International Year of Mountains 2002 Japan

This is the seventh newsletter about preparations for the International Year of Mountains (IYM). It was prepared by the IYM Coordination Unit at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN lead agency for coordinating the Year.

IYM Official Launch

On 11 December the global launch of the International Year of Mountains took place at UN headquarters in New York. About 300 government leaders, representatives of mountain people and NGOs, researchers and others attended. The event was organized by FAO, The Mountain Institute and the 15 member nations of the IYM Focus Group at the UN.

Adolf Ogi, former President of the Swiss Confederation, chaired the event. Opening remarks were made by Murari Raj Sharma, Vice-President, 56th session of the General Assembly, on behalf of the UNGA president. Nitin Desai, Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs delivered a message from the UN Secretary-General. Jacques Diouf, FAO's Director-General delivered the keynote address. Participants in a roundtable discussion on sustainability in mountain development were Jim Enote (Leader, Zuni Nation), Yolanda Kakabadse (former Minister for Environment, Ecuador and President, World Conservation Union) and Uma Lele (Senior Adviser, World Bank). For more information, visit the IYM official Web site at http://www.mountains2002.org.

Commemoration at country level

The number of countries preparing for IYM commemoration is rapidly growing. Currently, 46 countries have established national committees and many others are being planned. National committees are the heart of IYM and essential to its success. For information about the plans and activities of national committees, visit the Action section of the IYM official Web site at http://www.mountains2002.org/action/. At the IYM Coordination Unit, we look forward to receiving information about what your country or committee is doing. Please send us information, stories and photographs.

Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountain Regions

The Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture will host an International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountainous Regions in co-operation with other partners 16-20 June 2002 in Switzerland. This conference will bring together about 200 people from around the world to explore ways of enhancing cooperation on achieving the objectives of Agenda 21's Chapter 13 (Sustainable Mountain Development) and Chapter 14 (Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development). For more information contact:: CreaConsult Ltd. tel/fax: +41-26-670 34 19 e-mail: creaconsult@bluewin.ch

IYM partners in the UN system

FAO, the lead UN agency for IYM, is working collaboratively with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations University (UNU) and other partners.

UNESCO is preparing a CD-ROM atlas and Web site that will provide information on all mountain biosphere reserves and cultural heritage sites. The CD-ROM will be based on an electronic map of the world's mountains produced by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre at UNEP. For more information visit http://www.unep-wcmc.org/habitats/mountains/region.html. UNESCO is also preparing a calendar on mountains for children in primary and secondary schools. For details, please visit http://www.unesco.org/mab/IYM.htm.

UNEP is working closely with the Government of Kyrgyzstan to organize the Bishkek Global Mountain Summit, 28 October to 1 November 2002 at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. For more information, visit http://www.mountains2002.org/milestones/UNEP is planning to produce a mountain atlas that will provide information on mountain environments and people. The organization is also working to ensure that mountain concerns are fully considered in the global and regional conventions and agreements to which UNEP provides assistance.

UNEP, UNESCO, World Wildlife Fund and World Conservation Union are working collaboratively on the Tropical Montane Cloud Forest Initiative. This project is designed to increase recognition and resources for the conservation of cloud forests in mountainous areas, which harbour a wealth of biodiversity and play important roles in watersheds. For more information, visit http://www.unep-wcmc.org/forest/cloudforest/english/homepage.htm;.

Some UNDP country offices are assisting FAO by providing support for International Year of Mountains commemoration to countries that do not have a FAO representative.

UNU in partnership with the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) in Switzerland has developed the Global Mountains Partnership Programme to improve understanding of the status of different mountain systems in relation to global change, the pressures these mountains are exposed to, including their consequences on human, natural, economic resources, and the responses created by different social groups and mountain societies. The project also builds partnerships among local research institutions and other institutions to strengthen competence and capacities. For more information, visit http://www.unu.edu/env/mountains/index.htm.

UNU is also organizing the International Symposium on Conservation of Mountain Ecosystems on 1 February 2002 at Tokyo, Japan. For more information, contact Libor Jansky at Jansky@hq.unu.edu.

Mountain Voices Web site

Visit www.mountainvoices.org to listen to Panos Oral Testimony Programme's unique on-line archive of interviews that reveal the perspectives, knowledge and experiences of people living in mountain communities in 10 countries. The purpose of the Web site is to ensure that the voices of ordinary men and women living in mountain communities reach an international audience during the International Year of Mountains. The Web site contains:

* background information on each location, partner and interview collection
* local maps
* photographs
* overviews of 36 key themes with quotes from interviews
* summaries of every interview
* unedited transcripts

For details, contact Olivia Bennett: tel +44 (0) 20 7239 7628 e-mail: info@mountainvoices.org

Contact Us

If you are organizing events and activities, please let us know so that we can share information through the official IYM Web site. For more information, visit the IYM Web site at http://www.mountains2002.org or contact the IYM Coordination Unit at FAO at info@mountains2002.org.

Happy holidays to all and see you in 2002!