Sustainable Mountain Development - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 596

CHAPTER TWELVE
Sustainable Mountain Development
MARTIN F. PRICE and THOMAS KOHLER
The global importance of mountain regions has been increasingly recognized in recent
years, particularly since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Develop-
ment (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (Ives et al. 1997b; Sène and McGuire 1997;
Price and Messerli 2002; Debarbieux and Price 2008). At this meeting, the heads of state
or government of most of the world's nations signed Agenda 21, a plan for action into
the twenty-first century or, more colloquially, “a blueprint for sustainable development”
(Lindner 1997: 4). Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 is entitled “Managing Fragile Ecosystems:
Sustainable Mountain Development,” and includes two “programme areas”:
• generating and strengthening knowledge about the ecology and sustainable develop-
ment of mountain ecosystems, and
• promoting integrated watershed development and alternative livelihood opportunit-
ies.
Inclusion of this chapter meant that, for the first time, mountains were accorded a
priority in the global debate about environment and development comparable with is-
sues such as global climate change, desertification, and deforestation. The chapter built
on decades of research, particularly by geographers—notably within the Commission
on Mountain Geoecology of the International Geographical Union (IGU). This research,
much of which was published in the journal Mountain Research and Development, sup-
ported a process of advocacy for mountains, as described in Chapter 1 and by Price
(1998), Ives and Messerli (2004), and Debarbieux and Price (2008). In 1998, the UN Gen-
eral Assembly reemphasized the importance of the world's mountains by declaring the
year 2002 the International Year of Mountains (IYM).
Since 1992, under the aegis of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) as “Task Manager” for Chapter 13 and, from 1999, lead agency for the
IYM, considerable progress has been made toward the goals of Chapter 13 (FAO 2000a;
Price 1999; Maselli 2012, Messerli 2012). In 1994, FAO convened the Inter-Agency
Group on Mountains (IAGM), which, in spite of its name, was intentionally pluralistic. It
included not only United Nations agencies, but also bilateral donors, nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), and research institutions. One recommendation of its first meeting
was that national governments should become directly involved in the implementation of
Chapter 13. As a result, a series of regional intergovernmental consultations for Africa,
Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean took place from 1994