1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 Conservation in a Changing World
The increasing recognition of global change may place traditional conservation
goals in a deadlock. Mountains have been flagship lands of conservation around the
world. Although plenty of natural resources, mountains have generally been less
amenable to the settling of large human populations. Their relative societal marginal role, together with their intrinsic natural values, has facilitated the creation of
nature reserves with the general goal of preserving species and natural landscapes.
Although climatic variability has long been recognized, the declaration of nature
reserves was based on the assumption that things would not change significantly for
many generations and thus the preserved lands will remain pristine or recover a
state close to that if they had been highly modified by humans. Obviously, there
were differences among continents. In the less populated regions, preserving
wilderness played a central role (e.g., western North America) whereas in countries
with a long tradition of mountain use the conservation goal often included human
activities that were considered traditional in those landscapes (Radkau 2008;
Beniston and Stoffel 2014). Yet the central conservation goals may have differed
among countries or shifted with time since nature reserves started to be formulated
in the late 19th century, the alternative views were not challenged by anything that
could not be apparently managed at a local, regional or national scale.
Now the situation has drastically changed. National Parks and other nature
reserves will have to review their foundational goals. Beyond managing their
internal problems and the pressures from their immediate natural and societal
surroundings, they will have to deal with atmospheric drivers (Fig. 1.1) that may
shift their natural systems to situations completely unexpected in the recent past
(DeFries et al. 2012). These changing conditions will overlap with parallel changes
in the local and regional socio-economic context that will also be reacting to the
new situation (Pearson 2016). The larger the expected problem, the sooner the
reaction should be planned (Margalef 1976). Given the global change scenarios, it
is opportune to analyze the role of high-mountain nature reserves in a context of
persistent change, evaluate whether there are non-sustainable goals and discuss
alternative aims more in accordance to the new situation.
1.1.2 Vulnerability, Exposure, and Sensitivity
The eventual vulnerability of an ecosystem to some perturbation depends on both
the degree of exposure, and the sensitivity to it (Lloret 2017). High mountains are
particularly exposed to some of the atmospheric global change components (Steffen
et al. 2015): high mountains are prompt to shifts in climatic extremes (Rangwala
et al. 2012); the atmosphere is thinner, so UV radiation is higher, particularly in the
4
J. Catalan et al.
1.1.1 Conservation in a Changing World
The increasing recognition of global change may place traditional conservation
goals in a deadlock. Mountains have been flagship lands of conservation around the
world. Although plenty of natural resources, mountains have generally been less
amenable to the settling of large human populations. Their relative societal marginal role, together with their intrinsic natural values, has facilitated the creation of
nature reserves with the general goal of preserving species and natural landscapes.
Although climatic variability has long been recognized, the declaration of nature
reserves was based on the assumption that things would not change significantly for
many generations and thus the preserved lands will remain pristine or recover a
state close to that if they had been highly modified by humans. Obviously, there
were differences among continents. In the less populated regions, preserving
wilderness played a central role (e.g., western North America) whereas in countries
with a long tradition of mountain use the conservation goal often included human
activities that were considered traditional in those landscapes (Radkau 2008;
Beniston and Stoffel 2014). Yet the central conservation goals may have differed
among countries or shifted with time since nature reserves started to be formulated
in the late 19th century, the alternative views were not challenged by anything that
could not be apparently managed at a local, regional or national scale.
Now the situation has drastically changed. National Parks and other nature
reserves will have to review their foundational goals. Beyond managing their
internal problems and the pressures from their immediate natural and societal
surroundings, they will have to deal with atmospheric drivers (Fig. 1.1) that may
shift their natural systems to situations completely unexpected in the recent past
(DeFries et al. 2012). These changing conditions will overlap with parallel changes
in the local and regional socio-economic context that will also be reacting to the
new situation (Pearson 2016). The larger the expected problem, the sooner the
reaction should be planned (Margalef 1976). Given the global change scenarios, it
is opportune to analyze the role of high-mountain nature reserves in a context of
persistent change, evaluate whether there are non-sustainable goals and discuss
alternative aims more in accordance to the new situation.
1.1.2 Vulnerability, Exposure, and Sensitivity
The eventual vulnerability of an ecosystem to some perturbation depends on both
the degree of exposure, and the sensitivity to it (Lloret 2017). High mountains are
particularly exposed to some of the atmospheric global change components (Steffen
et al. 2015): high mountains are prompt to shifts in climatic extremes (Rangwala
et al. 2012); the atmosphere is thinner, so UV radiation is higher, particularly in the
4
J. Catalan et al.