Impact

This indicator helps to ensure that mountains are efficiently managed, and a better balance is struck between conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

Key results

The proportion of degraded mountain land stands at 1.6 percent of the world’s mountain area

Mountain green cover has remained roughly stable, at about 78 percent over the 2000–2018 period, with a non-significant decrease (0.05 percent) since 2015. Disaggregation of mountainous areas by land cover and geographical region provides additional insights, allowing to visualize how biophysical characteristics and historic and recent land uses shape their landscapes.

Available global data indicate that the area where detrimental changes in land cover occurred during the 2000–2018 period represents approximately 1.6 percent of the world’s total mountain area. Disaggregated data show that the mountain belts most affected by detrimental land cover changes were the alpine (1.8 percent) and the montane (1.7 percent) belts, while nival areas were the least affected (0.08 percent). Disaggregation by both SDG regions and bioclimatic belts show that the areas with the highest proportion of degraded mountain land are the alpine areas of Europe and Northern America (2.3 percent), followed by the montane areas of Central and Southern Asia (2.2 percent) and the lower mountain belts of Eastern and Southern Asia (2.1 percent).

Highlights

Multimedia

Capacity development

Methodology

Tier: I

Data

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