Each day, one of every two people on the planet quenches his thirst with water that originates in mountains. And as the world population swells to an estimated 9.6 billion by 2050, the worldwide demand for freshwater will continue to soar.
More than half of humanity relies on mountain freshwater for everyday life. The ten largest rivers originating in the Hindu Kush Himalayas alone supply water to over 1.35 billion people. Some of the world’s largest cities, including New York, Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, Tokyo and Melbourne, are dependent on freshwater from mountains.
Climate change is already causing more than 600 glaciers to disappear, resulting in springs and rivers drying up. Greater frequency of extreme weather events, droughts and floods, including flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), are also expected to increase in mountains, causing imbalance between current water supply and demand.
Given the importance of mountain water resources worldwide, the careful management of mountain water resources is a global priority. Water management practices need to be adapted to different climatic zones, using locally adapted soil and water management techniques. Most importantly, watershed management must take into account the needs of all those who depend on mountain water, including those who have the greatest stake in preserving healthy mountain ecosystems – people who live in mountain areas themselves, who are often marginalized from the decision-making processes.
A UN entity to insure mountains have a voicepeak to peakIssue 102 – Month 3 – Year 2017 The March issue of Peak to Peak opens with a news about two Mountain Partnership (MP) members presenting an oral statement on behalf of the MP during the 55th Commission for Social Development at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The... Download » |
Mount Kilimanjaro Research Group MeetingeventThe interdisciplinary AfroMont-Mount Kilimanjaro Research Group meeting will bring together researchers working on African mountains. The conference theme will be "African mountain ecosystems under global change: Linking biodiversity, biotic interactions and biogeochemical ecosystem processes". The Mount Kilimanjaro research programme will host the meeting. Sessions for the research meeting will... Read more » |
Trees, forests and water: cool insights for a hot worldpublicationForests’ many life-sustaining functions as prime regulators within the water, energy and carbon cycles are still not universally recognized, a fact that the world ignores at its peril, a new article cautions. To address climate change and land misuse, global action should be realigned to prioritize trees’ and forests’ key... Download » |
Chile’s public consultation on mountain policynewsChile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heraldo Muñoz, has announced that Chile will be the first country in South America to have a national public policy on sustainable mountain development. To decide the final policy, Chile has launched a public consultation, encouraging Chilean citizens to make suggestions and help... Read more » |
United Nations General Assembly Resolution: Sustainable Mountain Development (2016)publicationResolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Sustainable mountain development at 71st Session. A/71/463/Add.10
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Call for abstracts: Mt Kilimanjaro conferencenewsAfroMont, the African chapter of the international Mountain Research Initiative, invites researchers working on African mountains to submit abstracts for the upcoming Mount Kilimanjaro Mountain Research Conference. The conference theme is "African mountain ecosystems under global change: linking biodiversity, biotic interactions and biogeochemical ecosystem processes". Abstracts may be... Read more » |
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