During the Second Meeting of the Adelboden Group, 4-5 October 2004, the participants suggested a number of priority activities for the SARD-M Project in 2005. The analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of existing mountain policies was considered a top priority for the project.

In keeping with the participatory nature of the project and as an initial step to start this analysis, a questionnaire was sent out to the members of the SARD-M Project and Mountain Partnership at the end of 2004, in order to collect relevant documentation (policy studies, partners’ experiences, case studies, etc.) concerning social, economic, environmental and institutional policies for sustainable agriculture and rural development in mountain regions. The necessity of such an exercise was widely supported among the participants of the Meeting, who were numerous in mentioning their willingness to share the various case studies and/or policy studies that have already been conducted in their countries/organization.

With the information that has been collected thus far, a database has been developed that will allow the project to know what has happened and been happening in terms of mountain policies related to SARD in various parts of the world.

This collection of documentation is an ongoing process and we welcome the submission of the information that you feel is relevant to the database by filling out the database questionnaire and sending it to the following email address: SARD-M@fao.org. Once this information has been validated, it will be inserted into the database.

This database, which provides a basis for the analysis of existing mountain policies, will be continually updated throughout the life of the project. It also complements the activities of the Policy and Law Initiative of the Mountain Partnership which has developed a discussion forum regarding mountain policies and also contains links to relevant documentation. This discussion forum is hosted by EURAC and can be accessed by clicking on the link in the right-hand bar.