11 April 2018: Ahead of the 2018 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), the Mountain Partnership published baseline data for the Mountain Green Cover Index, one the official indicators for SDG target 15.4, which seeks to ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems.

SDG 15 (life on land) is one of the Goals on which an in-depth review will take place during HLPF 2018. The in-depth review of the Goals is scheduled for 10-13 July, during the first week of the Forum’s session.

The Mountain Green Cover Index, or SDG indicator 15.4.2, measures changes in the area of green vegetation in mountain areas. To develop the baseline data, interactive visualizations were derived from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN’s (FAO) Collect Earth and the 2015 global map of mountains produced by FAO and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat. The baseline data for the Mountain Green Cover Index estimates disaggregated information by elevation class (in line with the mountain classification adopted by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)) and for each land cover class under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

One of the key findings is that in 2017, 76% of the world’s mountain areas were covered by a form of green vegetation, including forests, shrubs, grassland and cropland. The data reveals that mountain green cover was lowest in Western Asia and Northern Africa (60%) and highest in Oceania (96%). It is expected that negative trends under indicator 15.4.2 will signal increased forest exploitation, timber extraction, fuel-wood collection, fire and climate change, while reforestation or afforestation programmes as well as changing climatic conditions could contribute to improvements in mountain green cover.

The FAO-based Mountain Partnership Secretariat is the custodian agency for SDG target 15.4. [Mountain Partnership Press Release] [Mountain Green Cover Index Baseline Data] [HLPF 2018 Website]