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`Mountain Day’ at COP17 Calls for Urgent Actions to Save the World’s Mountain Ecosystems

07.12.2011

A ‘Mountain Day’ event was held on 4 December 2011 in Durban, South Africa on the sideline of the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is the first time that a Mountain Day was held in the framework of a UNFCCC COP. The event was organized by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in close collaboration with global and regional partners, including GIZ, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). With more than 100 participants from all the mountains of the globe, the day was intended to highlight the need to preserve mountain ecosystems, which play a critical role in climate adaptation and sustainable development. A draft ‘Call for Action’ was prepared to convey this message of mountains regions to a broader audience.