Issue 2
July 2004
The Mountain Partnership Newsletter
The Mountain Partnership newsletter, 'Peak to Peak', is an opportunity to keep you up-to-date with the latest news, activities and events related to the Mountain Partnership. This newsletter is prepared by the Interim Secretariat for the Mountain Partnership and will be sent by e-mail to all members and other interested partners on a monthly basis.
The first issue of 'Peak to Peak' attracted a positive response and the Interim Secretariat has received contributions and suggestions from Partnership members across the world. Please continue to write to us. We are particularly interested to hear what is happening in your country or organization and look forward to receiving your input at: info@mountainpartnership.org.
Launch of Mountain Partnership Web site
The new Mountain Partnership Web site will be launched on 5 July. Available in English, French and Spanish, the Web site provides on-line tools and resources to assist Partnership members share information, exchange experiences, facilitate networking and promote action. The site will profile members, highlight progress on Partnership Initiatives (including inputs from members themselves) and announce events and developments of relevance to Partnership members. Importantly, the Mountain Partnership Web site features the Mountain Calendar of Events, maintained by the Mountain Forum. Both the Forum and the Interim Secretariat for the Mountain Partnership are collaborating closely to ensure that their Web sites and other services complement one another and provide relevant and timely communcation and information to all members of the Mountain Partnership. An expanded on-line version of 'Peak to Peak' will be available on the new Mountain Partnership Web site. We encourage you to visit it on 5 July and welcome your feedback.
Preparations for Cusco gather pace
Preparations for the Cusco Conference are moving forward in various steps. The Government of Peru has established an organizing committee for this second all-members meeting of the Mountain Partnership, chaired by Minister Palomino and including key stakeholders from the Peruvian National Group on Mountain Ecosystems, the International Potato Center (CIP) and the Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN), amongst others.
A Task Force has been organized and will meet on 9 July in FAO Rome to further guide the preparatory process. A draft Cusco Plan of Action is being developed. The document will be sent to the full membership in due course and will be followed by a focussed two-week e-discussion moderated by the Mountain Forum. The results of this e-discussion will be synthesized into a final document and reflected in the final Plan of Action to be presented at the Cusco Conference.
Partnership Initiatives
Progress is currently being made in producing workplans for each of the 12 Partnership Initiatives. These workplans — the basis for concrete, collaborative activities — are being developed in an on-going consultative process through e-mail, face-to-face meetings and, in the near future, through e-consultations. The workplans for the Partnership Initiatives will be further discussed and refined at the Cusco Conference and will form an integral part of the Cusco Plan of Action.
The Interim Secretariat is bringing together leading members and key resource persons of many of these Partnership Initiatives for a series of meetings and workshops at FAO Headquarters, Rome.
A meeting of the Italian members of the Policy and Law Initiative, as well as the International Development Law Organization (acting as an observer) took place on 3 June at FAO, Rome. On the basis of these discussions, a draft workplan was drawn up which has been sent to the meeting participants for comments. Once finalized, this document will be disseminated to the entire membership of this Initiative for review. It will be subsequently discussed through an e-conference moderated by the Mountain Forum.
The Sustainable Livelihoods workshop (1-2 July, FAO, Rome), involving seven leading members of this Initiative, will also produce a draft workplan that will be disseminated to all members, before being discussed further through a Mountain Forum e-conference. In addition, the Sustainable Livelihoods workshop will also focus on a concrete project proposal made by Dean Cycon, CEO of Dean's Beans Organic Coffee Company, to assist Kenyan coffee growers take advantage of organic certification to differentiate their products, realize a meaningful organic price premium on the market and improve their natural environment. This proposed project would be an opportunity to analyze the role of key stakeholders (producers, governments, fair trade organizations and consumers) involved in the product chain and could be used as a model for replication in other regions.
A workshop of the Gender Initiative (7-8 July, FAO, Rome) aims to reach an understanding of the relationship between the Initiative and the follow-up process to the Celebrating Mountain Women Conference (Bhutan, 2002), identify potential mechanisms for ensuring that the concept of gender mainstreaming is reflected in the Mountain Partnership as a whole, and define a preliminary workplan for the Gender Initiative. This draft will be distributed to all members of the Initiative for comment and will be debated via an e-conference moderated by the Mountain Forum.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF), Kathmandu, Nepal, 9-12 December 2004
Filmmakers from around the globe will travel to Kathmandu later this year for the third edition of the International Mountain Film Festival, a non-competitive biennial festival open to documentaries, full-length features, short films, animations or experimental art forms. The festival organizers are the non-profit organization, Himal Association, who welcome all films made after 1 January 2001 and charge no entry fee. The deadline for entries is 15 August 2004. For further information, visit the Web site or contact: kimff@himalassociation.org
Alpine Week 2004: The Alps of the next generation, from forecast to action - Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, 22-25 September 2004
Slovenia is the setting for a major conference that aims to build bridges between researchers, local people and politicians. "The Alps of the Next Generation", jointly organized by four Alpine organizations (the International Scientific Committee for Alpine Research - ISCAR, the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps - CIPRA, the Municipality Network Alliance in the Alps, and the Network of Alpine Protected Areas - Alparc) aims to answer the the question: 'How, and in which state, will we leave the Alps to our children?'. The multi-disciplinary discussions will revolve around four main themes related to the Alpine region, namely: the general prospects and the management of natural resources; the natural and cultural heritage of landscapes; economic aspects of tourism and regional development in connection with the EU's enlargement; and socio-cultural issues. For further information, visit the Web site or contact Thomas Scheurer/Vera Kaufmann by fax at: +41 31 312 1678
International Conference on Regenerating Mountain Forests, Kloster Seeon, Bavaria, Germany, September 12-16 2004
Healthy mountain forests are crucial to the ecological health of the world. They protect watersheds, harbour wildlife, provide food and fodder for mountain people and are important sources of timber and non-wood products. Yet in many parts of the world mountain forests have been degraded by man-made and natural processes. Regeneration of damaged mountain forest is a slow process and regeneration programmes are often few and far between. The objective of the forthcoming conference, 'Regenerating Mountain Forests', is to gather experts together to discuss the latest findings, approaches and best practices related to natural and artificial regeneration, while also focussing on the economic and social impacts of mountain forest regeneration. The Conference is organized by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and hosted by the Chair of Silviculture, Munich Technical University. For further information, visit the conference Web site.
Mountains in the News
Chinese environmentalists scale Mount Everest for clean-up campaign
It is increasingly apparent that accumulated waste is wreaking havoc on the fragile ecology of the world's highest peak. Now, a group of around 100 Chinese volunteers will shortly climb to at least 6 500 metres on Mount Everest to clear its slopes of an estimated 615 tons of garbage. This staggering amount of litter is due to the ever-growing human presence in the area. Between 1921 and 1960 there were only 15 expeditions in the Everest region. Today, some 20 000 people are reported to visit the region every year. For further information, visit the Web site of Terra Daily.
BBC wildlife documentary on mountains
Film-maker Jeff Wilson is preparing a one-hour wildlife documentary on the world's mountains for the BBC series 'Planet Earth'. Wilson is appealing to scientists, conservationists and mountaineers to contact him if they have observed any striking wildlife behaviour that would make a good television documentary sequence. Send your suggestions to: jeff.wilson@bbc.co.uk