September 6 to 10, 2002
Mountain Culture, The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada

• Endangered species
• Alpine life history and population dynamics
• Management concerns and research needs
• Role of mountain habitats as ecological refuges and hydrological reservoirs
• Natural hydrological hazards, flooding, mud and rock slides
• Air-borne and ground-based contaminants, levels and impacts
• Climate change impacts on: animal and plant populations, habitats and ecosystems, landscapes and land surface processes

Submitting a paper or a poster.

Plenary speaker, followed by four-panelist symposium on session theme and round-table discussion on related issues in various mountain regions.

Conference Program

Contact:

email: leslie_taylor@banffcentre.ca

David Hik (University of Alberta), 
Kathy Martin (Environment Canada, University of British Columbia)
Leslie Taylor (Mountain Culture, The Banff Centre)

Rationale:

Mountain areas comprise about one-fifth of the world’s land surface area and provide direct life support for about 10% of humankind, and indirect life support for many more. Mountain areas are globally important as ecological and hydrological refugia. Although highly valued for their intrinsic beauty and wilderness values, alpine species and habitats are neglected areas for research and management. These sensitive and understudied ecosystems are experiencing greatly increased recreational and development pressures. Conservation efforts have been largely passive, relying on the difficulty of access to alpine areas for protection. Alpine systems and species provide an excellent model system for predicting likely impacts of climate change for both high and low elevation ecosystems. The International Year of Mountains (IYM) provides an excellent impetus for ecological and biophysical researchers and managers to review the state of knowledge about these important and understudied systems.

The objective of IYM is to promote the conservation and sustainable development of mountain regions, thereby ensuring the well-being of mountain and lowland communities. Our conference will relate to the following IYM themes: Biodiversity, Climate, Risks and Hazards, Water and Forests.

Our conference aims to examine the state of the world’s mountain areas in the International Year. We will focus on present and future conditions of ecological and earth sciences information for mountain habitats. We will draw on examples from the breadth of the world’s mountain regions. The two major thematic areas in the conference will be the ecological conditions of alpine animals, plants, and their habitats, as well as biophysical concerns.

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