News

UN day puts mountains in world spotlight

14.01.2015

More than 50 events marked International Mountain Day (IMD) around the world on 11 December 2014, when mountain lovers, governments and civil society groups joined forces to raise the flag for mountain peoples and environments.

As the lead coordinating UN agency for the preparation of this annual celebration, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) – both decentralized offices and headquarters - partnered with governments and civil society organizations to organize events that raise public awareness about the relevance of mountains to sustainable development. IMD also brought about governmental action and heightened cooperation at national and regional level.

The celebrations took place in more than 30 countries in the form of conferences, hikes, runs and walks in the mountains, concerts, mountaineering equipment auctions, social media photography competitions, arts festivals, photo exhibitions, tree planting activities and a tea growers’ workshop.

This year’s theme, “Mountain Family Farming,” chosen to tie in with the International Year of Family Farming, was the focus of many Mountain Partnership members’ seminars and conferences, addressing mountain family farmers’ substantial contributions to reducing poverty, feeding families and communities and ensuring the sustainability of natural resources.

At global level, the day was also an opportunity to make strong calls for action. In Lima, Peru, during the UN climate change conference, Mountain Partnership members expressed hopes that mountain actors join forces in view of next year’s climate conference (COP21) in Paris, France. Meanwhile, in New York, US, the Permanent Mission of Argentina, FAO and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat (MPS) convened government and civil society representatives at UN headquarters, where they agreed to strive to keep mountains high on the Post-2015 agenda.

IMD was also featured virtually – a big hit on the web and social media. The MPS produced a video, “Celebrating Mountains on 11 December” in English and Spanish which received about 1 800 and 1 000 views, respectively, on YouTube. Tweets using the hashtag #welovemountains reached 53 110 people. Dedicated Facebook posts on IMD in multiple languages reached more than 12 000 people around the world. Global media coverage of the day was also very extensive, with the national press in Algeria, Bangladesh, Chile, Iran, Italy, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru and Spain among others, featuring news articles.