Director-General QU Dongyu

FAO Director-General addresses closing ceremony of International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development 2022

26/04/2023

Rome – The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today called for the promotion of an inclusive and equitable transformation of our agrifood systems and our mountains, to ensure that no one is left behind, especially women, the youth and mountain communities.

Qu was addressing the closing ceremony at FAO’s headquarters in Rome of the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development 2022, which also saw contributions from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the Secretary-General, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, Zheenbek Kulubaev, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Andorra, Maria Ubach.

In his address to the ceremony, the FAO Director-General thanked the government of Kyrgyzstan for its leading role in this International Year, as well as the governments of Andorra, Italy and Switzerland for their support to the Mountain Partnership Secretariat.

He noted that more than 60 events were organized by governments, international organizations, civil society, academia, the private sector, and key partners worldwide, to increase awareness of the importance of sustainable mountain development in support of the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

As the lead UN agency for sustainable mountain development, FAO fully supported the activities of the International Year to build and maintain momentum for the global mountain agenda.

Describing mountains as “the planet’s water towers” and “a source of resilience in a world impacted by the climate crisis,” Qu called on FAO and its partners to “keep working to secure sustainable mountain development.”

Approximately 311 million people – about half the rural mountain population in developing countries – live in areas exposed to land degradation. And approximately 178 million are vulnerable to food insecurity.

“We cannot leave these people behind. And we cannot achieve the 2030 Agenda without the traditional knowledge and resilient adaptive practices of mountain communities,” Qu said.

The Director-General provided some examples of the support provided by FAO, including a project in Peru and the Philippines, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. The project aims to improve livelihoods and climate resilience in mountain watersheds by enhancing institutional and community capacities on the risk-based watershed management approach to forest and land use management.

The closing ceremony also saw the publication of a report on mountain tourism, compiled in collaboration with UNWTO, which provides relevant data and information to improve our understanding of mountain tourism, identifies trends and sets out recommendations to advance the measurement of mountain tourism.

“This is a tangible example of a concrete initiative that has been promoted by this International Year,” Qu said.