Focus Issue: Weaving Together Knowledges—Collaborations in Support of the Wellbeing of Mountain Peoples and Regions

Abstract

Knowledge collaborations are fundamental for developing effective pathways toward more just and sustainable futures in mountains. Strengthening the resilience and wellbeing of mountain peoples and regions requires that Indigenous and academic ways of knowing contribute meaningfully to informed decisions and interventions at multiple levels. Mountain systems are experiencing increasing threats to their sustainability, including climate change impacts, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, anthropogenic pressures, and increased vulnerability of local livelihoods. Rapid and disruptive changes to mountain systems also foreshadow impacts on the broader landscape. Indigenous Peoples’ understanding of relationality positions communities and livelihoods as integral parts of mountain systems and emphasizes interconnectedness of all the elements of these systems. However, historically, Indigenous knowledge and methodologies have been devalued and constrained in an institutional and peer-review context defined by academic traditions. Academic disciplines have developed related concepts and approaches intended to investigate and communicate system interconnectivity, including nature’s contribution to people, socioecological systems, and biocultural diversity. Importantly, all of these ways of knowing and doing recognize that people are a key element of mountain systems and that human decisions and actions have unique impacts within them. Innovative models of collaborative knowledge inquiry can enhance our ability to understand and address the impacts of rapid environmental, economic, and social change on the resilience of mountain systems, while empowering, respecting, and, where useful, bringing together Indigenous and academic knowledges and research approaches . This focus issue of MRD was born from a fruitful partnership with the Canadian Mountain Network (CMN). It focuses on knowledge collaborations by mountain researchers and Indigenous Peoples in support of the wellbeing of mountain people and regions. Articles published in this issue provide examples of knowledge coproduction and application in diverse mountain contexts across the globe. Beyond contributing to the recognition of multiple forms of scientific knowledge inquiry, we hope that this issue will inspire more ethical and meaningful cooperation between academics and Indigenous and local mountain communities, with a view to achieving more sustainable futures and redressing historical injustices . Indigenous and local knowledge from the Andes and the Himalayas is presented in the MountainViews section. As a result of an innovative peer-review process that acknowledges place-based forms of knowledge production, the 2 articles published in