This meeting, held just prior to the Second Intersessional Meeting for the UNCSD, included presentations on outcomes from the Lucerne World Mountain Conference and its potential input to the UNCSD, the latest developments in the UNCSD preparatory process and ensuring the proper inclusion of mountain issues, and the role of the MPS leading up to the UNCSD.
Participants also discussed outreach, partnerships, and mountains as a cross-cutting issue.
14 December 2011: The meeting of the Mountain Focus Group convened on 14 December 2011, and sought to forge a common understanding on including mountain development in the preparatory process for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) and the Conference itself.
The meeting took place in New York, US, and was organized by the Mountain Partnership Secretariat (MPS), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Missions of Italy and Switzerland to the UN. Presentations were given on: outcomes from the Lucerne World Mountain Conference and its potential input to the UNCSD, the latest developments in the UNCSD preparatory process and ensuring the proper inclusion of mountain issues, and the role of the MPS leading up to the UNCSD.
In the discussion segment, participants addressed: the need to communicate both the challenges and benefits of mountains; approaches for outreach on mountain issues; potential types of partnership; and the sustainable development of mountains as a cross-cutting issue. [IISD RS Coverage of Meeting] [Biodiversity Policy & Practice Story on the Lucerne Conference]