3rd Forum Carpaticum: Local Responses to Global Challenges, 16–19 September 2014, Lviv, Ukraine

FC 2014 aimed to explore ways to address global challenges in the local and regional context. The main themes of the 3rd Forum Carpaticum (FC2014) conference in Lviv, Ukraine were related, but not limited, to the policy priorities of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Horizon 2020 Programme, focusing on major challenges affecting the Carpathian ecoregion:

• Ecosystem services and land use change. This theme concentrated on the problems of sustainable forest management (SFM), agriculture, agro-ecology, eco-tourism, as well as of control of infrastructure development, urban sprawl, rational utilization of mountain resources, communities and their roles in regulating the access to various ecosystem services.
• Climate change, water and extreme events/hazards. The theme looked into the complex relations between climate change and water resources in the Carpathian area. The focus was on the integrated impact analysis, the resilience of mountain ecosystems as well as their management, conservation and restoration while paying attention to problems of flood protection, water availability and use.
• Natural and cultural heritage. This theme dealt with preservation of and threats to various types of natural and cultural heritage of the Carpathians. A critical issue was the assessment, monitoring, and forecasting changes in complex Carpathian landscapes both in socio-economic and ecological terms for sustaining biodiversity, traditional economy and human well-being.
• Smart mountains. This theme considered the chances offered to mountain areas by a knowledge-based economy, technology development and green growth including environmental-friendly tourism development, mobility, interrelations between rural mountain areas and urban centres in and outside the Carpathians.

The Proceedings Volume of the Forum Carpaticum 2014 contains extended abstracts of the selected presentations made at the conference. The 21 abstracts are divided into four sections: (1) Sustainable Governance, (2) Ecosystem Services and Sustainable Forest Management, (3) Land Cover and Climate Change, and (4) Stream Channel Processes