This first technical meeting, which took place from 12 to 13 May at the FAO, marked the start of activities in the field and strengthened the sense of adherence to the project and links between the various stakeholders.

Exchanges of information, experiences and methods for an interregional collaboration

The Regional Focal Points play an essential role in the development and strengthening of synergies and interactions among the priority activities of the Project at the regional, national and local levels. During the meeting, the relevance and complementarity of the approaches of the Regional Focal Points in the field of sustainable agriculture and rural development became clearly evident. Different propositions for technical collaboration, networking, exchange of documentation and methods and also potential replications of activities or methods were realized for each of the priorities and themes discussed. For example, CIHEAM/IAM Bari will conduct activities starting in 2006 related to the strengthening of institutional capacities in the Mediterranean Basin. Through the SARD-ImpleMed project, they will encourage the participation of other regional focal points who could later develop a similar type of training in their own region.

The question of diffusion/replication of experiences was also at the centre of the discussions for the other project activities: identification of case studies and examples of good practices in terms of SARD policies during a seminar that will be organized by Euromontana in November in Scotland on the issue of positive externalities of mountain regions; a study utilizing the Participatory and Negotiated Territorial Development (PNTD) approach to be conducted by CEPES (Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales) in Peru.

The strategy adopted for communication is meant to be an evolving and bottom-up process, as the project will also seek to mobilize ideas, work and results that emerge from the activities in the field and encourage exchanges between the Regional Focal Points and partners of the project. Information sheets, a new communication tool for the project, will describe the activities being conducted in the field. These will be distributed during the upcoming FAO Council Meeting taking place from 20 - 25 June.

Assessment of SARD-M policies: towards the adoption of a common methodology

The assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of existing policies for SARD in mountain regions will be an important area of work for 2005. It will also contribute considerably towards supplementing the two other priorities concerning the strengthening of institutional capacities and the issue of positive and negative externalities of mountain regions. The Regional Focal Points adopted an analytical methodology that will serve as a common framework for the assessment of policies to be conducted in the Mediterranean Basin with CIHEAM/IAM Bari, in South America with the Global Mountain Program-CIP and CONDESAN, in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya with ICIMOD, in Central America with PASOLAC and in the Carpathians with the UNEP-Interim Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention. Various issues were discussed in regards to the identification of SARD policies and their impacts as well as on mountain specificities. Among these, the difficulty of the multisectoral approach, issues regarding entry-points for commencing assessments, and the role that governments and civil society play in the process. Each partner actively participated in the improvement and reformulation of this common methodology.

The SARD-M Project, as a member of the Mountain Partnership, will pursue its collaborations in particular in the framework of the SARD-M and Policy and Law Initiatives. From its side, the Secretariat of the Mountain Partnership reaffirmed its support to the Regional Focal Points and partners of the SARD-M Project, as many are members of the Mountain Partnership.

Several areas also stand out for future collaboration in Asia (outside of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya) and in Africa. GMP-CIP/CONDESAN and ICIMOD discussed various projects that they are a part of which could serve as a basis for the construction of partnerships in these territories.

Information sheets concerning their activities in the framework of the SARD-M Project will be available in PDF format on our website.