Mountain ecosystem conference is ‘wonderful experience’ for Sri Lankan researcher

Guest Post by Sajanee Gunadasa, Lecturer, Faculty of Animal Science and Export Agriculture, Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka

I presented a poster at the PERTH III -  Mountains of Our Future Earth conference in Scotland in October 2015 with the financial support of the AuthorAID. The conference was organized by the Centre for Mountain Studies together with the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) and the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA), all members of the Mountain Partnership.

During the poster session, I was fortunate to talk about mountain ecosystems to scientists from various parts of the world. The discussion mainly took place on the problem related to mountain ecosystems and the ways ahead to save these ecosystems for future generations. Also, by listening to the keynote speakers and presenters at the conference, I collected information about the behaviour of different mountain ecosystems and impact of climate change on these systems. The conference was also useful in terms of gaining knowledge on past, present and future conditions of mountain ecosystems in terms of the living conditions, flora and fauna, land-use patterns and farming in mountains.

Moreover, the field visit to Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve on the first day gave me an opportunity to identify mountain ecosystem in a temperate area, including its extraordinary biodiversity. It was a great experience to recognize the protective land-use patterns of this area to overcome degradation of mountain ecosystem and to think about the applicability of similar techniques for the future of mountains in tropical and subtropical areas.

I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to AuthorAID for this valuable support. The travel grant was a tremendous help.