The green light has been given for the SARD-M Project to initiate field activities in several mountain ranges with the approval of the 2005 work plan and budget by its Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee, which met for the first time at FAO headquarters on 22 February, consisted of representatives from the French, Japanese and Swiss governments (the project donors), the Peruvian Government (as a representative observer of the Adelboden Group), and FAO Departments collaborating with the project.

Following the strenuous project formulation process that brought together governments, civil society groups and international organizations, the members of the Steering Committee welcomed the start-up of project field activities. This multi-stakeholder partnership will now move forward with activities in the field.

Paving the way to upscale the project in the future through concrete activities

Thanks to the resources made available by Switzerland, which allocated US$ 350,000 for 2005, France and Japan, which respectively seconded the Project Coordinator and an Associate Professional Officer, the SARD-M project will implement in 2005 a limited number of action-oriented activities in different mountain ranges and countries, involving stakeholders at various levels and representing diverse institutions.

"We are pleased to see that the project will be in action on the ground... we have realized that networking is time-consuming, however we can now move ahead with the aim of up-scaling project resources and activities for the next year."
Swiss Permanent Representative to FAO

By initiating concrete activities and producing pragmatic results in 2005, the project will pave the way to work with more countries and in new mountain areas of the world in 2006, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where efforts to establish strong partnerships and organize field activities will be reinforced.

Focusing on three main priorities for 2005

The 2005 work plan and budget endorsed by the Steering Committee takes into account most of the recommendations given in October 2004 by the consultative Adelboden Group, i.e. the project’s multi-stakeholder platform for discussing policies and policy instruments, and exchanging experiences.

In line with its overall objective of “strengthening mountain populations’ livelihoods with improved policies for sustainable agriculture and rural development”, the project programme for 2005 will focus on the following three priorities:

1. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of mountain policies, including social, economic, institutional and environmental aspects, in relation to sustainable agriculture and rural development principles.
2. Strengthen local institutions, by developing training materials and sessions, in close collaboration with NGOs, producers’ associations, cooperatives, etc.
3. Analyze positive and negative externalities of mountain regions through a comparative review of existing methods and tools.

Building synergies and co-funding of field activities will be the project’s driving force

Building synergies among ongoing programmes and initiatives, and co-funding field activities with the aim of reinforcing project partnerships are indeed a driving force of the SARD-M Project, which will operate at global, regional, national and local levels.

Regional focal points, chosen on the basis of their legitimacy in intervening at the regional level, experience in SARD issues, capacity to coordinate and integrate actions in mountain areas, and involvement in civil society, will act as a bridge between the global and national dimensions of the project. The following regional focal points will support the project’s general and common activities (networking, sharing information, etc.), and contribute to work on its priorities: CIHEAM-IAM Bari in collaboration with Plan Bleu for the Mediterranean Region; GMP/CIP in collaboration with CONDESAN for Latin America; EUROMONTANA for Europe; ICIMOD for Hindu Kush Himalaya/Asia; and PASOLAC for Central America.

Regional focal points

• CIHEAM: International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies; IAM Bari: Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari; Plan Bleu
• EUROMONTANA
• GMP/CIP: International Potato Center; CONDESAN: Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion
• ICIMOD: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
• PASOLAC: Programme for Sustainable Agriculture on Sloping Lands in Central America

All project activities will be characterised by a participatory, territorial and multi-sectoral dimension, and will also be concrete, applicable and replicable, and include sustainability components.

Assessing mountain policies from the Himalayas to the Andes

In brief, the 2005 activities devoted to the analysis of existing SARD policies in the mountains will cover:

• a worldwide collection of relevant documentation and the development of a web-based database;
• assessment surveys and case-studies in specific countries or mountain ranges, such as Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua in Central America, the Carpathian Region in Europe, Peru and the Andes in Latin America, the Hindu Kush-Himalaya Region in Asia and the Mediterranean Region;
• organization of national and regional workshops to review the results of these analyses and refine existing methods and tools related to the design or implementation of SARD policies.

In order to strengthen local institutions, the project will contribute to the design of the ImpleMed Project (2006-2008) jointly developed by CIHEAM-IAM Bari, the International Labour Organization and FAO aimed at facilitating the formulation and implementation SARD policies in the mountains of Mediterranean countries by developing training packages and establishing multi-stakeholder mechanisms of dialogue.

In relation to the analysis of positive and negative externalities of mountain regions, the SARD-M Project will contribute to a seminar, organised by EUROMONTANA in Scotland in November 2005, focused on mountain positive externalities and rural development. Cooperation with the FAO Roles of Agriculture Project in carrying out a study on environmental services in Morocco will also be developed.

Additionally, support will be provided to a project implemented by the Mountain Partnership “Promoting and protecting local products as a means for sustainable development in mountain regions”. This project aims to build institutional capacity at regional, national and local levels in developing mountain quality products through the implementation of training of trainers courses. The Mediterranean Region will be targeted first and the SARD-M project will contribute to the analysis of the policy and institutional environment affecting the promotion of quality mountain products.

Communication, networking and fund-raising as major complementary activities

In parallel, the project team will conduct communication and awareness-raising activities, maintain a database of organizations involved in policies pertaining to SARD in the mountains, strengthen the networking of partners, and mobilise additional resources. It will also participate in major international conferences and meetings focused on SARD and sustainable mountain development, and preparations are currently underway for the upcoming FAO Committee on Agriculture meeting (13-16 April). The Project Team will then organize a meeting with the project regional focal points in May and prepare for the Adelboden Group Board meeting at the end of 2005.