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Water

Each day, one of every two people on the planet quenches his thirst with water that originates in mountains. And as the world population swells to an estimated 9.6 billion by 2050, the worldwide demand for freshwater will continue to soar.

More than half of humanity relies on mountain freshwater for everyday life. The ten largest rivers originating in the Hindu Kush Himalayas alone supply water to over 1.35 billion people. Some of the world’s largest cities, including New York, Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, Tokyo and Melbourne, are dependent on freshwater from mountains.

Climate change is already causing more than 600 glaciers to disappear, resulting in springs and rivers drying up. Greater frequency of extreme weather events, droughts and floods, including flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), are also expected to increase in mountains, causing imbalance between current water supply and demand.

Given the importance of mountain water resources worldwide, the careful management of mountain water resources is a global priority. Water management practices need to be adapted to different climatic zones, using locally adapted soil and water management techniques. Most importantly, watershed management must take into account the needs of all those who depend on mountain water, including those who have the greatest stake in preserving healthy mountain ecosystems – people who live in mountain areas themselves, who are often marginalized from the decision-making processes.

Trees, forests and water: cool insights for a hot world

publication

Forests’ many life-sustaining functions as prime regulators within the water, energy and carbon cycles are still not universally recognized, a fact that the world ignores at its peril, a new article cautions. To address climate change and land misuse, global action should be realigned to prioritize trees’ and forests’ key...

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Chile’s public consultation on mountain policy

news

Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heraldo Muñoz, has announced that Chile will be the first country in South America to have a national public policy on sustainable mountain development. To decide the final policy, Chile has launched a public consultation, encouraging Chilean citizens to make suggestions and help...

United Nations General Assembly Resolution: Sustainable Mountain Development (2016)

publication

Resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Sustainable mountain development at 71st Session. A/71/463/Add.10

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Call for abstracts: Mt Kilimanjaro conference

news

AfroMont, the African chapter of the international Mountain Research Initiative, invites researchers working on African mountains to submit abstracts for the upcoming Mount Kilimanjaro Mountain Research Conference. The conference theme is "African mountain ecosystems under global change: linking biodiversity, biotic interactions and biogeochemical ecosystem processes". Abstracts may be...

Online mountain assessment tool launched

peak to peak

Issue 100 – Month 1 – Year 2017

The January issue of Peak to Peak presents the launch of a new online tool that facilitates international and cross-disciplinary collaboration on the assessment, conservation and sustainable use of mountain biodiversity. The newsletter continues with a call to highlight...