Members on the increase

Mountain Partnership Secretariat

Mountain Partnership web site

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

PAST EVENTS

NEW PUBLICATIONS

NOTICEBOARD

New Executive Secretary of the Mountain Forum appointed

In January 2005, the Mountain Forum announced the appointment of Ms. Ana Maria Ponce as the next Executive Secretary of the Mountain Forum Secretariat. Ms Ponce joins the Global Mountain Forum Secretariat from InfoAndina — the Latin American Node of the Mountain Forum based in Peru — and brings her extensive knowledge of the Andean and Latin American mountain issues to the Secretariat based in the Nepalese Himalayas. She replaces Layton Montgomery who served as Executive Secretary of the Mountain Forum Secretariat from early 2003. Mr. Prashant Sharma has been appointed Deputy Executive Secretary of the Mountain Forum Secretariat. To learn more about the mandate and activities of the Mountain Forum, visit the Web site.

Indigenous people secure rights over the potato

Indigenous peoples are the traditional custodians of biodiversity. Yet, too often Indigenous peoples’ rights and cultures are overlooked as local biodiversity and knowledge are appropriated by outside interests. In Peru, a new agreement between six indigenous communities and Mountain Partnership member, the International Potato Center (CIP), recognizes the right of indigenous communities over the unique potato strains that they have developed and grown. The Association for Nature and Sustainable Development (ANDES), a Cusco-based civil society group led by indigenous peoples, helped broker the agreement with CIP, one of 15 consultative groups for international agricultural research centres responsible for the world’s largest agro-biodiversity gene bank collections. “The new agreement means that Andean communities can unlock the potato gene bank and repatriate biological diversity to farming communities and the natural environment for local and global benefit,” ANDES said. Read the full article.

Developing alternative livelihoods to protect World Heritage Site in Uganda

Small community enterprises are being created in communities around the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda to generate income while conserving the park, named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. Thanks to a four-year FAO project, funded by the United Nations Foundation and the Government of Norway, communities that used to depend on the park’s forest resources for a living have now started some 300 small-scale enterprises and earn income from a range of products — handicrafts, honey and mushrooms — while conserving the park. “This pilot project shows that it is possible for communities living around high biodiversity or protected sites to create alternative sources of income using the natural resources in a sustainable way,” said Sophie Grouwels, an FAO expert in participatory forestry. Read more about the project.

Studying hotspots of mountain diversity

The plant diversity found in Alpine environments is estimated to be higher than the global average — yet these fragile alpine ecosystems are under increasing pressure from climate change. An effective long-term observation strategy is needed to document biodiversity and habitat changes and assess risk. The Global Information Research Initiative for Alpine Environments (GLORIA) is establishing and maintaining a world-wide long-term observation network in alpine environments. The GLORIA sites collect vegetation and temperature data to identify trends in species diversity and temperature and assess and predict losses in biodiversity. Over the past year the GLORIA network has grown with the setting up of new monitoring sites in different mountain regions: Kosciuszko National Park in Australia’s Snowy Mountain, three sites in North America and one site in Germany. New target regions will be established in some UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in Chile, Peru and the Russian Altai Mountains. For news and further information about GLORIA, visit the Web site.

Buddhist leaders help protect woodlands

Sacred mountains attract pilgrims but these visitors can destroy what made these sacred sites so inspiring in the first place and can undermine the integrity of local cultures. At the foot of Kawagebo, one of the most sacred mountains in Tibet, successful sustainable land use and religious practice had gone hand-in-hand for over 500 years. But as this remote mountain area has become more accessible, so the influx of pilgrims has increased, posing new challenges to the woodlands. In particular, incense cedar has been seriously overharvested. The Kawagebo Culture Society, backed by a grant from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, has drawn government officials, schools, and religious leaders together to counter some of the new threats by building on traditional practices. The result: the unsustainable use of cedar in Buddhist ceremonies in the area has dropped dramatically to around 10 percent of earlier levels. Read the full story.

Read more about sacred mountains by visting The Mountain Institute’s Sacred Mountains Program Web site.

Launch of new Web site on Central Asian mountains

The ‘Mountains of Eurasia’ Web site was launched on International Mountain Day (11 December 2004). The site, developed by the MAB-6 UNESCO Mountain project in Russia in collaboration with the Mountain Forum, aims to disseminate information about the challenges faced in the mountain regions of the northern part of Eurasia and post news of mountain development issues in Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia and Ukraine. As Yuri Badenkov, the MAB-6 Project Coordinator states: “We hope for interactive dialogue with all those interested to know what processes are occuring in the mountain world of Eurasia, what events are taking place and what measures are being undertaken to maintain the sustainable development of mountain territories”. Visit the Web site (in Russian, English and French).

New look for CONDESAN Web site

The Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion (CONDESAN) links nearly 100 institutions from 17 Latin American countries, with a focus on applied research, information exchange, and policy development. Its information network is InfoAndina — the Latin American node of the Mountain Forum — which has now redesigned the CONDESAN Web site to include direct links to CONDESAN’s thematic and geographical initiatives and a new library catalogue of “Grey Literature” (Literatura Gris). This section contains reports from CONDESAN partners, as well as case studies and contributions from the e-conferences organized by InfoAndina since 1997. Visit the Web site (in Spanish only).

Issue 7
February 2005

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 monthly newsletter, prepared by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, is sent by e-mail to all members and other interested partners and can be read on-line. Help us share news, information and features with members by sending a message.

Members on the increase

EasyLan, a private sector company specializing in broadbanding technology, has joined the Mountain Partnership. Based in Italy, EasyLan plans and develops digital integrated systems that allow communities to benefit from bandwidth telecommunications and services at reasonable prices throughout the world. To find out more, visit the Web site.

As of February 2005, the Mountain Partnership is comprised of 43 countries, 14 IGOs and 56 major group organizations.

Mountain Partnership Secretariat

As of January 2005, the Interim Secretariat for the Mountain Partnership became a permanent entity and will now be known as the ‘Mountain Partnership Secretariat’. The multi-stakeholder Secretariat is hosted in FAO Headquarters in Rome and receives financial support from the governments of Italy and Switzerland.

Mountain Partnership web site

Web survey

The Mountain Partnership Secretariat is currently developing an on-line survey of the Mountain Partnership Web site for members, in order to identify user needs, determine priorities and ensure the provision of timely, relevant and user-friendly information services and resources to all members. Versions of this Web survey will also be distributed in Word format via the Mountain Partnership e-mail list. In the meantime, the Mountain Partnership Secretariat continues to develop the content and functions of Partnership Web site and its databases, in close collaboration with key partners such as the Mountain Forum, and welcomes any input.

Initiatives move forward

The results and conclusions emerging from the breakaway sessions on Partnership Initiatives (Cusco Conference, Peru, 28-29 October 2004) will lay the foundations for much of the collaborative activities and networking undertaken by members in the coming months.

The Mountain Partnership Secretariat is facilitating the development of Partnership Initiatives by various means, including planning e-consultations with members and bringing together leading members and key resource persons of Initiatives for workshops at FAO Headquarters in Rome and beyond.

A core activity within the Sustainable Livelihoods Initiative of the Mountain Partnership is a project on mountain products. Funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture, the Mountain Products Project, implemented by FAO in close collaboration with other stakeholders, aims to promote and protect local high-quality, high-value quality products as a strategy for sustainable development in mountain regions. After an initial phase of collecting case studies on initiatives related to production and marketing of mountain products across regions (September 2003 – March 2004), the project is now initiating the design of training programmes for the capacity-building of regional, national and local institutions to address the specific needs of selected sub-sector actors. Regional institutional partners (and Mountain Partnership members), such as ICIMOD, CIP/CONDESAN and CIHEAM have been identifying the target beneficiaries, content, training materials and organizational structure of the training programmes for the Hindu Kush Himalaya, the Andes, the Southern Mediterranean region and Eastern Africa.

Their findings were recently shared at a two-day workshop, ‘Designing Regional Training Programmes for Development of High-quality, High-value Mountain Products’ (FAO, Rome, 24-25 January 2005). The meeting also provided an opportunity for other stakeholders — PlaNet Finance, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), Aid to Artisans, The Mountain Institute, and Action for Enterprise — to contribute input to the design of the regional training programmes. Next steps include re-drafting the concept note, setting up a dedicated e-mail list in order to continue the exchange of information between workshop participants, developing a project proposal and defining their respective roles and responsibilities in Phase 3 of the project, and exploring new funding possibilities.

A three-day technical workshop will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic from 17 to 19 February 2005 to explore the development of a project to conserve the globally significant montane ecosystems of Central and Northern Asia, with the integral involvement of the region’s local communities and indigenous peoples and with a focus on best practices. The expected outcome of this participatory workshop is a project concept paper to be submitted to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for funding consideration. The initial project concept was conceived by the IUCN Programme Office for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), who have requested that the project concept be further developed within the context of the Mountain Partnership under the umbrella of the Central Asia Initiative. The Mountain Partnership Secretariat is helping facilitate this initial process.

Learn more about members’ collaborative activities on Partnership Initiatives by reading the Cusco breakaway session reports.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

International Women’s Day on 8 March

International Women’s Day celebrated internationally on 8 March every year, will focus in 2005 on the theme, ‘Gender Equality 2005: Building a More Secure Future’. Particular emphasis will be placed on issues surrounding development, human rights, security and disasters. For news and updates, visit the Web site.

2nd International Forum on Partnerships for Sustainable Development, Marrakech, Morocco 21-23 March 2005

Partnerships for sustainable development are voluntary, multi-stakeholder initiatives contributing to the implementation of Agenda 21, Rio+5, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and the internationally agreed development goals in the Millennium Declaration. The 2nd International Forum on Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Advancing Implementation on Water and Energy aims to promote sustainable development by strengthening and fostering water and energy related partnerships. Organized by the Moroccan Ministry of Territory Planning, Water and Environment, in cooperation with UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA), the Forum will build upon outcomes from other international partnership discussions, including the 1st International Forum on Partnerships for Sustainable Development (March 2004, Rome, Italy). The 2nd Forum is expected to attract Partnership practitioners from government, civil society, private sector and international organizations, particularly those who are involved in the day-to-day operations of existing water- or energy-related partnerships, as well as those who seek to strengthen, launch or join water- or energy-related partnerships. More information on this meeting will be circulated shortly through the dedicated Web site.

13th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-13) (11-22 April 2005, UN HQ, New York)

Environmental activist and Nobel Peace Laureate, Wangari Maathai of Kenya, will be just one of the key participants at the forthcoming 13th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-13), held in April. The themes under scrutiny at CSD-13 are water, sanitation and human settlements, in the context of disaster prevention and preparedness. Part of the official CSD-13 programme will be the Partnerships Fair, a venue for partnerships for sustainable development to build alliances, identify partners, create linkages between other partnerships and learn from each other’s experiences and best practices. In particular, the Fair will focus on interactive discussions on practical issues and lessons learned from partnerships working in the thematic cluster of water, sanitation and human settlements, and will feature information desks. As the Mountain Partnership is a registered CSD Partnership there will be opportunities to highlight the activities and progress of the Partnership through the display and distribution of core communication materials. More details will be available in the next issue of this newsletter.

CSD Partnerships Database is currently being updated in time for the opening of CSD-13 and will include a variety of new search functions: ‘search by partner organization name’ and ‘search by primary or secondary theme of activity’. Updated data on the composition and activities of all CSD Partnerships, including the Mountain Partnership, will shortly be available to view.

For more information on future events, view the Mountain Calendar 2005, managed by the Mountain Forum.

PAST EVENTS

International Human Rights Day (10 December 2004)

Rural households are increasingly deprived of their land, the main source of their livelihood. If land access by poor men and women is not treated as a basic right, the downward spiral of poverty and conflict created will continue. This was the key message of a statement released by the International Land Coalition on the occasion of International Human Rights Day, marked on 10 December 2004. The statement was distributed to the extensive network of members and partners of the Coalition and distributed at UN Headquarters during events marking Human Rights Day. To read the full text of the statement and learn more about the International Land Coalition, visit the web site.

International Mountain Day (11 December 2004)

Peace rallies, mountain climbs, poster competitions and thematic seminars – these were some of the ways in which mountainous countries around the world observed International Mountain Day (2004) and its theme, ‘Peace: key to sustainable mountain development’. A summary report of activities undertaken around the world — from Kashmir to Russia, Iran, Italy, Boliva, Argentina and Brazil — is currently being prepared by the Mountain Group at FAO, the UN agency mandated to lead observance of International Mountain Day.

International Conference on Education for a Sustainable Future (Ahmedabad, India, 18-20 January 2005)

Education is one of the most effective means of alleviating poverty and promoting sustainable development as it helps strengthen the capacity of people to solve their own problems and improve their lives and livelihood opportunities. This was the underlying theme of the recent International Conference on Education for a Sustainable Future (ESF) — the first international event marking the beginning of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The Conference featured a special thematic workshop on mountains, which attracted some 35 participants from 6 countries (United Kingdom, Romania, China, Tibet, Nepal and India), and covered a range of topics from transboundary cooperation for conservation in mountains, to the capacity-building of various stakeholders and the strengthening of networks and partnerships. The event also ensured mountain issues were included in recommendations for the Draft International Implementation Scheme prepared by UNESCO for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). For further details on these recommendations and other outcomes of the workshop and conference, contact Dr. Abdhesh Gangwar, Coordinator, CEE Himalaya at: ceehimalaya@ceeindia.org or visit the conference Web site.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

New UNEP environmental assessment

In 2000, a cyanide spill from a gold mine in northern Romania travelled down the Tisza river in Hungary, leaving a trail of ecological destruction in its wake. Five years on, local communities in the Tisza river basin remain at risk from floods and industrial pollution. A recently launched UNEP report, ‘Rapid Environmental Assessment of River Tisza River Basin’ highlights the accidental pollution risk from mining operations, calls for more concerted action to address environmental threats and recommends an “Integrated Sustainable Development Strategy” for the entire catchment area of the river Tisza, which includes Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia and Montenegro. Read the UNEP report.

Protected forests crucial to water for us all

Forested catchments are vital for the ecological health of the world: they shelter immense biodiversity, provide food, fodder and forest products. Importantly, forests also protect mountain watersheds, the source of freshwater for more than half of humankind. Forests substantially improve water purity by filtering pollutants, such as pesticides, and in some cases capture and store water. A new report by the World Bank/WWF Alliance for Forest Conservation and Sustainable Use, ‘Running Pure — the importance of forest protected areas to drinking water’ stresses the need to better understand the crucial relationship between forests and water if we are to improve the management of freshwater resources both upstream and downstream. The study demonstrates that as the world’s cities increase so do the pressures on the world’s forests. Over one third of the world’s 105 biggest cities — including New York, Jakarta, Tokyo, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Nairobi, and Melbourne — depend on fully or partly protected forests in catchment areas for much of their drinking water. The World Bank/WWF Alliance states that solutions lie in protecting and better managing natural forests and in developing forest protection strategies, all of which can result in massive savings: it is much cheaper to protect forests, for example, than to build water treatment plants.
Read the report.
Read more about the World Bank/WWF Alliance.

NOTICEBOARD

Call for papers and posters: Session on Global Change in Mountains, 6th Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community (Bonn, Germany, 9-13 October 2005)

Much global change research in mountain regions focuses on how scientists can contribute to the capacity of people (mountain communities, the managers and coordinators of protected areas) and the larger societies that surround them to anticipate the impacts of climate change and respond in ways that maintain or enhance economic, ecological and social capital. This interface between science and more broadly, environmental knowledge and environmental governance, is an important topic for study and will be explored at a special session proposed by Mountain Research Institute, ‘Making Global Change Research Matter’, during the 6th Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community in October this year. A call for papers and posters for the session is running from 1 February to 10 March via the meeting Web site.