11 September 2015: The Central Asia Hub of the Mountain Partnership has published the report of the 2015 Forum of Mountain Countries, which convened on 8 June 2015 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, under the theme ‘Agriculture and Food Security under Changing Climate in Central Asian Mountains: Integrated Watershed Management as a Viable Solution for Coping with and Adapting to Change.’ The Forum was co-organized by the Mountain Partnership Central Asia Hub and Tajikistan’s State Committee on Environmental Protection, with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

The Forum kicked off with a knowledge fair showcasing sustainable development good practices by mountain stakeholders, followed by a dialogue on integrating mountain concerns into policy and development processes at multiple levels. During parallel thematic discussion sessions, more than 120 representatives of government, civil society, development agencies and research organizations explored a range of contextual issues in sustainable mountain development, including: climate change and its impacts on mountain agriculture, nutrition and health, the role of women in mountain ecosystem stewardship, integrated watershed management and disaster risk mitigation.

The Forum explored strategies for, inter alia: enhancing food security and creating conditions for entrepreneurship and better livelihoods, particularly among women; facilitating community-led solutions to reduce conflicts over access to natural resources, including pasture management and water; improving governance mechanisms for achieving sustainable land management (SLM) and integrating disaster risk mitigation into these systems; and developing innovative local approaches to protect mountain ecosystems and water sources.

The report highlights some priority areas of action identified during the discussions, including the need to: diversify food systems by supporting mountain farmers and encouraging climate-smart agriculture; promote participatory governance of natural resources in watersheds; upscale SLM practices, including community-based climate risk mitigation plans; introduce equitable benefit sharing and compensation mechanisms to properly reflect the services provided by mountains for all; enable better knowledge exchange between practitioners, communities and researchers; and invest in decision-support tools and programmes that integrate the concerns of mountain communities in national and international development plans and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). [Mountain Partnership News Release] [Publication: Dushanbe Forum of Mountain Countries – 2015: Water and Mountains]