Africa's annual tribute to mountains
29.01.2015
Celebrations of International Mountain Day (IMD) took place all throughout the African continent on 11 December 2014. An opportunity to share experiences and create awareness among the local, national and global communities, IMD ‘enables diverse communities to participate freely and joyfully, ’ says Makerere University IMD event organizers in Kampala, Uganda. Celebrating in their own style and with a selected mountain community in Mt Elgon, the university has a tradition of making IMD fun and informative. This year students celebrated with an examination, testing their understanding of the concepts and practices of highland and mountain resource management. The university a course on these topics, designed in response to Chapter 13 of ‘Agenda 21,’ the outcome document of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment & Development to build human capacity in mountain resource management. Makerere students also joined local communities at Mt Elgon in the Bududa district to celebrate IMD on 25 November 2014, when discussions were held with communities on various issues concerning sustainable resource use. Among the topics were family farming, the IMD theme this year and an activity key to the food security, employment and income of Ugandan mountain communities.
Two Algerian associations, Assirem Gourya and Forest Conservation, of the Béjaïa Province in collaboration with the Algerian Federation of Ski and Mountain Sports organized the third edition of the National Festival of Mountains on 11-13 December 2014 in the Béjaïa Province, Algeria. The date coincides with the demonstrations of 11 December 1960, which led to the country’s independence. IMD celebrations aimed at establishing the sustainable development of mountain regions in the Béjaïa Province, mostly in the remote areas, and at valorizing local products, the development of mountain sports and the preservation of natural, cultural and historical resources.
For IMD the Al Hadaf Boulemane association, with the support of OxfamNovib, organized the first regional meeting about Morocco’s mountain areas, entitled “For a strong and committed civil action for Morocco’s mountain areas” which was part of their advocacy programme to improve the living conditions of people in mountainous areas. The event took place on 12-14 December 2014 at the association’s headquarters in Boulemane, Morocco. Various representatives of civil society participated and social movements from the Middle Atlas region, scientific research institutions, public institutions and the media discussed Moroccan mountain area issues.
In line with the theme of this year’s IMD, the Cameroon National Network of Associations and NGOs of the Mountain Partnership (RENAASONGCAM) organized an event aimed at strengthening the capacities of local mountain communities to conduct family farming in mountain areas. Thus, RENAASONGCAM led a series of capacity-building seminars on 4-11 December. The event was supported by the local association Noni Women. Around three hundred participants, coming from the northwestern regions of Cameroon benefited from the courses. RENASONGCAM also held a similar event in Mfou, in the department of Méfou-et-Afambawith the support of the local non-governmental organization Cream Insurance and involving young farmers. In Cameroon, IMD serves to make an assessment of the achievements of the past year and to plan the year that is about to start.
More pictures of IMD celebrations are available on the Mountain Partnership’s Flickr gallery.
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