SDG indicators 15.1.1 and 15.2.1 - Forest area and sustainable forest management
This course has been developed to guide countries in reporting on Indicators 15.1.1 and 15.2.1. It illustrates the rationale of the indicators, the definitions and methodologies on which monitoring activities are based, and explains the process and the tools available for compiling data related to the two indicators through the Global Forest Resources Assessment Programme (available in English, French and Spanish).
Mountains cover around 27 percent of the earth’s land surface, and forests cover more than 40 percent of the global mountain area.
Healthy mountain forests are crucial to the ecological health of the world. They protect watersheds that supply freshwater to more than half of humankind. They also harbour wildlife, provide food and fodder for mountain peoples and are important sources of timber and non-wood products. Moreover, they protect the earth and contribute to shielding the atmosphere from CO2 emissions.
Protecting these forests and making sure they are carefully managed is an important step towards sustainable mountain development. In the last decades, tropical mountain forests have been disappearing at an astounding rate. Deforestation is generally driven by population growth, the expansion of intensive agriculture, uncertain land tenure, inequitable land distribution and the absence of strong and stable institutions.
Crucially, mountain forests perform a protective function against natural hazards, so that when forest cover is lost and the land is left unprotected, runoff and soil erosion increase, provoking landslides, avalanches and floods, to the detriment of villages, transport systems, human infrastructure and of the food security of vulnerable populations.
Putting power back into the hands of mountain people is one important step towards alleviating their poverty and, in turn, protecting mountain forests. Measures that could accomplish these aims include providing incentives for biodiversity and agro-biodiversity conservation as well as the inclusion sustainable forest management plans into national policies.
IUCN: Thomson Reuters Environmental Media AwardeventFor over a decade, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has teamed up with Thomson Reuters Foundation to honor environmental journalism. From 15 May to 15 June 2012, journalists and writers across the world are invited to submit an article on an environmental issue, for the IUCN –... Read more » |
The mountain needs to remain a wild placenews“Mountains should be left wild. Only in this way we can guarantee the future of alpinism and mountains.” This was basically the conclusion of the round table Quo CLIMBis, which took place on Sunday, 6 May 2012 at Castle Firmian. On invitation of the Messner Mountain Museum, world renowned mountaineers... Read more » |
Climate change adaptation in Africa's "living places"multimediaIn order to set in motion the development of an enhanced mountain agenda for Africa, international experts, researchers and journalists from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe met in Mbale, Uganda, for three days (November 2011). Together, they... Read more » |
Training on Rapid Rural AppraisalblogThe Mountain Partnership Central Asia Hub (MPCA) and MSRC/UCA held a one-day introductory training on Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) techniques on April 27, 2012. The objective of the training was to provide participants with an introduction to RRA and its key methodological principles, as well as to familiarize participants with the... Read more » |
United Nations General Assembly Resolution: Sustainable Mountain Development (2012)publicationResolution adopted by the General Assembly on Sustainable mountain development at the 66th Session. A/RES/66/205
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One day in mountains: Central Asia public to Rio+20 processesmultimediaThe documentary 'One day in mountains' was produced under the regional project 'Sensitizing Central Asia public to Rio+20 processes' by national NGOs, Mountain Partnership members in Central Asia: CAMP Kuhiston, Tajikistan, ECOFORUM, Uzbekistan and Alliance of Mountain Communities in Central Asia. Read more » |
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