Priorities for sustainable mountain development in Europe

The concept of sustainable mountain development (SMD) was first used in Cha pter 13 of Agenda 21. This chapter marked the first time that mountains wer e recognised as a global priority, and led to a number of meetings on the t opic of SMD, each of which produced a long list of priorities. The definiti on of SMD, and identification of indicators to evaluate success in achievin g its objectives, are discussed. In order to move towards prioritisation of the concept in Europe, a questionnaire was sent to 249 respondents in 30 E uropean countries asking for their perceptions of the importance of 36 vari ables linked to SMD, and of the performance of policies relating to each of these variables. The response rate was 47%. The results were analysed usin g importance-performance analysis, first for all respondents, and then comp aring (1) respondents in Western vs. Central/Eastern Europe and (2) governm ent vs. research/NGO respondents. The analyses show that environmental vari ables are generally perceived as more important than socio-political or eco nomic variables, and that there are important differences both between diff erent parts of Europe and between types of respondent. Such findings must b e considered when defining policies for SMD at European and national scales .