Objectives and Goals

1. To contribute intellectually and practically to the sustainable development discourse of the Maloti-Drakensberg as a unique social-ecological system. 
2. To place the poorly studied Southern African montane systems (i.e. those south of the Congo rainforest and Tanzania) IN the continental and global mountain-research-, policy and governance arena. 
3. To facilitate the development of a mountain-research ‘community of practice’ in Africa that will lead African mountain research from within Africa.
4. To inform mountain hypotheses, theories and impacts of global significance from an African perspective, and thus contribute to strengthening the role of the South in the global mountain- research agenda.