25 October 2011
ICIMOD Conference Report Highlights Mountain Vulnerability
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The report from the recent International Conference on Green Economy and Sustainable Mountain Development highlights emerging challenges, issues, and opportunities to promote sustainable development in mountains, and notes changes in the conditions influencing sustainable development in mountains.

20 October 2011: The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has issued a report, titled “Green Economy for Sustainable Mountain Development,” resulting from the deliberations among stakeholders attending the recent International Conference on Green Economy and Sustainable Mountain Development.

The Conference, organized by ICIMOD and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), took place in Kathmandu, Nepal, in September 2011.

The report highlights emerging challenges, issues and opportunities to promote sustainable development in the mountains, and describes strategies, approaches, and options with a view to ensuring renewed efforts and commitment by the global community at the UN Conference for Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20). It looks at changes in the conditions influencing sustainable development in mountains, noting that mountains are among the most fragile environments in the world, including the most vulnerable to climate change. The costs of letting mountain ecosystems degrade or fail to generate services could be very high to the local, national, and global community, the report notes.

The report also highlights the traditional adaptive capacity of mountain communities, and says their adaptation processes and practices, including traditional technologies, can help address climate change impacts in the presence of adequate incentive programs. [Publication: Green Economy for Sustainable Mountain Development: A Concept Paper for Rio+20 and Beyond] [IISD RS Coverage of the meeting]


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