MOVING has developed a DECO strategy, built a Community of Practice and a Virtual Research Environment, and run youth engagement activities. It carried on +2,000 Community and Dissemination Activities with outreach to nearly 496,000 stakeholders. It also engaged stakeholders through 23 Regional (>1,000 actors) and 1 EU-level Multi-Actor Platforms (approx. 100 actors), including >1,700 youth. It produced the MOVING App for disseminating the project’s results and provided an Exploitation Plan for sustainability and uptake of results.
MOVING has developed a robust conceptual and analytical framework to build the methodologies used in the project to describe, classify and assess the contribution of mountain value chains to the sustainability and resilience of mountain land-based production systems.
MOVING conducted a thorough study of the vulnerability of mountain land-use systems in Europe, integrating local empirical knowledge with scientific knowledge to deliver a nuanced insight into mountain areas' social and economic dynamics. We found that mountains are fragile ecosystems facing essential threats such as climate change and demographic decline, and small changes can lead to catastrophic effects. We also identified more than 160 adaptive mechanisms to face this vulnerability. Most are not yet in use, and public and private support is needed to make them feasible.
MOVING identified over 450 MVCs in Europe that deliver public and private goods and services crucial for the resilience and sustainability of these areas and society in general. 23 MVCs ranging from crop-based, animal-based, and alcohol-based to tourism and knowledge economy were analysed. They showed that the assemblage (interconnectedness) of MVCs brings economic, social, and environmental benefits, being the economic ones stronger. Upgrading strategies were constructed for each MVC.
Five clusters of MVCs were identified based on main challenges: Social and Demographic aspects, Value and Quality Products, Innovation and Infrastructure, Nature and Ecosystem Services, and Governance, Cooperation and Territoriality. Benchmarking and cross-comparison among clusters led to identifying trade-offs, challenges and solutions. Seven key objectives defined to boost sustainability and resilience were ranked, and social aspects such as human capital and cooperation prioritised. Experts highlighted socio-ecological balance as a major priority and recognised the importance of MVCs in retaining talent, diversifying the economy, and preventing depopulation.
22 participatory local foresight, four cross-cluster and 1 Pan-European foresight exercise were developed. Four archetypes (Economic, Nature, Niche and Diversification, and Knowledge motivation) were elaborated to draft scenarios and strategies to address the challenges for a better future. Thirty flagship strategic options were documented, some already in place but not adapted to the mountains, some others piloting innovative interventions, and some being only at an early designing stage.
MOVING developed a Policy Roadmap based on 8 blocks aiming to build an enabling environment for “unlocking the power” of MVCs. And a Policy Design Toolkit to help mountain stakeholders craft contextualised demands for effective policy formulation.
