News

Summer field school for mountain leaders

21.10.2021

To build the capacities of future mountain leaders, Canada-based Mountain Partnership member The Grassroots Institute hosted the ten-day “Summer field school on mountain ecosystems and resource management”. The virtual training programme was co-organized by 66 partner organizations from 22 countries.

The summer field school examined mountain ecosystems within the contexts of sustainable development, natural resource management and conservation governance. The programme aimed at equipping researchers, students, practitioners and teachers with practical approaches, knowledge and skills for meeting the challenges of sustainable development and managing mountains’ natural resources globally.

The summer field school opened on 19 September 2021 with a roundtable for mountains. Speakers included representatives of universities from around the world, the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands Secretariat, the Secretariat of the Carpathian Convention and the United Nations Environment Programme, among others. Their remarks covered a range of topics including climate change, freshwater, watershed management, transhumance, biodiversity and sustainable agriculture.

The closing session on 28 September featured a panel discussion on future courses of action. Scholar and activist Parviz Koohafkan, president of the World Agricultural Heritage Forum and chair of the panel, stressed the importance of integrating mountains’ rich agricultural heritage and ecosystems in future capacity building programmes.

Furthermore, Programme Director Hasrat Arjjumend, founder and president of The Grassroots Institute, announced that the next edition of the Summer Field School will be held in August 2023 in the Carpathian National Nature Parke in Yaremche, Ukraine.

In total, over the nine days of the summer field school, 26 technical sessions were conducted, including 108 lectures by 97 experts from 36 countries along with 93 presentations by 95 delegate participants. About 405 participants from 69 countries attended the sessions. At least 1 000 people watched the lectures live on Facebook where livestreaming was done concurrently. The recordings of all the lectures and presentations are available here.

Visit the summer field school website
See the programme
View photos from the course