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.
How to cite: Adler, C. and Hunt, G.: Social Innovation and Collective Action in Mountain Social-Ecological Systems under Global Change, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-1017, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-1017, 2026.
Transformative change and the adoption of nature-based solutions (NbS) are essential strategies for adapting to global change. However, their implementation is often hindered by the absence of a collective territorial process. To address this, Living Labs have emerged as transdisciplinary frameworks that facilitate the co-production and deployment of NbS.
Launched in 2023, the VIVALP Living Lab supports the implementation of NbS in Alpine protected areas to enhance the resilience of regions particularly vulnerable to climate change. Adopting a strong co-production approach, VIVALP brings together researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, local and regional stakeholders to co-design and experiment NbS tailored to local challenges at three mountain sites, focusing on the interface between nature protection, agroecological practices in livestock production landscapes, and restoration interventions in ski resorts. This presentation shares insights from VIVALP’s transdisciplinary framework aiming at co-producing a vision, common objectives and adaptation targets, and co-experimenting NbS in mountain socioecosystems. This analysis was facilitated by a monitoring and evaluation framework focusing on the co-production process.
Through multiple workshop rounds, stakeholders and researchers identified adaptation objectives to enhance territorial resilience, criteria to prioritise and assess NbS and steps to their implementation. While biodiversity conservation serves as a shared goal, we hypothesized that the specific NbS and experimental approaches envisioned with local stakeholders are shaped by their distinct landscapes, social, technical and governance contexts. Our analyses highlight the diversity of stakeholder positions in the co-production, experiment and implementation process. We specifically reflect on the role of ecological experiments and scenario modelling as co-production arenas.
VIVALP demonstrates the critical role of Living Labs as transdisciplinary and participatory frameworks for co-producing context-specific adaptation pathways, particularly through NbS. While a common vision like sustainable agricultural practices may emerge, successful NbS implementation requires adaptation to specific contextual factors, as highlighted by the contrasting case studies. This approach is crucial for ensuring relevant, effective, and sustainable climate adaptation in mountain socioecosystems.
How to cite: Lavorel, S., Arpin, I., Morel, C., Elleaume, N., and Lemoine, T.: Co-producing Nature Based Solutions for Mountain Socio-ecosystems: Insights from the VIVALP Living Lab, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-298, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-298, 2026.
This contribution presents a practical example for exploring the potential of collective action to build a resilient local food system as response to increasing uncertainties and challenges linked to climate change and biodiversity loss.
Within the framework of the EU-Horizon project PLUSChange (GA Nr. 101081464), the regional nature park Parc Ela (situated in Central Grisons, Switzerland), supports a cooperative of committed farmers and artisans that initiate a shop for local products in the village of Savognin. We thereby conceive of the process of setting up the business model as a living lab of collective action. While supporting the cooperative in all organisational and practical steps, the framework of the transdisciplinary EU research project allows us to simultaneously analyse the processes involved.
First, we developed a vision for the regional nature park, with a particular focus on the food system and developed strategies how to reach the objectives of this vision. This was done in a series of workshops with relevant stakeholders from the whole food system: farmers and foresters, as well as hotel managers, chefs, small manufacturers, local administration and policy makers. Against this background, a group of committed farmers and artisans decided to set up a shop exclusively offering local products, and founded a cooperative to implement the business.
At the WBF we will present initial results and reflections on how this collective undertaking has evolved, what challenges were met and which potential we see in such a living lab to provide a model for food system transformation at a local level. We will look into the negotiation processes over meanings and values of ‘local’, into how community is created and responsibility shared, as well as into the necessary knowledge exchange that is needed between a) producers and end consumers; b) farmers and gastronomy; c) frontrunners and followers; d) practitioners and policy.
How to cite: Moschitz, H., Perl, F., and Stäheli, H.: A farmers' run local food store as living lab for resilient food systems, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-218, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-218, 2026.
Mountain and rural areas are increasingly recognised as critical arenas for advancing sustainability transitions, yet they continue to face multiple, interacting stressors, including biodiversity loss, climate pressures, demographic change, and fragile mountain livelihoods. Smart and community-led solutions have the potential to strengthen resilience in these socio-ecological systems; however, their effectiveness depends on the presence of specific competences within local communities. Drawing on insights from the Horizon Europe RURACTIVE project, this study examines the combinations of knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, and behaviours required to co-produce smart, biodiversity-friendly, and nature-positive solutions in place-based mountain contexts. We identify six core competence categories—digital and technological, technical, social, organisational, governance, and financial and new business model competences—that underpin the capacity of rural actors to engage in nature-positive innovation. Our analysis shows that isolated skills are insufficient. Instead, transformative potential emerges when these competences function as an interconnected “competence ecosystem,” aligned with local governance arrangements, institutional capacities, and socio-ecological conditions. To illustrate these dynamics empirically, we present evidence from a developing mountain Living Lab in a small community of Toerbel, Canton of Valais, Switzerland. This Living Lab provides a structured setting for the co-production of knowledge, enabling community members, researchers, practitioners, and local authorities to jointly identify competence gaps and test solutions that especially support biodiversity recovery, climate resilience, and social justice and inclusion. The Living Lab in Toerbel underscores how participatory governance, trust-building, and the integration of scientific, local, and traditional knowledge can foster transformative pathways while also revealing persistent challenges related to digital literacy, climate and biodiversity-related issues, and cross-sectoral coordination. This study highlights the importance of strengthening competence ecosystems as a foundation for enabling mountain and rural communities to act as agents of change. Investing in such ecosystems can accelerate inclusive, context-sensitive, and nature-positive transitions in mountain socio-ecological systems.
Acknowledgment: This study has been conducted within HE RURACTIVE and EU COST Action MARGISTAR (CA21125) projects. RURACTIVE has received funding from the European Union under the Horizon Europe grant agreement No. 101084377, from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and the UK Research and Innovation.
How to cite: Melnykovych, M. and Böttinger, E.: Co-Producing Ecosystems for Nature-Positive Innovation: Evidence from a Mountain Living Lab in Toerbel, Switzerland, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-915, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-915, 2026.
Rewilding is a complex and increasingly important topic that bridges nature conservation with economic sustainability, and wider social issues. It is aimed at restoring natural ecosystems by reintroducing native species and allowing natural processes to prevail. Rewilding contributes to biodiversity aims and multiplies opportunities associated with putting nature on a path to recovery. However, its other dimensions are uncertain. The challenges may arise as to (i) connecting rewilding with stakeholders’ other values and interests; (ii) achieving more efficient spatial integration/segregation of land use systems and specifically regarding (iii) the linking of biodiversity conservation and rewilding with place-based practices and social innovation initiatives in mountain regions of Europe. This is the focus of this paper, which has Scotland as a case study.
Nearly 200 projects are dedicated to rewilding in Scotland (Armour, 2025). Discussions around the reintroduction of lynx, for example, indicate the importance to operate following transparent positions, involving stakeholders who need to come to an agreement on ‘best’ solutions. We analyse how the Scottish policy framework supports rewilding and associated stakeholder perceptions to enable such solutions to be achieved. Using an innovative combination of research methods, we examine public/stakeholder perceptions associated with rewilding and key trade-offs in-between. The integration of participatory, analytical and visualization tools, refined and applied at the James Hutton Institute has proven useful for assisting decision making by incorporating prevalent attitudes/perceptions of end users into the design of relevant policies, spatial plans and management practices associated with rewilding.
Our findings provide evidence that although in Scotland economic considerations remain strong, the cultural, health/wellbeing, and intrinsic values that people associate with nature are receiving increasing recognition. Decisions on undertaking rewilding are likely to benefit from developing social innovations and bringing deliberative approaches into monetary valuation of the societal benefits/costs of socio-ecological systems’ transformation. The findings also show that there is an understanding that the promotion of rewilding in some localities in Scotland, and especially in the Highlands, opens a pathway towards leveraging and multiplying forest benefits for society and the environment, potentially offering lessons that extend to other marginalised mountain regions of Europe.
How to cite: Nijnik, M., Martino, S., Miller, D., Joyce, K., Poskitt, S., Wang, C., McKeen, M., and Melnykovych, M.: Socio-Ecological Systems’ Transformation through Rewilding: a case of Scottish Highlands, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-60, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-60, 2026.
Tropical mountain systems are biodiversity hotspots that sustain billions of people who either live in mountains or downstream through the production and flow of vital ecosystem services, yet they face escalating pressures from population growth, deforestation, land degradation, and climate change. Reversing these trends requires transformative, inclusive, and place-based approaches that bridge biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration, and human well-being. Participatory narratives of change, grounded in historical timelines and plausible futures, play a crucial role in shaping such transformations, helping communities reflect on past changes and envision more sustainable pathways forward. This study applies KESHO – a participatory land use scenario approach – to envision future scenarios and co-develop pathways that bend the degradation curve and move toward biodiversity-positive and socially just futures in Nan province, northern Thailand, a region where forests have been extensively converted to cash crops. Using land use as a lens enables us to integrate people’s choices on what land is used for and understand how this responds to external drivers that shape social-ecological systems. Drawing on diverse social memories, local participants co-constructed a historical timeline extending back some 50 years, which helped identify the timing of land use change and the drivers behind this. Participants then co-developed plausible land use futures, revealing both desirable and undesirable potential in the short term (2030/2037) and long term (2065). The scenarios reveal trade-offs between agricultural expansion and ecosystem health, but also opportunities for regeneration, equity, and coexistence between nature and people. To achieve a balanced and resilient future, pathways should prioritise empowering local actors, restoring and protecting nature, promoting a green economy, supporting innovation-driven development, and strengthening governance. Our findings show how participatory scenario planning can integrate science and local knowledge to foster collective learning and actionable transformation toward resilient, balanced, and biodiversity-positive tropical mountain systems. KESHO offers a flexible framework for participatory scenario planning in landscapes facing intertwined social-ecological challenges, enabling dialogue among diverse participants and supporting inclusive, long-term landscape management.
How to cite: Pusingha, P., Marchant, R., Chiyanon, T., Senthong, D., and Han, R.: Bending the degradation curve: co-developing participatory pathways for balanced nature–people futures in tropical mountains , World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-96, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-96, 2026.
The Community Forestry (CF) program in Nepal is often lauded as a successful global exemplar of participatory resource management for ecological restoration, biodiversity enhancement, and rural development. While the CF program has reportedly achieved its initial goal of forest restoration and biodiversity improvement in the mountain region of Nepal, there have been dynamic shifts in forest-people relations due to rapid changes in the socio-economic, ecological, and political landscapes of rural livelihoods, raising concerns about the effectiveness and sustainability of the CF program. In 2023, we conducted a survey of community forest users (N = 873) in two rural districts of Nepal to evaluate the factors influencing the perceived future of CF in Nepal in changing contexts. Our empirical model is grounded on Ostrom’s social-ecological system (SES) framework, which allows us to analyze a variety of socio-ecological, governance, and resource factors that describe local people's perceptions on the future of the CF program toward transformative change. Despite the growing gap between people and forests in the current socio-economic condition, the majority of respondents (67%) expressed high optimism about the CF program in the study region, highlighting the ecosystem and biodiversity values of conserving mountain forests. Results suggest that long-term migration, human-wildlife conflicts, off-farm income, and CFUGs' engagement with local forestry officials are significant factors explaining the positive outlook of CF in Nepal. Conversely, we identify crop raiding by wild animals, female household heads, and local government’s involvement as significant negative factors affecting the perceived future of community forestry in Nepal. Human-wildlife conflicts and cropland abandonment as growing negative externalities of forest expansion and biodiversity enhancement were rated as the main threat for sustaining the CF program and agriculture-based rural livelihood in the mountain regions. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for revising and transforming CF programs and policies to adapt to changing socio-economic and governance contexts and revitalizing local collective efforts for sustainable collective actions for transformative pathways and biodiversity improvement across the world.
How to cite: Bhusal, P. and Parajuli, R.: Forest Users’ Perspectives on the Future of Community-based Forest Management in the Changing Socio-Ecological System in the Mountain Region of Nepal, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-692, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-692, 2026.
