On the initiative of ISCAR and ALPARC a new research journal on the protected mountain areas, published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, IGF and Innsbruck University, was issued in June 2009.

Nowadays protected areas are confronted with a double challenge: the conservation of natural resources for future generations on the one hand and the promotion of a reasoned development with positive long-term effects on the other hand.

The research is essential in these processes in order to foster good decision-making. The eco.mont magazine is, thus, considered as a scientific instrument and also very useful for the protected areas’ managers, but at the same time as an informative tool for the visitors, which allows them to understand the professionals’ missions and to begin to adapt their behaviour to participate in a sustainable development themselves.

From now on eco.mont will be published twice a year.

The Journal can be ordered as a print version from http://www.uibk.ac.at/iup/verlagsverzeichnis/zeitschriften.html (D) or as an e-journal at http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/eco.mont (E).