36% of Europe is comprised of mountainous areas, which play a key role in the supplying of public and private resources. MOVING arose in this context, with participation by 16 European countries. The project aims to generate scientific evidence, co-created with local actors, for the design of a new generation of policies in Europe that will bolster the resilience and sustainability of its mountain areas.
The project coordinator at the University of Cordoba, Professor María del Mar Delgado, together with the research team, emphasize that the project's original innovation is that it analyzes how the value chain concept can be integrated into that of a socio-ecological system, engaging all the stakeholders involved and taking into account both environmental and social implications.
MOVING's main objective is to identify the existing value chains in these mountains to determine their vulnerability to threats, such as climate change, depopulation, and changes in land use. In the case of the province of Cordoba, to carry this out an in-depth assessment will be conducted of traditional and emerging value chains in Sierra Morena, such as that related to the Iberian pig, cork, and astronomical tourism. A similar analysis in the Sierras Subbéticas will be carried out by a research team from the Guadajoz-Campiña Este Research Group.
With the information collected, the research group at the UCO will also perform an analysis of scenarios for the year 2050, analyzing what the possible development situations in these areas may be.
MOVING's primary objective is to raise awareness of the diversity and richness that exists in mountain areas, and how threatened they are by social, ecological and climatic issues. The project also strives for future policies that will help vitalize these mountainous areas and render them resilient, not isolated and remote areas without access to goods and services existing in other territories.
María del Mar Delgado stresses the "Community of Practice" (CoP) concept, with efforts being made to create them through the participation of a large number of actors involved in mountain areas. “MOVING encompasses 23 mountain regions, located in Italy, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Austria, Greece, Serbia, the Netherlands, Turkey, Hungary and Spain. In each a multi-stakeholder platform is going to be created in order to draw upon their experiences, perspectives, and traditional and innovative knowledge, in order to be able to include them in policy design", she concluded.
Participation in the European MOVING project has been a very enriching experience for the research group, though a challenge within the COVID scenario, as it is a project that combines the social and environmental sciences. Likewise, they have been able work with collaborators of different nationalities, and multidisciplinary teams, both academics and residents of mountainous regions.
Other researchers from the MOVING team at the UCO are Sherman Farhad, Pablo Gónzalez, Guillermo Palacios, Carmen Maestre, Javier Moreno and José Ángel Hurtado. In addition, Melina Granet and Víctor García are completing their Master's internships there.
The MOVING project - “Mountain Valorization through Interconnectedness and Green Growth” (H2020-RUR-2019-01-862739) is funded by the European Union through the H2020-RUR-2019-01 call.
"This report is part of the project “CONSOLIDA-UCO ECT2020-000810", funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by European Union “Next Generation EU”/PRTR”.