Mountain Forest Brochure: Call for case study

As you know, 2011 is the International Year of Forests. As a contribution to this International Year, and also as an element in the process aiming to ensure appropriate recognition of the world's mountain areas and their resources and people in the 2012 Rio+20 Earth Summit, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has commissioned a report on the world's mountain forests.

This highly illustrated report will follow previous such reports commissioned by SDC on mountains and biodiversity, climate change, and arid lands. It will be launched at the Green Pioneering Summit in Verbier, Switzerland on International Mountain Day, 11 December, 2011 and will subsequently be disseminated at several key events at global and regional levels.

I have been asked to coordinate the preparation of the report, together with the Institute of Forest Ecology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU); and FAO.

I am contacting you to ask whether you would be interested in contributing a case study to the report. To indicate your commitment, should your case study be selected, all case studies selected for the report will have to be submitted by 25 August; they will be up to 1,000 words (which will be edited for the eventual report) and complemented by up to 5 high-quality images (of which some will be used). Everyone who contributes a case study will be identified in the report and receive a copy of the report.

At this point, we are compiling offers of case studies. If you would like to propose a case study, please can you respond to forestreport@boku.ac.at by 30 June with the following information:

• a phrase or sentence very briefly summarizing the contents of the case study
• the country (or countries) to which the case study refers
• the organization(s) involved in funding the activities included in the case study (if relevant) - the organization(s) involved in implementing the activities included in the case study
• with reference to the attached table of contents of the report, the sections to which the case study refers

If you wish to propose more than one case study, please feel free to do so.

Once we have received all offers of case studies, we will review them, and select a representative number, taking into account their geographical distribution, themes, and implementing and funding organizations. If your case study is chosen, we will contact you in early July with further details.

We hope that you will find this request of interest, and look forward to hearing from you.

We would also be grateful if you could forward this email and its attachment to anyone else who might be interested in submitting a case study.

With best regards,

Prof. Martin Price
Chairholder, UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development
Director, Centre for Mountain Studies
Perth College
University of the Highlands and Islands
Crieff Road
www.perth.uhi.ac.uk/mountainstudies