2018 International Mountain Day
11/12/2018
2018 International Mountain Day
Carla Mucavi, Director, FAO Liaison Office to the United Nations in New York
Your Excellency Ambassador Mirgul Moldoisaeva, Permanent Representative of the Kyrgyz Republic to the UN,
Your Excellency Ambassador Kickert, Permanent Representative of Austria to the UN,
Your Excellency Ambassador Louise Blais, Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the UN,
Your Excellency Joan López Deputy Permanent Representative of the Principality of Andorra to the UN,
Distinguished panellists and guests,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
My name is Carla Mucavi, I am the Director of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Liaison Office to the United Nations and I will be moderating your event this afternoon.
On behalf of the co-sponsors of this event, the Permanent Missions of Kyrgyzstan, the Principality of Monaco, Austria and Canada, UNDP and FAO, I would like to welcome you to the celebration of the 2018 International Mountain Day.
Since 2003, we celebrate International Mountain Day on 11 December. The theme of this year’s celebration is Mountains Matter. It offers an opportunity to pause and reflect on the challenges to sustainable mountain development and to build alliances that can help bring about positive change.
This is important not only for mountain communities and ecosystems, but to all of us, as mountains are a critical source of life, water, food and biodiversity.
Mountains matter and they are under many threats. Perhaps the most visible one is climate change.
Climate change is causing glacier retreat that is already impacting water provision in mountain communities and downstream. It is also increasing the occurrence and impact of natural disasters.
I also want to recall that mountain people are often vulnerable populations to start with. In fact, one in every three mountain people in developing countries faces food insecurity. Climate change worsens this situation, often leaving mountain families with no alternative other than migration.
In this regard, allow me to point out that the conversation that we are having today is pretty much related to the High-Level discussions taking place in Poland at the Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change and in Morocco at the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
With this short introduction, let us move straight into our panel represented by distinguished speakers. They will address on how to tackle climate change and build resilience for mountain communities. We will be looking at this issue through different angles.