Social Innovation and Collective Action in Mountain Social-Ecological Systems under Global Change

Mountain regions are undergoing rapid transformation driven by climate change, land-use dynamics, demographic shifts, and governance restructuring. These global change processes profoundly shape biodiversity outcomes in mountain socio-ecological systems, not only through ecological impacts but through their effects on livelihoods, institutions, and collective decision-making. Advancing biodiversity-positive futures therefore requires attention to social innovation, human dimensions, and governance processes that enable transformative change.

The Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) is a global research coordination network that focuses on global change in mountain regions, with particular emphasis on social-ecological systems, human–environment interactions, and the integration of knowledge across disciplines and scales. While MRI does not directly implement biodiversity conservation actions, its work addresses the enabling conditions under which biodiversity recovery and resilience can emerge in mountain landscapes shaped by agriculture, forestry, and other land uses.

This contribution reflects on MRI’s role in fostering collective action and social innovation through community-led working groups, synthesis activities, and long-term research–practice interfaces that resemble Living Lab approaches. These co-creation arenas bring together researchers, communities, policymakers, and civil society to jointly explore adaptation pathways, governance innovations, and responses to global change. By supporting dialogue across knowledge systems, including local, Indigenous, and scientific perspectives, MRI helps strengthen trust, learning, and cross-generational collaboration in complex socio-ecological contexts.

The presentation will highlight how coordinated research infrastructures and participatory knowledge platforms can inform governance processes that indirectly but critically shape biodiversity outcomes in mountain regions. It will also reflect on how lessons from mountain social-ecological systems can be scaled and transferred across regions through shared principles and processes, rather than prescriptive solutions, including in post-crisis and rapidly changing settings.

By situating biodiversity futures within broader transformations of mountain social-ecological systems, the MRI experience illustrates how global change research and attention to human dimensions can contribute meaningfully to transformative pathways for biodiversity, equity, and resilience in mountain regions.