Building support for the MPS in Rome, Italy
20.05.2015
The Permanent Representatives of Argentina and Italy to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) co-hosted a meeting to increase support for the Mountain Partnership Secretariat (MPS) in Rome, Italy, on 19 May 2015, during which a representative of the Embassy of Turkey reiterated the readiness of his government to extend its support.
Ambassador Claudio Rozencwaig of Argentina and Ambassador Pierfrancesco Sacco of Italy explained that they convened the meeting, “Mountain Partnership: Achievements and Challenges - Looking Forward”, to seek greater political, technical and financial support for sustainable mountain development, the focus of the work of the MPS. “If we want to promote development, mountain areas should be a top priority,” said Ambassador Rozencwaig, whose government serves as the Chair of the Mountain Partnership Steering Committee. “To continue to improve the livelihoods of mountain peoples and maintain the spotlight on mountains in important global, regional and local processes, the Secretariat needs urgently to expand its resource partners,” he said.
“The Italian Government, along with the Government of Switzerland, FAO and the United Nations Environment Programme, founded the Mountain Partnership in 2002 and has provided financial and political support to the Mountain Partnership Secretariat ever since,” Sacco told the group of diplomats representing 31 countries and the European Union (EU).
Gathered at FAO headquarters, participants heard some alarming statistics about hunger in mountain areas. “One out of three people living in mountains is vulnerable to food insecurity, compared to one in eight in developing countries worldwide,” said Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director General, who also underscored the need to recognize mountains in the international climate change agreement expected to come out of the summit in Paris in December 2015. “Let us also flag the vulnerability of mountains to climate change – whose impact is evidenced by the retreat of glaciers and increasing number of extreme events and natural disasters,” she said.
A solemn note was reached each time the recent earthquake that recently struck Nepal was mentioned. Thomas Hofer, MPS Coordinator, underscoring the fragility of mountain ecosystems, spoke of the threats to them, including natural disasters, degradation, desertification and climate change.
In his closing remarks, Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry, invited governments that do not currently belong to the Partnership to join.
During the discussion, diplomats representing Brazil, the EU, Iceland, Indonesia, Montenegro, The Philippines, Spain and Uganda expressed concern for the mountain areas in their countries, interest in how the multi-stakeholder alliance on mountains works and acknowledgement of the need to do more at national level to have greater impact at global and local level.
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Watch “Partnering for Mountains”
The presentation by Thomas Hofer
Key messages
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