Background: Natural hazards have had significant impacts on life, livelihood and property in the mountain regions. Hazards identification in high mountain areas involved intensive and lengthy fieldwork and mapping with the interpretation of landforms and its related hazards, compulsion of increasing intensity of land-use and careless application of technology leading to further land degradation. Frequent occurrences of hazards such as landslides, snow avalanche, floods and other types of mass wasting are becoming common features in mountainous regions. Results: Himalayan watershed has undergone a most dynamic change in land-use owing to the rapid increase in the population. The change in biophysical systems posed the direct bearing on the hydrological regime of Beas River. The peoples' perceptions regarding origin of hazards and techniques of control to the hazards showed that indigenous and lowland communities are more susceptible to hazards. Deforestation, slope cutting, construction of roads and heavy rainfall were high responsible factors resulting frequent landslides and soil erosion. Hazards cannot be avoided, however their disastrous pursuits can be lessened through pro-active uses of a variety of planning measures, infrastructure and risk transfer mechanism. Afforestation, embankment, better drainage techniques on slope, check on urban sprawl, and ecotourism are effective techniques to offset the local hazards and livelihood vulnerabilities.Conclusion: Owing to the typical geomorphic setting such as high relief variations, thick forest cover, presence of glacier and glacial lakes along the higher reaches, the Beas River is prone to cloudbursts, flash floods, forest fires, landslides and mass movement. The sustainable livelihood of Beas River may best be bestowed by enhanced landuses aided by technologies of bio-engineering, denaturalization of degraded mountain geosystem and resilience for changes.

In 2008, Switzerland ratified both the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expression and the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. In a direct democracy these decisions closely involve multiple stakeholders. In this article, organizations and associations involved in the ratification process will be introduced and discussed against the background of the history of the intangible heritage convention. Next, I will address questions about particular understandings of culture and cultural concepts held by these different organizations, as well as the cultural and sociopolitical objectives or agendas they pursue through the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The term Volkskultur plays a particularly important role in this context since it is often directly equated with intangible culture; thus, the article discusses the implications of this equation, including the cultural and political approaches that stem from it. On March 20, 2008, the Swiss Parliament approved-by a wide majority-two international treaties: one, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions; the other, the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The decision was subject to an optional referendum; that is, if 50,000 citizens had so requested, the ratification would have been submitted to the Swiss electorate for approval. However, since no political group adopted the referendum, the Swiss Federal Council deposited the ratification instruments at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris after the July 10, 2008,

Boundaries can be seen as barriers or as places of contact. It has been suggested that

Marginality and marginalisation have been researched extensively, especially during the 1960s and 1970s within the context of rapid urbanization in Latin America, mostly to try to find out who is marginal and who is not. But most researchers stumbled on the complexity of the phenomenon of marginality. Drawn from a geographical perspective, this note brings together research results presented in 2010, and coming from up-to-date fieldwork research in various regional contexts. Trying to find out common denominators, it highlights the importance of scale and perspective in considering marginality, as well as changes in power relations, the very basis of the marginalisation process.Key words: marginality, geography, scale, power, systems, integration Razumijevanje marginalnosti: suvremeni pogledi iz geografske perspektiveKoncepte marginalnosti i marginalizacije uvelike se istraživalo posebice 60-ih i 70-ih godina 20. stoljeća u kontekstu nagle urbanizacije u Latinskoj Americi, ponajviše kako bi se otkrilo tko je marginalan, a tko nije. No većina istraživača pritom je nabasala na problematiku kompleksnosti fenomena marginalnosti. Polazeći od geografske perspektive, ovaj rad objedinjuje istraživanja iz 2010. te suvremena terenska istraživanja više različitih regionalnih konteksta. U pokušaju svođenja problematike na zajednički nazivnik u radu se naglašava važnost razine i perspektive u proučavanju marginalnosti te posebice promjenâ u odnosima moći, koje su ključne u procesu marginalizacije.Ključne riječi: marginalnost, geografija, razina, moć, sustavi, integracija INTRODUCTIONFrom July 4 th to July 10 th 2010 the International Geography Union (IGU) Commission on "Globalization, marginalization, and regional and local response" (C08-27) gathered during an itinerant conference held both in Graz (Austria) and Fribourg (Switzerland). Given the location of the conference, it was organised around the theme "Mountain Areas and Globalization" (hereafter called "the Conference"). Six specific topics were proposed to the participants. Regional policies and strategies 2. Ageing societies: ghettoization in mountain areas 6Hrvatski geografski glasnik 74/1 (2012.) 3. Agricultural niche productions and regional labels 4. Mountain regions and new technologies 5. Biodiversity 6. Natural hazards and human responseIn the end, most papers were dealing with regional policies and strategies, probably because this topic was broader and more encompassing. After the conference, it was proposed to the participants to contribute to the production of a research note that would summarize the main collective findings raised from the discussion during the conference.After this introduction this note is divided into three parts. The second part presents a few insights about research on marginality during the twentieth century and on how marginality has been put back into the research agenda from the 1990s onwards. The third part deals more directly with the outcomes of the 2010 conference to see what progresses have been made in understanding of ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to the tourism business in Switzerland. Although it is a minor position in the Swiss export balance, it is nevertheless of considerable importance for those regions of the country that attract domestic and foreign visitors. As a consequence of the lockdown measures, combined with close borders and travel bans, tourism collapsed and only briefly and partly recovered in summer. Its future is uncertain and depends on people’s (future guests’) attitudes and decisions as much as on the economy, political measures and, of course, the progress of the pandemic. Will there be an ‘after’ COVID-19?.

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