Islands and mountains join hands
04.11.2015
The Mountain Partnership Secretariat (MPS) and Global Island Partnership (GLISPA) jointly organized a panel discussion, “Promoting Innovation While Ensuring Environmental Sustainability in Islands and Mountain regions”, chaired by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, at the Third World Local Economic Development Forum in Turin, Italy on 16 October 2015.
Whereas islands are normally associated with the problems of a rising sea level and the increasingly frequent extreme weather events, mountains are generally coupled with melting of glaciers and extreme poverty. Nevertheless, it is not by chance that the two alliances have already in the past established a dialogue and decided to meet again in Turin, to exchange and share best practices from those islands and mountain regions that are attempting innovative ways to promote local economic development while ensuring environmental sustainability.
Panellists included:
• Grammenos Mastrojeni, Environment Coordinator, Italian Development Cooperation, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (Chair);
• Ronny Jumeau, roving Ambassador for Climate Change and Small Island Developing State Issues, Republic of Seychelles;
• Hersey Kyota, Ambassador of the Republic of Palau to the United States of America;
• Thomas Hofer, Coordinator, Mountain Partnership Secretariat, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO);
• Fabio Attore, Department of Environmental Biology of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; and
• Kate Brown, Coordinator, Global Island Partnership.
In their remarks, the panellists emphasized that the development issues that islands and mountain regions face and the policy strategies they have devised are in many ways aligned:
• Isolation and marginalization are common to both islands and mountains.
• A limited natural resource base hinders the economic growth of most islands and mountain regions, resulting in isolation from markets, high transportation costs and expensive imports.
• Increasing pressure on limited land and natural resources leads to dramatic biodiversity loss, particularly as endemic mountain and island species can be highly specialized and extremely sensitive to changing conditions.
• Islands and mountains are among the most vulnerable ecosystems to the negative impacts of climate change, yet they are among the least responsible for our changing climate. The cost of recovery from extreme weather events and natural disasters is an ever increasing figure on their national budgets and a heavy toll in terms of human lives.
Hofer quoted a recent UN report, which indicates that “the retreat and disappearance of island montane forests is analogous with the retreat of glaciers in high latitude regions in terms of the impact on water availability and increased incidence of serious flooding”.
Emphasizing that most islands are the top of ancient mountains, Jumeau referred to them as ‘mountains of the ocean’. He compared the mountain snow line to island ocean level -- while glaciers melt and mountain snow lines retreat, the islands literally drown due to the rising ocean level.
This is why, both island and mountain governments, together with their partners, are looking at innovative models for sustainable growth that build upon the core pillars of social inclusion and economic equality while increasing the resilience of their fragile ecosystems. The commitment of the private business and financial sectors in setting higher environmental standards to protect fragile ecosystems could better ensure the success of these innovative initiatives.
GLISPA representatives highlighted how islands and small island developing states (SIDS) are taking leadership in putting in place innovative financing mechanisms that stimulate local economic and infrastructure development. Some of the examples they presented included:
• the Seychelles debt-for-nature swap signed with the counties of the Paris club;
• the Aloha+ Challenge of Hawaii - a state-wide commitment to achieve sustainability targets by 2030; and
• the 500 000 sq km marine sanctuary created in Palau, where the tourism industry is critical to the nation’s economy, but it is dependent on the sustainable management of the country’s natural resources.
A short MP documentary was projected, showing the activities of the Partnership to establish the first National Forest Inventory of Papua New Guinea (PNG), under the arrangements for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD)+. PNG is the first country, among those involved in REDD+, to attempt the systematic integration of biodiversity indicators on a national scale, upon which sound government policies can be built to sustainably manage the nation’s forest heritage, needed by the local population for their livelihoods and food.
Building on the newly approved 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in view of the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, GLISPA and the MP have requested that Italy, their host country on this occasion, to convey an urgent call for action to the international community. A nation of mountains and extensive coastlines, Italy has long been a supporter of both Partnerships, and has welcomed their initiative to join forces, in particular, given the pressing need to address climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Read more
See the video, "Papua New Guinea: First National Forest Inventory and Biodiversity Survey"
Photo: Flickr/Andrew Moore
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