MOuntain Valorisation through INterconnectedness and Green growth (MOVING)

Mountains cover 36% of the European area and have an important role in the provision of public and private goods. Despite their relevance in both ecological and socioeconomic terms, we lack updated and comparable knowledge about many aspects of these regions affecting their management and sustainability.

MOVING (MOuntain Valorisation through INterconnectedness and Green growth) aims to build capacities and co-develop – through a bottom-up participatory process that involves value chain actors, stakeholders and policy-makers – relevant policy frameworks across Europe. The 23 mountain regions from 16 countries, are areas where the project rolls-out its research activities and actions engaging relevant stakeholders through Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs). These regions represent the wide diversity of mountain areas in Europe and neighbouring countries.

Objectives of the projects are:

• Establishing a European-wide Community of Practice (CoP)  on Mountain Value Chains, including actors from the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS), value chain and policy-making stakeholders and society;
• Developing a conceptual and analytical framework that describes and interprets the diversity of Mountain Value Chains and assesses their contribution to the sustainability and resilience of mountain areas and their population;
• Providing visual tools to raise awareness of AKIS, value chain actors, civil society and policy-makers, about the diversity of land use and production systems of mountain areas, threats faced, bio-physical assets, their sustainability and resilience to climate change;
• Studying the configurations, strategies, dynamics, the value distribution of the value chains to assess their contribution to sustainability and resilience;
• Developing in-depth, participatory, critical benchmarking of clusters of Mountain Value Chains to identify enablers and blocking factors affecting the sustainability and resilience;
• Carrying out foresight exercises to capture and anticipate the long-term trends affecting mountain areas, co-constructing shared visions and strategies for a balanced mix of public and private goods;
• Elaborating an evidence-based policy roadmap and design to include performance-based recommendations for policy interventions that enhance the connectivity, sustainability and resilience of mountain regions.