At the last United Nations General Assembly, the Secretary General submitted a report on sustainable mountain development (ref.: A/62/292). This document, to which FAO made a major contribution, takes stock of the situation of mountainous regions at the national, regional and international levels; it provided a general analysis of the problems to be resolved and made recommendations to be put to the Assembly.

This was followed by a resolution that was published on 22 February 2008: the text, which was largely produced thanks to the determination of the Swiss representatives and the Adelboden Group, drew widely on the work undertaken in the first phase of the SARD-M project