cMS was recognised by unESco’s
designation of a chair in Sustainable Mountain development at the uHI Millennium Institute,
with Martin Price as the chairholder. Many of the activities described below, particularly with
regard to increasing understanding of global change in mountain regions and education for
sustainable mountain development, fall within the scope of the chair.
Fostering sustainable mountain development
Before establishing the cMS, Martin Price had collaborated with colleagues at the university
of Bern, Switzerland, in a number of activities relating to sustainable mountain development
(SMd), beginning with the inclusion of a chapter on this theme in ‘Agenda 21’, the plan of
action from the rio Earth Summit in 1992, and continuing with an overview document for the
‘rio + 5’ meetings of the united nations commission on Sustainable development (uncSd)
in 1997 and reports on specific themes presented to the uncSd for consideration at their
subsequent annual meetings. the report for 2001 considered energy and transport, and that
for 2002 considered appropriate policies and instruments to support SMd.
2002 was the International Year of Mountains (IYM), which aimed to “promote the conservation
and sustainable development of mountain regions, thereby ensuring the wellbeing of both
mountain and lowland people.” At the global level, Martin Price acted as editor-in-chief for
the final global event of the year, the Bishkek Global Mountain Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan,
working with the united nations Environment Programme (unEP). this included planning
the structure and content of the Summit; managing the production, including a global
e-consultation through the Mountain Forum and peer review, of ten background papers
by global experts, which were published in 2004 as a book by united nations university
Press; and facilitating the Summit’s final declaration, which became the basis of a resolution
by the un General Assembly. In Europe, the cMS, together with Scottish natural Heritage
(SnH), organised a conference on ‘nature and people: conservation and management in
the mountains of northern Europe’, which attracted 282 participants, including 33 from
overseas; the proceedings were published in 2005. Martin Price also convened a conference
on ‘Sustainable futures for the British uplands’ at the royal Geographical Society in London,
attended by 130 people and resulting in a widely-cited briefing paper.
In Scotland, IYM activities were organised by Andrew Macpherson, hired by the cMS as Project
officer with funding mainly from SnH and also from the British Mountaineering council,
cairngorms campaign, cairngorms Partnership, John Muir trust, Mountaineering council of
Scotland, ramblers Association Scotland, Scottish countryside Activities council, Scottish Wild
Land Group, Scotways, VisitScotland, and WWF Scotland. Many of these organisations were
represented on the Steering Group, which provided valuable advice and support throughout
the year. At the political level, the year’s activities were launched by the Minister for tourism,
culture and Sport, and motions and debates in the Scottish Parliament were supported by
MSPs from all parties. Events and initiatives ranged in scale from the local to the national, and
included a wide variety of talks and walks; film, music, and mountain heritage festivals; national
conferences on woodlands, conservation, and water; art and school events; and exhibitions on
mountaineering and mountaineers. All of these activities were underpinned by the state-ofknowledge
report prepared by Martin Price, Andrew Macpherson, charles Warren (St. Andrews
university) and Ben dixon (Imperial college) and published by SnH. overall, the programme of
events was on a par with that of many major mountainous countries. Presentations by Andrew
Macpherson at meetings convened by a total of 48 organisations, together with extensive
media coverage, led to increased awareness of the importance of mountains to Scots.
debarbieux, B. and M.F. Price (2008) representing mountains: From local and national to global
common good. Geopolitics 13: 148-168.
Price, M.F. (2003) Sustainable mountain development in Europe. In A. Mather and J. Bryden
(eds.) regional Sustainable development review: Europe, Encyclopedia of Life-Support
Systems, Eolss Publishers, oxford, uK [http://www.eolss.net].
Price, M.F., B.L. dixon, c.r. Warren and Macpherson, A.r. (2002) Scotland’s mountain areas: Key
issues for the future. Scottish natural Heritage, Battleby.
Price M.F. and Holdgate, M. (2003) Sustainable futures for the British uplands. Summary
statement 13, royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), London.
Price, M.F., L. Jansky and Iatsenia, A.A. (eds.) (2004) Key issues for Mountain Areas. united nations
university Press, tokyo.
Price, M.F., t. Kohler, t. Wachs and Zimmermann, A. (eds.) (2001) Mountains of the world:
Mountains, energy and transport. Mountain Agenda, Bern.
Price, M.F. and Messerli, B. (2002) Fostering sustainable mountain development: From rio to the
International Year of Mountains, and beyond. unasylva 208: 6-17.
Price, M.F., P. Walther, t. Kohler and Imbach, K. (eds.) (2002) Mountains of the world: Sustainable
development in mountain areas: the need for adequate policies and instruments. Mountain
Agenda, Bern.
thompson, d.B.A., J. newman, M.F. Price and Galbraith, c.A. (eds.) (2005) the Mountains of
northern Europe: conservation, Management and Initiatives. the Stationery office, London.
10

11
Understanding global change in mountain regions
the world’s mountain regions, and their people, are influenced by many forces of global
change, from climate change and loss of biodiversity to political change and globalisation. the
cMS has been centrally involved in synthesising, communicating, and exchanging knowledge
of these changes and their complex interactions.
As a Principal Lead Author of the mountain chapter of the 1996 Second Assessment report
of the Inter-governmental Panel on climate change (IPcc), Martin Price shared the 2007
nobel Peace Prize with other IPcc members and former uS Vice-President Al Gore. In 2003
and 2004, he was commissioned by WWF and the International union for the conservation
of nature (Iucn) to prepare comprehensive analyses of the impacts of climate change on
mountain ecosystems, which were presented, respectively, at the 5th World Parks congress
in durban, South Africa and the 3rd World conservation congress in Bangkok, thailand. His
statements in Bangkok attracted global media attention. Subsequently, he also acted as a
Lead Author for the mountain chapter of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, published
in 2005. this year also saw the conclusion of the two-year Global change and Mountain
regions (GLocHAMorE) project, funded by the European commission’s 6th Framework
Programme for research and development, in which the cMS was one of 14 partners. the
project aimed to further understanding of the causes and impacts of global change in
mountain regions through five product-oriented workshops and a final conference. the cMS
organised two of these events, both in 2005: a workshop on ‘Sustainable land use and natural
resource management in mountain regions’ in Granada, Spain (together with Jawaharlal
nehru university, India) attended by 42 people from 21 countries on five continents; and
the concluding open Science conference. this attracted 310 abstracts; the conference
was attended by 210 people from 41 countries on six continents. All plenary presentations
were recorded and webcast. the meeting led to the publication of a book of 197 extended
abstracts and of the GLocHAMorE research strategy, which has since been used as the basis
for proposals to the European commission and unESco.
Five years later, in 2010, the cMS and the Mountain research Initiative (MrI) organised an
international conference on ‘Global change and the world’s mountains’, again providing
exceptional opportunities for multidisciplinary knowledge exchange and social interactions. A
wide range of disciplines were represented; as before, more participants were from the natural
than the social sciences. the 2010 conference proved to be the largest international mountain
science conference ever held: 610 abstracts were submitted, and eventually 450 people from
60 countries on six continents attended. As in 2005, this was a truly international conference,
as the majority of participants were not from the host country; again, there were more from

the uSA and Switzerland than the uK. Long-term access to the content of the presentations
has been assured by the publication of a cd of 421 extended abstracts and recordings of all
oral presentations, which remain available on the MrI website. the final plenary session also
contributed to the planning of activities towards the ‘rio+20’ meetings in 2012.
In addition to these international meetings, the cMS has organised meetings on aspects of
global change with a Scottish focus. the first was a conference, with field trips, on ‘terrestrial
environmental change in the Highlands and Islands’, co-organised with the centre for Ecology
and Hydrology, Inverness college uHI, Macaulay Institute, Scottish Environment Protection
Agency, and SnH in 2004. the overall objectives were to improve awareness of environmental
research and to identify needs for further research. the events were attended by nearly 100
scientists, teachers, councillors and policy-makers, and the content of the presentations was
made available through the publication of a abstracts volume and a summary statement. In
2005, the cMS organised a seminar on climate change in the Scottish uplands as part of a
transdisciplinary Seminar Series on ‘Sustaining mountain landscapes: conflict and compromise
in British uplands’, supported by the Economic and Social research council (ESrc). All of these
meetings, both Scottish and international, have given the cMS a central place in mountain
science both in the uK and at the global scale; and, following many requests, it is anticipated
that a third international conference will take place in 2015.
Koerner, c. and ohsawa M. (coordinating Lead Authors; M.F. Price, Lead Author) (2005)
Mountain systems. chapter 24 In r. Hassan et al. (eds.) Ecosystems and Human Well-being:
current State and trends, Volume 1, Island Press, Washington dc: 681-716.
Price, M.F. (ed.) (2006) Global change in Mountain regions. Sapiens Publishing, duncow
Price, M.F. (2004) Social monitoring in mountain biosphere reserves: the context. In Lee, c. and
t. Schaaf (eds.) Global Environmental and Social Monitoring, unESco, Paris: 127-137.
Price, M.F. (2008) Maintaining mountain biodiversity in an era of climate change. In Borsdorf, A,
J. Stötter and E. Veulliet (eds.) Managing Alpine Future. Proceedings of International conference
october 15-17, 2007. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna: 17-33.
Price, M.F. (2008) Mountains. In d. cuff and A.S. Goudie (eds.) the oxford companion to Global
change. oxford university Press: 435-438.
Price, M.F., Björnsen Gurung, A., dourojeanni, P. and Maselli, d. (2006) Social monitoring in
Mountain Biosphere reserves: conclusions from the Eu GLocHAMorE Project. Mountain
research and development 26: 174-180.
Price M.F. and G.r. neville (2003) designing strategies to increase the resilience of alpine/
montane systems to climate change. In Hansen, L., J. Biringer and J. Hoffman (eds) Buying time:
A user’s Manual for Building resistance and resilience to climate change in natural Systems.
WWF International, Gland: 73-94. updated and republished (2005) as conserving biodiversity
in mountain areas: Addressing the challenges of climate change. In Proceedings of a Global
Synthesis Workshop held at the World conservation Forum on Biodiversity Loss and Species
Extinctions: Managing risk in a changing World (cd). Iucn, Gland.
Linking biodiversity conservation and sustainable development
Mountain areas have high levels of biodiversity, which is important not only for its intrinsic
value, but also as the basis for many economic activities, including tourism, agriculture, and
the management and use of diverse resources from forests. consequently, as shown in the
Spatialnorth project, effective policies and plans to manage and maintain biodiversity require
good integration with other aspects of sustainable development. Since the mid-1970s, one
approach to addressing these challenges is the designation of biosphere reserves through
unESco’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme. the concept of biosphere reserves
has evolved considerably, from an emphasis on biodiversity conservation and research to
the present concept that they should be “sites of excellence to explore and demonstrate
approaches to conservation and sustainable development at a regional scale.” Martin Price
has been closely involved with the development and implementation of this concept, having
served two four-year terms on unESco’s international Advisory committee on Biosphere
reserves, playing a leading role in drafting the Madrid Action Plan for Biosphere reserves in
2008, participating in both ten-year periodic reviews of uK biosphere reserves, and publishing
papers on the process of undertaking periodic reviews of biosphere reserves. For the IYM
in 2002, together with the united nations Environment Programme’s World conservation
Monitoring centre (unEP-WcMc), he prepared a cd on unESco’s activities in mountain
areas around the world, including not only biosphere reserves, but also World Heritage Sites
(WHS) and sites and projects within the International Geological correlation Programme and
International Hydrological Programme. In subsequent years, he has acted as an assessor of
natural WHS in Italy and Switzerland.
Following the IYM, the International union for the conservation of nature (Iucn) appointed
Martin Price to chair a new Mountain Initiative taskforce. For the 3rd World conservation
congress in 2004, he compiled an illustrated portfolio of projects on conservation and
sustainable development projects in mountain areas and organised a workshop on this topic
– which filled the room to more than capacity. this work was instrumental in the adoption
of a resolution at the congress, calling on the Iucn to strengthen and broaden its activities in
mountain areas. In 2005, he established the International Journal of Biodiversity Science and
Management, and continued as its Editor-in-chief until 2009, supported by Jeremy Milne and
Jin Park as Associate Editors.
12

13
In Europe, Martin Price has been active in the EuroMAB programme, which organises biennial
meetings of those involved in the MAB activities in Europe, particularly in biosphere reserves.
In 2007, together with the Slovak Academy of Sciences, he co-organised a workshop in
Slovakia, funded by the British council, on ‘Mountain national parks and biosphere reserves:
sustainability and management’, which brought together 12 young scientists from each
country to present and discuss their research.
the importance of biodiversity has been recognised in Scotland’s nature conservation Act
(2004), which requires all public bodies to consider biodiversity in their plans and actions.
Martin Price chaired the tayside Biodiversity Partnership from 2004 to 2010, and also the
upland sub-group of the Scottish Biodiversity Forum’s rural Land use Working Group, which
prepared the upland actions in the Implementation Plan of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy
in consultation with representatives of key organisations and Local Biodiversity Action Plan
officers. the cMS was subsequently involved in taking these actions forward, and assessing
their implementation, through a project on effective delivery of biodiversity policy in the
uplands, partly funded by the cairngorms national Park Authority and Highlands and Islands
Enterprise, undertaken by Jeremy Milne and Miriam Macchi in 2006-7; and organising two
conferences. the first, in 2006, on ‘the future of biodiversity in the uplands’, aimed to present
and discuss knowledge of the diverse processes of change affecting the uplands, and their
interactions. It was co-organised with the Macaulay Institute and was over-subscribed, with
over 150 participants. the second, in 2009, took a broader perspective on ‘Scotland’s rural
biodiversity: Policy and action needs’. It was organised as a biennial forum of the Edinburgh
consortium for rural research, and attracted 100 participants. All of the presentations,
conclusions, and summaries from these meetings remain available via the cMS website.
Borowski, d. and Munteanu, c. (2011) Biosphere reserves in European Mountains: an
Exploratory Survey. In Austrian MAB committee (ed.): Biosphere reserves in the Mountains of
the World - Excellence in the clouds? Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna: 39-44.
Hambrey, J., Evans, S., Price, M.F. and Moxey, A. (2008) the potential for Biosphere reserves to
achieve uK social, economic and environmental goals. report to the department for Food,
Environment and rural Affairs (dEFrA).
Midgely A., and Price, M.F. (2010) What future for upland biodiversity? In rural Scotland in
Focus, Scottish Agricultural college, Edinburgh: 80-87.
Price, M.F. (2002) the Periodic review of Biosphere reserves: A mechanism to foster sites of
excellence for conservation and sustainable development. Environmental Science and Policy
5(1): 13-19.
Price, M.F. (ed.) (2004) conservation and sustainable development in mountain areas. Iucnthe
World conservation union, Gland and cambridge.
Price, M.F., dick, d., and russell, G. (2009) Scotland’s changing rural biodiversity: Policy and
action needs. Edinburgh consortium for rural research, Edinburgh.
Price, M.F., Park J.J. and Bouamrane, M. (2010) reporting Progress on Internationally-designated
Sites: the Periodic review of Biosphere reserves. Environmental Science and Policy 8: 549-557.

Fostering effective interdisciplinary and applied research
understanding and effectively addressing the complex challenges faced by mountain
people in an era of global change requires carefully designed and implemented research
involving scientists from a range of disciplines. Building on previous work, in 2004, Martin
Price co-organised a conference at the Banff centre, canada, on ‘Interdisciplinary research and
management in mountain areas’. Before the conference, 50 possible projects from around
the world were identified by an international panel. those responsible for these projects
were then sent a survey to evaluate the extent to which their research projects had been
interdisciplinary and, if possible, involved extensive stakeholder involvement, making them
transdisciplinary. the proponents of the highest scoring projects from six regions – Africa,
Asia, Europe, Latin America, northern America, oceania – were then invited to the conference,
which was attended by 90 people. In 2007, Earthscan published a book based on 13 of these
projects, from five continents, edited by Martin Price.
Price M.F. (ed.) (2007) Mountain Area research and
Management: Integrated Approaches. Earthscan,
London.
Price, M.F. (2008) Integrated approaches to research
and management in mountain areas: why and how?
Aspects of Applied Biology 85: Shaping a vision for
the uplands: 67-74.
In 2009, the cMS began its work in the two-year mountain.trIP (transforming research Into
Practice) project, funded by the European commission’s 7th Framework Programme and
also involving five other partners from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Switzerland.
the starting point is that, while the European commission spends over €1 billion a year
on research, there is little understanding of how the outcomes of this research are used.
Mountain.trIP aims to address this issue, bridging the gap between research and practice
relevant to sustainable development in mountain areas. catalina Munteanu has been
responsible for the initial workpackage, which entailed the identification of relevant research
projects, synthesising their outcomes, and producing a web-based database. remarkably, of
110 projects identified, results (websites, reports, etc.) could only be located for 54. Following
a workshop involving stakeholders from across Europe in november 2010 which reviewed
the outcomes of the project to date, catalina will organise a workshop in romania in 2011,
to explore how the outcomes of the EuroMArc project on quality mountain foods could
be effectively used in romania. overall, mountain.trIP is creating an innovative network for
knowledge exchange between practitioners and stakeholders, both on the ground and in the
political sphere, that will continue after the project concludes in 2011.
14

15
Education for sustainable development
Since 2004, the cMS has run a part-time on-line MSc in Managing Sustainable Mountain
development which, since revalidation in 2007, has been available to students living
anywhere in Europe. the course was initially managed by Martin Price; since 2010, by calum
Macleod, with the continuing administrative support of Angela Paterson. It includes four
core modules: environmental and social issues in mountain areas, sustainable development,
policy frameworks and analysis, developing communities. Having developed and delivered
the first of these until 2009, Martin Price was awarded the first ‘Most innovative lecturer’
award by the uHI Students Association in 2010. Students also have a choice of nine optional
modules, of which some – environmental assessment, geographical information systems,
research methods and techniques, water management – have been delivered by cMS staff:
rob Mc Morran, Jin Park, and part-time lecturer Lindsay MacMillan. other optional modules
– biodiversity management, developing potential through placement, sustainable tourism
and interpretation – and the other core modules are taught by staff at other uHI academic
partners: Inverness college uHI, Lews castle college uHI, Moray college uHI, and orkney
college uHI. All modules are shared with other uHI courses.
the part-time and on-line nature of the course give students great
flexibility in studying; it can take from 3 to 6 years to complete.
Students have brought a remarkable range of backgrounds and
experience, which are key elements of the learning experience, as
there are many opportunities for interaction within the framework
of each module. Since 2004, 75 students, have joined the course,
mainly from the uK, but also from Bulgaria, France, and Spain. to
date, ten have graduated – one, calum Brown, with distinction – and
nine have decided not to complete the entire MSc and have been
awarded Postgraduate certificates or diplomas. the unique nature
of the course is one basis for activities associated with the unESco
chair in Sustainable Mountain development, as one of its objectives
is to foster and support comparable courses in other regions. to this
end, Martin Price travelled to India in 2009 to attend the 3rd meeting
of the Himalayan university consortium, a network of academic and
research institutions from the eight Himalayan countries, and has
begun collaboration on curriculum development.
cMS staff have also been involved in other aspects of academic development, delivery, and
assessment. clive Bowman teaches an on-line/video-conference module on climate change,
which is part of a number of BSc courses. rob Mc Morran and Jin Park developed an on-line
module on research methods and techniques and have delivered this to students on a number
of uHI MSc courses; and calum Macleod, rob Mc Morran and Jin Park have developed on-line
modules on participatory approaches to community consultation and on sustainable land use
and energy for a new MSc in Sustainability Studies, to be delivered from 2011. More widely
in uHI, Martin Price has been Academic Area Leader for postgraduate research degrees in
Sustainability Studies validated by the university of Aberdeen in 2007; took a major role in the
preparation of the uHI submission in town and country Planning to the uK-wide 2008
research Assessment Exercise; and chaired the uHI research Practitioners’ Group from 2008 to
2010. He has also supervised successful Phd students at Brunel university and the universities
of Edinburgh, Geneva, and oxford, and has acted as external examiner for the BSc (Hons)
Sustainable development: Ecological and Environmental Aspects at the university of
St. Andrews (2005-8) and the BSc countryside Management at the Scottish Agricultural college
(2008-11), and has examined Phd theses at the norwegian technical university and the
university of Geneva.
Price, M.F. (2007) tertiary education for mountain needs. Mountain research and
development 27: 89.
Price, M.F. and F. rennie (2005) MSc degrees in Managing Sustainable Mountain/rural
development at the university of the Highlands and Islands. Planet 14: 22-24.

17
StAFF And PHd StudEntS At tHE End oF 2010
Professor Martin Price, Director of the Centre for Mountain Studies
(CMS), has a Phd in Geography from the university of colorado at Boulder
and was appointed Professor of Mountain Studies by uHI in 2005 and
chairholder of the unESco chair in Sustainable Mountain development in
2009. He established the cMS in 2000 after seven years at the university of
oxford’s Environmental change unit (now Institute) where he established
a Mountain regions and conservation Programme in 1995. Previously, he
was Scientific Associate of the Institute of Geography of the university of
Bern, Switzerland; Scientific director of the International centre for Alpine
Environments, Bourget-du-Lac, France; and Postdoctoral Fellow at the
national center for Atmospheric research, Boulder, colorado, uSA. He has
been involved in various organisations with a mountain focus, and played
key roles in the formulation and implementation of chapter 13 - “Protecting
Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain development” - of Agenda 21,
endorsed by the rio Earth Summit in 1992, and the International Year of
Mountains, 2002. He has written and edited 13 books and over 100 reports,
papers, and articles on mountain issues and is also MountainMedia Editor
of the pre-eminent mountain science journal ‘Mountain research and
development’. Professor Price has acted as a consultant on mountain issues
to international organisations including the European commission, EEA,
FAo, Iucn, undP, unESco, and unEP; and has undertaken activities relating
to the human dimensions of global environmental change for the European
commission, International Social Science council, uS Forest Service, and uS
national Science Foundation.
Calum Macleod, Deputy Director, joined the cMS in 2010. He has a
Phd in environmental policy implementation and a BA (Hons) degree in
public administration from the robert Gordon university. He previously
worked as a consultant in economic development and was national advisor
on sustainable development for Scotland’s 2000-06 European Structural
Funds Programmes, a post jointly funded by the Scottish Environment
Protection Agency and Scottish natural Heritage. calum is the programme
leader for the MSc in Managing Sustainable Mountain development.
His research interests focus on sustainable crofting communities, the
public management of statutory access rights, and community asset
management. His recent funded research includes ‘Post legislative scrutiny
of the Land reform (Scotland) Act 2003’ conducted with partners on behalf
of the Scottish Parliament in 2010. He is currently working with the Wester
ross Alliance on the feasibility of applying for unESco Biosphere reserve
status on behalf of the region. calum is a Board Member of the Harris
tweed Authority.
Clive Bowman, Research Fellow, qualified as a chartered Landscape
Architect after training at Sheffield university and Leeds Metropolitan
university, and became a full member of the Landscape Institute in 1995.
After working for 15 years in the private and public sector on urban and
rural landscape design projects and strategic land-use policy development
initiatives, he joined the cMS in 2005 to work on Spatialnorth, an
international research project investigating integrated strategic spatial
planning policy development and best practice in implementation across
the Highlands and Islands. In 2007, he took the lead in developing the
clim-AtIc project, initially through a preparatory project and, since
January 2008, as the international project coordinator for the main project.
this utilises and combines his knowledge of community stakeholder
participation, project management skills and experience, and research
interests in sustainable communities, sustainable energy and climate
change. Since August 2010, clive has taught an undergraduate module
on ‘climate change’. He also represents Perth college uHI on the Perth and
Kinross Environment community Planning Partnership.
Rob Mc Morran, Research Associate, has a Phd in Environmental
Governance from uHI, an MSc in Environmental Management from
Stirling university, and a BSc in Ecology from university college cork.
His Phd research focused on multifunctional forestry management
in the cairngorms using both qualitative and quantitative research
methodologies, including geographic information systems, postal
questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. during and since his
Phd, he has been working with cMS on research on sustainable land use,
on topics such as forestry, wild land, policies for quality mountain foods
and the sustainability of community estate ownership. rob delivers the
Environmental Assessment module in the MSc in Sustainable Mountain
development, and is involved in developing a new MSc module on rural
land use and energy. He is also coordinator of the Scottish Wild Land Group.
Catalina Munteanu, Knowledge Exchange Associate, joined the cMS
in 2009, for the mountain.trIP project, in which she developed a database
of research on sustainable mountain development; she is now developing
regionally-relevant communication products about quality mountain food
products in the romanian carpathians. catalina also manages a knowledge
exchange project in collaboration with cairngorms national Park Authority.
She holds a Mag.rer.nat. degree in Geography from Leopold-Franzensuniversity,
Innsbruck, Austria and a degree in Geography and Foreign
Languages from Babes-Bolyai university, cluj-napoca, romania (where
she graduated first in her class). catalina’s previous research focused on
geographies of mountain regions and GIS. Prior to joining the cMS, she
worked in romania and Austria on environmental protection, GIS and
sustainable management of mountain areas, including volunteering and
teaching assistantships.

Diana Borowski, Research and Knowledge Exchange Associate, has
a BA in International relations from the university of technology dresden
(Germany) and an MA in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the
college of Europe. during her university studies, she focused on Eu Internal
Market law and especially on Eu measures in the field of environmental
and agricultural policies. She wrote her master’s thesis on the European
Emissions trading Scheme, exploring its effectiveness in combating climate
change. diana joined the cMS in July 2010, to work on the GEoSPEcS
project, which organizes research into areas with “geographic specificities”
– such as mountain areas, islands, border areas and others – in order to
establish a coherent framework to characterize geographic specificities.
Deborah Davies, Climate Change Communicator, joined the cMS
in June 2010 to work on the clim-AtIc project. She has a BA (Hons) in
Geography from St david’s university and a PGcE from the university of
Brighton. Her role in the clim-AtIc project has involved travelling to all five
regions involved in clim-AtIc to extract, record and evaluate lessons from
the various activities and produce case studies to be used in the eventual
training course and website. Before joining the cMS, deborah spent a
year in Iceland studying coastal and Marine resource Management at the
university centre of the Westfjords Iceland, and will complete her thesis in
the field of climate change adaptation next year.
Angela Paterson has been the part-time Administrator of the cMS
since 2002. Previously she worked as PA/Administrator for organisations
including tayside Enterprise Board and Scottish and Southern Energy. She
provides all administrative support for the MSc in Managing Sustainable
Mountain development, as well as all cMS projects; in particular, over the
last three years, the clim-AtIc project. She has assisted in organising many
conferences and seminars including ‘Global change in Mountain regions’
in 2005; the forum on ‘Scotland’s changing rural biodiversity’ in May 2009;
and, for much of 2010, the ‘Global change and the World’s Mountains’
conference.
Adean Lutton, part-time Research and Administrative Assistant, joined
the cMS in november 2010. She has an MPhil in Publishing from the
university of Stirling, an MSc in Forest Management from the university of
Aberdeen, and over ten years experience in the Scottish environment sector
in editorial and information officer roles. together with clive Bowman,
Adean works on the Audit and Analysis of Woodfuel Suppliers in the
cairngorms national Park; and together with calum Macleod is developing
teaching materials for the new MSc Sustainability Studies. Adean’s interests
are in societal behaviour change, effective communication using multi
media and community development.
Lindsay MacMillan, Part-time Lecturer, has an MSc in Engineering
Hydrology from Imperial college, London, a BSc in Geology from Aberdeen
university, and is a Member of the chartered Institution of Water and
Environmental Management. Within the cMS, she developed the Water
Management module for the MSc Managing Sustainable Mountain
development, and has delivered it since 2006. She also works part-time
for Scottish Water as a Strategic Water resource Planner, providing specialist
hydrological expertise for strategic water supply-demand balance planning,
assessing impacts of the Water Framework directive and abstraction licensing,
and leading on the development of hydrological guidance, improvement
and communication. Previously, with the centre for development and
Environment, university of Bern, she established a hydrological model for
assessing the impact of land use change on the water balance of catchments
draining Mount Kenya; and was Principal Water resources Engineer
with South West Water, working on regional water resource modelling,
development of strategic resource schemes, and drought management.
Jayne Glass, PhD student and Postgraduate Research Associate
(from december), has an MSc (with distinction) in Environmental
Sustainability from the university of Edinburgh, during which she evaluated
community engagement practices on the Glenlivet Estate for her dissertation,
and a BA Honours degree in Geography from the university of oxford, where
she was awarded a prize for her undergraduate dissertation on geoforensic
soil analysis. Prior to joining the cMS, Jayne worked as a European Policy
Advisor on Structural Funding at the department for trade and Industry, and
also as a volunteer for the rSPB and the national trust. Jayne is sub-editor of
the Scottish Mountaineer and was the postgraduate representative for the
uHI Students’ Association in 2008-9. She received the uHI research Student of
the Year Award in 2010.
Annie McKee, PhD student, has an MSc (with merit) in Sustainable rural
development from the university of Aberdeen and a BSc (Hons) in Geography
from the university of St Andrews. In 2006, Annie worked on environmental
sustainability in an oil and gas services company through a placement
with the Business Environment Partnership. Previous dissertation research
looked at public perceptions of red deer management in the cairngorms,
and ‘sustainable rural communities’, a theme central to her Phd research. In
october, she joined the Socio-Economic research Group at the Macaulay
Land use research Institute as a social researcher in land management.
Pippa Wagstaff, PhD student, obtained a Masters in Land Economy from
the university of Aberdeen in order to pursue a change of direction from her
previous career as a chartered Accountant. Her Master’s dissertation focused
on the use of native breeds in equine conservation grazing.
18

Centre for Mountain Studies
Perth College UHI
Crieff Road, Perth, Scotland, UK
PH1 2NX
Tel: +44 (0) 1738 877761
Fax: +44 (0) 1738 877018
Email: info.cms@perth.uhi.ac.uk
www.perth.uhi.ac.uk/mountainstudies
Perth College is a registered Scottish charity, number SC021209
This document has been printed on recycled paper.
All photography © Colin Prior