News

Mountains to be highlighted during world climate change talks

08.10.2013

The Mountain Partnership (MP) will hold a two-hour session called “Building Climate Change Resilience in Mountains” during the Global Landscapes Forum on 16 November 2013 in Warsaw, Poland. The two-day Forum, held on the sidelines of the 19th session of the Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims to develop the potential of the landscape approach to inform UNFCCC negotiations and Sustainable Development Goal discussions.

The session, organized by the MP Secretariat on the first day of the Global Landscapes Forum, will provide an opportunity for governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), major groups, UN agencies and others to elaborate key messages and recommendations to raise awareness about the significance of mountains in the climate change debate. The two-hour session, moderated by Thomas Hofer, Coordinator of the MP Secretariat, will feature a panel of speakers that will include representatives of MP member governments and organizations.

The session will address both political and technical issues and seek to answer three main questions:

• How can international commitment to adequate, timely and predictable resources for disaster risk reduction be increased in order to enhance the resilience of mountain communities to disasters?
  
  
• How can and should vulnerable and marginalized mountain communities be best supported in becoming climate-smart stewards of mountain landscapes?
  
  
• How can the role of mountains as the world’s water towers be promoted, especially given the impacts of climate change on water availability and hydrological regimes?

The Global Landscapes Forum will highlight for world leaders, policymakers, scientists, civil society, the private sector, indigenous and community groups the role sustainable landscapes can play in providing food, shelter and income.

Landscapes may be defined as the products of the interaction between human societies and culture with the natural environment. The landscapes approach provides a broad framework that can fully integrate mountain ecosystems into a sustainable development agenda. Read more about the Global Landscapes Forum

Photo: FAO/H. Batuhan Gunsen