Global Change and Mountains: Consequences, Responses and Opportunities - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 122

This resulted in several specifi c initiatives by different governments of
mountainous countries, international organizations, NGOs and scientifi c
agencies across the world during the decade following the UN Conference
on Environment and Development. Establishment of Mountain Forum
in 1995 was one the important initiatives taken for a global network for
information exchange, mutual support, and advocacy towards equitable
and ecologically sustainable mountain development and conservation of
mountains ecosystem across the world. This was followed by designating
2002 as the International Year of Mountains (IYM) by United Nations
General Assembly which was followed by Global Mountain Summit in
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic in the same year. The International Year of
Mountains provided a great opportunity for raising awareness about the
importance of mountains for sustainability of the global environment.
This resulted in the manifestation of several new initiatives, including the
Adelboden Group which lead to the creation of Sustainable Agriculture
and Rural Development in Mountains (SARD-M), Global Change in
Mountain Regions (GLOCHAMORE) and the Mountain Research Initiative
(MRI). Further, Mountain Partnership was launched at the World Summit
on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002 to promote,
strengthen and facilitate closer collaboration between governments,
civil society organizations, inter-government agencies, and the private
sector toward achieving sustainable mountain development. All these
initiatives and actions have been quite successful in raising awareness of
the importance of mountains, and some of them also initiated successful
interventions for sustainable mountain development.
On the other hand, in spite of all these successful initiatives and actions
and the UN General Assembly continued emphasis on the sustainable
mountain development, the mountain regions of the world have never
received the desired consideration in the global development agenda. One
of the important reasons for mountains not receiving adequate attention
was the international developmental agenda is always dominated by the
sustainable development agenda, such as the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP), which
were largely implemented as national programmes ignoring the ecology
and specifi c developmental requirements of mountain areas. Furthermore,
the outline of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) still lacks a mountain perspective, largely because of substantial
knowledge gaps and an uncoordinated approach by the countries that are
most affected by climate change in their mountains. In view of this, several
critical issues related with sustainable mountain development, particularly,
management of water resources; conservation of biological and cultural
diversity; infrastructure development, access to health services and markets;
proper recognition and valuation of mountain ecosystem services and the