The Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal 2015 Author(s): Bruno Messerli Source: Mountain Research and Development, 35(4):416-418. Published By: International Mountain Society DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-15-00104 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-15-00104 BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use. Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder. BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. Mountain Research and Development (MRD) MountainViews An international, peer-reviewed open access journal published by the International Mountain Society (IMS) www.mrd-journal.org sciences was launched in 1971, the with his family at Appenberg, The Sir Edmund Hillary Man and Biosphere (MAB) program. Emmental, Switzerland’s hilly region Mountain Legacy Medal MAB at that time consisted of 14 (Figure 1), and reinforced—as guest 2015 thematic programs, covering the professor—the links between his own main ecosystems of the world. geography department and the Jack D. Ives Is the First Lifetime Program number 6, with the title Geographical Institute of the Achievement Award Winner. “Impact of Human Activities on University of Bern. Appenberg Mountain Ecosystems,” came just at became the place where many the right moment for us to put even meetings of the international more emphasis on mountains in our Mountain Agenda group took place. Mountain Research and Development research. Forty years later, in May This is where we prepared a number (MRD) can be extremely proud to 2011, in the executive summary of of the Mountain Agenda’s global announce that Jack D. Ives is the the Third Nobel Laureate policy recommendations, decided on winner of the lifetime achievement Symposium on Global Sustainability who would attend what conference, edition of the Sir Edmund Hillary in Stockholm, Sweden, we read: debated about key mountain research Mountain Legacy Medal for 2015. “Ecosystems and social systems are issues, and planned several Mountain Jack Ives was the founding editor of dynamic and inextricably linked” Agenda Series publications. This the journal, which started publishing (http://www.nobel-cause.de/ series successfully raised awareness of worldwide on mountain systems and stockholm-2011/download/ the importance of mountains among mountain development—with Executive_summary.pdf). Instead of the global community. a vision of transboundary the expression “man and biosphere,” The most important event cooperation and science–policy the Nobel laureates were speaking happened in spring 1977, when Jack dialogue—in May 1981. Jack’s wife, and writing gender-correctly about and I were both invited by Professor Pauline Ives, worked as assistant “people and ecosystems.” The 40 Walther Manshard of Freiburg, editor from 1980 to 1997, when the years in between show the pioneering Germany, then vice rector–designate family left the United States and role of UNESCO’s MAB program, of the United Nations University, returned to Ottawa, Canada. Our which strongly encouraged with its headquarters in Tokyo, to great thanks and compliments go to interdisciplinary thinking and discuss a mountain research Jack and Pauline Ives. In 2000, MRD’s working. program. The program started in editorial office moved from the Early in the 1970s, Jack and I were 1978 with the title “Highland– Department of Geography at invited to Salzburg, Austria, to Lowland Interactive Systems.” In Carleton University, Ottawa, to the develop a proposal for a national or 1972, who would have thought that 6 Centre for Development and regional program somewhere in the years later, 2 United Nations Environment at the University of mountains of the world. We can thus agencies—UNESCO and the United Bern, Switzerland, and Jack and say that we were present at the start Nations University—would be Pauline Ives handed over editorial of a new interdisciplinary and involved in our friendship program duties to Hans Hurni, Ted Wachs, globally important mountain Rocky Mountains–Swiss Alps? Susanne Wymann von Dach, and program—especially Jack, who All the same, we both had some Anne Zimmermann. attended the first mountain MAB experiences outside the Rocky This is the first time that the meetings, in 1974 in La Paz, Bolivia, Mountains and the Swiss Alps. Jack Hillary medal has been given to for the Andes, and in 1975 in Ives has provided an overview of his recognize lifetime achievement in Kathmandu, Nepal, for the work in the last 25 years, including mountain research and development, and Himalayas. the mountains of Central Asia, the it is fitting that Jack Ives, MRD’s Jack Ives and I met for the first hills of northern Thailand, the founding editor, should be the time in 1972, when the Congress of Nepalese Himalayas, the Chinese recipient: He devoted his life not the International Geographical Hengduan Mountains, and the Pamir only to mountain research, but also Union in Montreal, Canada, was Mountains of Tajikistan. I did to mountain development, on behalf preceded by a 1 week excursion to the research in the Atlas Mountains of of the people and communities living Canadian Rocky Mountains for North Africa in 1964, in Ethiopia in in mountain areas. members of the Union’s Commission 1974–1976, and in Kenya in 1976– Jack Ives and I were both on High Altitude Geoecology, 1977 on Mount Kenya with its fascinated when a new appeal by the founded in 1968 by Carl Troll from glaciers on the equator. Together, we United Nations Educational, Bonn, Germany, who in our time was took part in the founding and Scientific and Cultural Organization the most famous mountain specialist inauguration of the International (UNESCO) for better cooperation doing research both in and outside Centre for Integrated Mountain between the natural and human Europe. Jack spent a sabbatical leave Development (ICIMOD) in Mountain Research and Development Vol 35 No 4 Nov 2015: 416–418416 http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-15-00104 ß 2015 by the authors MountainViews FIGURE 1 Reminiscing about earlier times in Appenberg, Switzerland, in August 2014. From left to right: Bruno Messerli, Jack Ives, Pauline Ives, and Be´atrice Messerli. (Photo courtesy of Nadine Ives) Kathmandu in 1983, an organization about sustainable mountain Ecosystems—Sustainable Mountain for 8 cooperating countries. The development on a global level. To Development.” founding of the African Mountain indicate the importance of mountain This had the following Association (AMA) happened in areas, more than 1.3 billion people consequences: an International Year Addis Ababa in 1986, followed by live in the 10 most important of Mountains, 2002, with the final mountain conferences in Morocco watersheds—highlands and conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; (1990), Kenya (1993), Madagascar lowlands—of the Hindu Kush– the International Mountain Day, (1996), Lesotho (2000), and Tanzania Himalaya–Tibet. now celebrated on 11 December (2002). Shortly before the beginning A short overview of our every year; and, most important, 10 of the famous year 1992, which mountain work together: We mountain resolutions adopted in the hosted the Earth Summit and Agenda participated in preparatory meetings United Nations General Assembly 21, Jack, Hugo Romero, and I for the Earth Summit in Rio de between 1998 and 2014. In recent founded the Andean Mountain Janeiro (3–14 June 1992), I with the years, these resolutions have always Association (AMA) in Chile in 1991, support of the Swiss diplomatic had the title “Sustainable Mountain with mountain conferences in Bolivia corps in Geneva in autumn 1991 and Development” and cover more than (1995), Ecuador (1998), Venezuela Jack in New York in spring 1992. We 20 paragraphs. The resolution of 12 (2001), and Argentina (2005). The both were present at the Earth February 2014 contains the existence of these 3 organizations, Summit and proud of the great following good advice for future representing almost the whole achievement of having a chapter on generations: Paragraph 21 developing mountain world, was the mountain issues included in the encourages states and all most important argument in summit’s action plan, Agenda 21, stakeholders to give appropriate upcoming discussions and decisions chapter 13, “Managing Fragile consideration to the issues of Mountain Research and Development 417 http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-15-00104 MountainViews sustainable mountain development conference had the title “The beautiful of the ecosystems which in the elaboration of the post-2015 Himalaya–Ganges Problem,” and he make up the environment of our development agenda, and paragraph invited Maurice Strong to be the ‘Only One Earth,’ but are 22 asks the secretary-general to honorary chairman. We indispensable to the survival and report