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Bringing positive change to mountain people and global environments on International Mountain Day

13.12.2021

Covering around 27 percent of the earth's land surface and home to 15 percent of the global population, mountains play a critical role in moving the world towards sustainable economic growth. With 25 per cent of the world’s biodiversity, mountains provide freshwater, energy and food – resources that will be increasingly scarce in coming decades.

Joining the world in celebrating International Mountain Day (11 December), Expo 2020 helped to raise awareness about the importance of mountains in order to highlight opportunities and challenges in mountain development; to help build alliances to protect fragile mountain communities; and to promote sustainable mountain tourism.

Founded in 2002, the Mountain Partnership has over 430 members to date, including governments, intergovernmental organizations, and civil society. Speaking at the Best Practice area of the Opportunity Pavilion, Sara Manuelli, Advocacy and Outreach Officer, Mountain Partnership Secretariat stressed that it is all about joining the dots, because a lot of people still do not realize the role the mountains have in our lives.

Sara Manuelli said: “Aside from their rich biodiversity and fresh water supplies, mountains are also home to amazing cultures and heritage. We seek solace in mountains, we enjoy the sports, culture and gastronomy – because there is an amazing variety of produce to be found – but we need to be mindful of how we treat mountains, and come up with ways to protect them. Governments and investors have to look at the bigger picture because these areas are often lacking in infrastructure. Some mountain communities may have tourist infrastructure, but they lack roads and ways to get to markets, schools and hospitals. These communities can be very marginalized. It is all about basic human rights and we need to make that connection. Mountains are very pretty, but they can also be very fragile.”

With the impact of COVID-19 on mountain communities especially profound, given their reliance on tourism, the time for urgent action is now.

The Government of Italy, a founding member of the Mountain Partnership, as well as a donor to the Mountain Partnership Secretariat and the Mountain Partnership Products (MPP) initiative, protects mountain agrobiodiversity and the traditional, highly nutritional and high-quality foods from mountains – such as goldenberries, maca andina, purple rice, black amaranth, quinoa, lentils and chiuri honey – that are at risk of being abandoned. The initiative sustainably transforms food systems by enhancing opportunities for increased and more reliable incomes for otherwise structurally impoverished and vulnerable mountain populations, allowing consumers to be more informed about their purchases by communicating the nutritional and environmental value of mountain products to them through a narrative label. It also provides a low-cost certification system for small-scale mountain producers to certify their organic and agroecological production via Participatory Guarantee Systems.  

Lorenzo Micheli, Education Policy Specialist, Expo 2020 said: “Whatever the question is, education is always the answer. I have heard this quote several times within the People and Planet programming at Expo 2020. I’m really proud that Italy had supported several educational initiatives in the last few years – one of which was launched at Expo 2020’s Climate and Biodiversity Week, and promoted by the University of Milan. Mountains are the ideal place to gain knowledge and new skills. Not only are they places for tourism, agriculture and business opportunities, but they are places of learning.”

Underscoring that we are all interconnected with mountains, Sergio Martin Nostas, Vice-Consul Peru, Dubai emphasised that not only do we all need to be supporting mountain communities, but that they need to be at the centre of policies and decision making processes.

Sergio Martin Nostas said: “People living in mountain communities are incredibly skilled. They deserve to have the opportunity to export their beautiful textiles or nutritional superfoods to the rest of the world.”

News by Expo 2020 Dubai

Photo by FAO/Sara Manuelli