Projects

The Mountains ADAPT project aims to drive local-level action for climate change adaptation in mou ... ntainous areas in alignment with the Paris Agreement, UNFCCC’s Nairobi Work Programme, and national policy frameworks. This will be done by establishing a small grants funding scheme in the South Caucasus and East African Community partner states, bolstering mountain adaptation efforts and strengthening the capacities of communities through pilot interventions in selected mountain communities. The work builds on tested solutions identified in the booklet “Mountains ADAPT: Solutions from the South Caucasus” (UNEP 2022).

The Strengthening Adaptive Capacity in the Caucasus (SCAC) project addresses the needs of Caucasu ... s countries in modern research and education, knowledge exchange, cooperation, SMD professional network and confidence building through its overall goal of reducing the vulnerability of populations to climate-induced natural hazards and strengthening regional cooperation on climate adaptation and sustainable mountain development. The project has three outputs: (1) increased learning and teaching capacities in the region’s higher education institutions in the domain of disaster risk reduction; (2) improved global, regional and national knowledge exchange and multi-stakeholder dialogue on climate adaptation and sustainable mountain development; and (3) enhanced processes and tools for Caucasus data, information, and knowledge collection, analysis, and dissemination.

The project aims to accelerate the climate resilient transformation of 10 of the most relevant co ... mmunities and regions located in the mountains in 9 European countries. Out of this, 6 of the regions/communities in Austria (Tirol), Bulgaria (Gabrovo) Romania (Râu Sadului), Switzerland (Valais), Finland (Lapland), Italy (Piemonte) will develop and test transformative Climate Change Adaptation solutions focusing on variuos key community systems (e.g.tourism, water consumption in agriculture, land use)

University of Milan – UNIMONT will contribute in steering and coordinating the commmunication act ... ivities and will support the implementation of the living lab in Italy promoting stakeholder engagement and the co-creation process along with the Lombardy Region. Moreover, given the connection with EUSALP, supporting the identification of relevant policy recommendations and provide a bridge to the EUSALP governing bodies. The Living Labs in Italy are two medium-sized ski resorts: Maniva ski, with a lack of snow due to its low altitude and Chiesa in Valmalenco, seeking to develop 4-season tourism which will be coordinated with Region Lombardy. UNIMONT will also involve other observers such as Adamello Ski and Aprica, two ski resorts close to its premises which will be involved in the dissemination of results and in the discussion generated within the TranStat project.

The aim of the project is to highlight and list the farms (or farmers) that cultivate varieties o ... f particular interest (eg: ancient varieties, rare varieties, frost resistant varieties, etc.) in the mountain areas of Italy with the aim of shedding light on the agro-biological potential of the Italy mountains. To do this, a network was createdthat allows the conservation in situ of traditional varieties, the dissemination and exploitation of knowledge of these varieties, the characterization of lesser-known varieties and the initiation of protection practices such as registration in the National Register of Conservation Varieties, for those varieties that need to be safeguarded. The information collected are entered in a database and managed for research and dissemination activities.

Saffron is a valuable agro-food product that can be grown in marginal and mountain Italian areas ... and is suitable for sustainable agricultural practices. Therefore it is a recurring topic in Ge.S.Di.Mont – UNIMONT reseach centre – activities. UNIMONT carries out research and boost activities related to saffron and supports the VAL.TE.MO. association in the quality analysis service of this spice. Ge.S.Di.Mont., in collaboration with VAL.TE.MO. association, organizes events for the development of the saffron supply and production chain, including technical tables for Saffron producers and seminar-workshop events also available in streaming and on demand.

The Caucasus Mountain Forum (CMF) is one of SNC-mt’s flagship initiatives. The concrete and ... timely regional context of the Caucasus provides a major motivation for organizing biannual regional forums for different stakeholders working on the Caucasus mountain region. The forums serve as an important opportunity for scientists and academics, governmental experts, and practitioners to meet, exchange views on opportunities and challenges, and thereby seek to enhance (sub)-regional dialogue and contribute to the better coordination of sustainable development in the Caucasus region.

The scientific objective of the project is to evaluate in detail the changes in landscape diversi ... ty and biodiversity in selected model areas in the context of long-term (historical) or short-term development of foothill, mountain and alpine landscapes conditioned by natural and anthropogenic factors. Changes in landscape diversity will be assessed both on the basis of changes in landscape structure in relation to changes in the nature or functional use of the landscape and on the basis of changes in the nature, content and significance of landscape features, which are then linked to overall changes in biodiversity in the area (system: structure – functional change of landscape feature – change in biodiversity). Changes in biodiversity in landscapes and ecosystems shall be assessed on the basis of the impact of natural landscape factors acting on forest and non-forest ecosystems at the level of changes in habitat conditions, changes in the species composition of plant and animal communities and changes in the representation, structure and function of habitats. At the same time, changes in biodiversity in relation to long-term or short-term effects of negative anthropogenic factors in the areas will also be assessed.

The Agritech Centre, which involves 28 universities, 5 research centres and 18 companies, has the ... ambition to combine the best scientific skills to make the Italian agri-food industry more competitive and sustainable. The project aims to connect nationally available agricultural research infrastructures, use enabling technologies to improve productivity and sustainability, and promote ecological and digital transition, work with companies to increase economic resilience and competitiveness in the agri-food sector and train the next generation of academics in the sector, ensuring the human capital and skills needed to face future challenges. UNIMONT, Pole of Excellence of the University of Milan will operate within the Spoke 7 that will focus on mountain areas with the aim of studying integrated models for the development of marginal areas in order to promote a multifunctional production system that promotes the agro-sustainability,ecological and socio-economic.