Mountain Partnership: On 3 June 2011, FAO and the Mountain Partnership organized a meeting on mountains and climate change in the context of the UNFCCC.  The countries who participated were Armenia, Bhutan, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Morocco, Nepal, Peru, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, as well as the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and a representative of the UNFCCC Secretariat.

The meeting was organized to discuss two major initiatives on mountains: the Government of Nepal’s Mountain Initiative (MI) and the Group of Mountain Landlocked Developing Countries (MLDC). The Mountain Initiative was announced at COP 15 in Copenhagen in December 2009, by the Prime Minister of Nepal as a new initiative to establish a stronger political lobby for mountain issues at the UNFCCC. Since then it has organized an international expert consultation in September 2010, as well as side events at official UNFCCC conferences to further develop and build support for this idea.  Additionally, the Governments of Armenia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan had formally established the Group of Mountain Landlocked Developing Countries (MLDC) at the SBSTA meeting held in Bonn in June 2010, with a view towards expanding the group to include other interested countries.

Against this background, FAO, in its capacity as UN lead agency for mountains, invited key mountain countries to meet in Bonn just prior to the SBSTA meetings, to discuss how to move forward in the climate change discussions with respect to mountain issues.  The meeting was an informal setting in which to discuss issues, the process and areas of common interest. It looked at how different countries can work together to enhance their political influence in the climate change negotiations and how to more effectively exchange and share information.

A full summary and presentations from the meeting are available here.

The 34th sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) took place from 6-16 June. All available conference documents can be found here.

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Mountain Countries and the Road to Rio +20 (9 May, New York, USA)

In preparation for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development  –  also called the Rio+20 Summit –  mountain countries met in New York to join forces and renew high political attention to fragile mountain ecosystems.

On 9 May 2011, during the CSD 19, Switzerland and Italy welcomed members of the Mountain Focus Group – an informal group of mountain countries at the UN – to discuss ways in which they can have an impact on the outcome of Rio+20 and contribute to the next CSD cycle that will include a focus on mountains. The meeting was organised at the Swiss Mission to the UN within the framework of the Mountain Partnership and included representatives of Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Bolivia, Chile, France, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Lesotho, Peru, Slovenia and Tajikistan.

The Mountain countries agreed on the priority of joining forces to increase their negotiating power and build awareness at all levels highlighting the cause of mountains within the Rio+20 process.  Lobbying, networking   and emphasizing the relationship between Mountains and Green economy were some of the activities that the Group will take action on. Countries were encouraged to submit inputs to the Rio+20 Secretariat by the end of October in order to influence the language of the final document.

Rio+20 will mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which set the stage for serious sustainable development actions by the international community and in which for the very first time mountains were recognized by Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 as a fragile ecosystem which merit special attention.  It seeks to renew political commitment to sustainable development, to assess progress towards internationally agreed-upon sustainable development goals; and to address new and emerging challenges. In this context,  mountains needs to be considered as crucial both for greening the world’s economy and implementing new institutional arrangements that will help achieve true global sustainable development for the sake of a better future on earth.

To this end, Daniel Maselli, Senior Programme Officer, SDC, Switzerland, presented the work currently underway to prepare Global and Regional assessments on sustainable mountain developments which aim to take stock of what has and has not been achieved in promoting sustainable mountain development since 1992 and will propose a “plan of action” that secures renewed political commitment for Sustainable Mountain Development (SMD).  The outcome of the reports will be presented during the Lucerne Conference on 11-12 October 2011.

Source: Mountain Partnership News

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