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Paper short abstract

This contribution brings together the political ecology of conservation and mountain geographies and reflects on the contested environmental futures of the Dolomites, in the Italian Eastern Alps, through the analysis of governance, conservation visions and community struggles in Cortina d’Ampezzo

Paper long abstract

In recent years, mountain environments have been discussed in the institutional framework of the European Union to support a vision of green transition in relation to the severe impact of the climate crisis, highlighted by the IPCC, and connected issues of socio-environmental change. However, scholars in critical geography and political ecology have recently highlighted the controversial nature of this institutional vision and how it can legitimize new frontiers in capital accumulation and diverse processes of mountain extractivism and commodification. In parallel, scholars argue the imperative of support radical trasformative change of mountain futures towards climate justice. Aimed to further this reflection, this contribution brings together the political ecology of conservation and mountain geographies and reflects on the environmental futures of the Dolomites, in the Italian Eastern Alps, through the analysis of governance, conservation visions and community environmental struggles in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Cortina, together with some neighboring valley, hosts soon the 2026 Winter Olympics. This case, and the Dolomites more in general, shows the rising contested nature of environmental futures and their politicization, between controversial ideas of accumulation by sustainability and critical environmental visions, rooted in the community, claiming limit, care and justice. This vision encompasses experiences and practices that reminds conviviality in conservation and can advance a critical reflection in the political ecology of mountains on commodification, conservation and community interplays.