Factsheet - EU CAP Network Focus Group ‘Competitive and resilient mountain areas'

• The most promising opportunities on mountain areas are: the growing markets for specialised local niche products, the high quality of the mountain products, local breeds, sustainable tourism, a quiet and remote environment, green care and social farming activities, the existence of beautiful landscapes, unique biodiversity and a range of further common goods as well as living traditions and historic buildings.
• Agriculture, forestry and the bio-economy in mountain areas operate in a complex and dynamic human-nature system, and long-term and transformative solutions are needed to increase resilience at the regional level.
• Social innovation can play a key role in this transformation, alongside the innovation in products, processes and marketing.
• The success of innovation in rural (mountain) areas is challenged by the lack of scale in terms of population and industrial base, and the distance from economic partners and centres of consumption, which makes the diffusion of innovation and knowledge more difficult.

Finally, the drivers for innovators and the public policies to guide innovation are, not yet, fully understood. In order to unlock this knowledge, the members of the Focus Group have identified several factors that are responsible for the successful implementation of innovations in mountain areas, in terms of organisation, strategic planning and management, as well as access to infrastructure, funding and other resources