SAMC2025: Overcoming boundaries and barriers

The 2nd Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2025) took place from 17–20 March 2025 at the Champagne Sports Resort in KwaZulu‑Natal. With the theme Southern African Mountains – Overcoming Boundaries and Barriers, the conference brought together voices from across the world to explore how science, policy, and practice can work together for the sustainability of our mountain regions.

SAMC2025 created space for:

• To provide a platform to integrate science, policy, and practitioner sectors for sustainable interventions in southern African mountains. 

• To share and disseminate information between interested and affected stakeholders concerning the vulnerabilities, challenges, and opportunities with and surrounding the mountain areas of southern Africa. 

• To improve co-operation and communication between various groups of influence, where civil society, traditional, and elected leaders are crucial in ensuring the sustainability of natural resources for current and future beneficiaries. 

• To highlight the complexities and sensitives of mountain social-ecological systems and the importance of fully understanding the impact of the human footprint as well as climate change variabilities. 

The conference drew 313 participants from 22 countries — including academics, researchers, early‑career professionals, practitioners, policymakers, postgraduate students, and government officials. Nearly a third of delegates came from outside South Africa, representing Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia.

SAMC2025’s impact was felt through:

• Four keynote addresses.
• 249 presentations across disciplines (21% by postgraduate students), including a strong arts and humanities component.
• Eight parallel sessions, seven special sessions, a poster session, three book launches, and the premiere of the film QwaQwa: Place of Barriers and Bridges.

Key themes included environmental management of mountain areas, invasive species in mountains, land use and land cover change, making a difference through partnerships and platforms, mountain biodiversity – animals and vegetation, mountain communities, mountain people’s livelihoods, mountain water security and water quality, mountain wetlands, and mountains and climate change. 

Special sessions addressed, amongst others, strategic issues such as transboundary water management, ecosystem linkages, and the idea of a Southern African Mountain Treaty. A landmark Royal Mountain Indaba recognised the vital role of traditional authorities in mountain landscapes at a regional scale.

Capacity building was central to the event, with postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows presenting alongside seasoned scientists, a dedicated Early Career Summit, and a technical workshop on mountain instrumentation.

SAMC2025 showed that overcoming boundaries and barriers is possible when diverse voices come together, building knowledge, strengthening partnerships, and shaping sustainable futures for southern African mountains.