Based on assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of mountain policies in the Carpathians conducted under the supervision of United Nations Environment Programme Vienna – Interim Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention (UNEP Vienna – ISCC), the expert Workshop aimed at identifying common policy issues to work on at the regional level in the framework of the Carpathian Convention, including recommendations for a future Protocol on sustainable agriculture and rural development in the Carpathians.

The Workshop was organised by UNEP Vienna – ISCC together with the SARD-M Project and Euromontana in conjunction with the Euromontana Conference on “Integrated Rural Development in the Mountain Areas of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans” (25-26 October). Its results were presented to a broad international audience on October 25 in the working group on “Protecting and building on mountain potentials - the example of regional cooperation for sustainable mountain development in the Carpathians”, organized in the framework of the Conference.

The workshop was attended by 35 experts (i.e. representatives of government and civil society) from countries involved in the Carpathian Convention and from other European countries or institutions with experience in the design or implementation of such Conventions and programmes.

The participants demonstrated high level of interest in the findings of country and regional assessments, globally validated them and contributed to:

• Reviewing and enriching the SARD-M assessments recommendations;
• Identifying possible follow-up activities in the Carpathians notably:
- the expansion of the policy assessment to the four other Carpathian countries;
- an official contribution to the first Conference of the Parties of the Carpathian Convention through the output of the SARD-M policy assessment;
- the promotion of the outputs of the workshop at the Regional FAO Conference in June 2006 and at the European Commission level;
• Improving the country and regional assessment reports through concrete advises.