Women and men play key roles with respect to environmental protection and social and economic development in mountain areas. Women are often the primary managers of mountain resources, guardians of biodiversity and the main actors in terms of agriculture, animal husbandry and other small scale economic activities. In mountain communities, women are keepers of traditional knowledge, custodians of local culture and experts in traditional medicine.
However, women mountain dwellers are often invisible and their voices go unheard. They rarely participate in decisions affecting the management and use of local resources; they often lack basic rights, have little access to ownership and land tenure rights, education, health services and training. Since women and girls have less access to household resources, they are at a greater risk of hunger and malnutrition.
As men migrate to lowlands areas or abroad in search of better income, women are left to manage the farm and household and participate in small trade and income-earning activities. Yet lack of access to credit hampers efforts to improve or expand their farm activities and earn cash incomes.Inaccessibility shapes the lives of mountain communities. Further, the challenges men and women face in mountain regions is intensified by altitude, steep terrain and isolation.
![]() Online mountain assessment tool launchedpeak to peakIssue 100 – Month 1 – Year 2017 The January issue of Peak to Peak presents the launch of a new online tool that facilitates international and cross-disciplinary collaboration on the assessment, conservation and sustainable use of mountain biodiversity. The newsletter continues with a call to highlight... Download » |
![]() Mountain Research and Development issue onlinenewsThe articles in this issue of Mountain Research and Development derive from papers presented at the 2015 Perth III “Mountains of Our Future Earth” conference and align themselves with research themes of Future Earth. The papers feature a Canadian software tool to compare mountain photos for environmental monitoring,... Read more » |
![]() Social innovation project in mountain areasnewsA new four-year project founded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovative programme and coordinated by the James Hutton Institute was launched in April 2016. “Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas” (SIMRA) seeks to advance understanding of social innovation and innovative governance in agriculture, forestry and rural development,... Read more » |
![]() Mountains to be featured at UNFCCC COP22peak to peakIssue 98 – Month 11 – Year 2016 The November issue of Peak to Peak presents a complete list of mountain-related events, exhibits and fora taking place during the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The... Download » |
![]() Call for papers on migration in mountain areasnewsMigration is greatly affecting mountain societies and mountain ecosystems. Mountain Research and Development is looking for papers that assess experiences of promoting sustainable development in a context of out- or in-migration; that analyse migration processes and their implications for mountain communities and ecosystems; or that offer agendas for future research... Read more » |
![]() UN report on sustainable mountain developmentnewsThe United Nation Secretary-General (UNSG) has issued a report on sustainable mountain development (SMD) covering the last three years. Prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat in collaboration with governments, UN agencies and other organizations, the report describes the... Read more » |
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