Gearing up for International Mountain Day

Mountain products and services can greatly increase mountain livelihoods. Though mountain agriculture cannot compete with the prices and volumes of lowland production, it can concentrate on high value, high quality products to boost local economies. The theme of this year’s International Mountain Day (IMD) is “Promoting mountain products for better livelihoods”. While this is the suggested theme for 2015, governments, communities and organizations may choose another theme for their IMD events.

Designated  by the United Nations General Assembly in 2002, International Mountain Day is an occasion to raise awareness about our reliance on mountains, whether directly or indirectly. The observance is also opportunity to build alliances that bring positive changes to mountain peoples and environments around the world.

With support from the Mountain Partnership Secretariat and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), various organizations are planning the celebrations of this special day. Among these are:

• “Reading mountains“, an initiative of the German Presidency of the Alpine Convention 2015-2016  dedicated to reading Alpine literature in various places around the Alps on IMD;
• the Montanha Pico Festival, to be held in January 2016 by MiratecArts, where activities will range from talks and gatherings to adventures and artistic events celebrating mountain life;
• a photographic exhibition by Craig Richards on Bolivian mountains organized by the Museo della Montagna and the Bolivian Embassy will be showcased at FAO headquarters in Rome; and
• a conference, planned by the University of Utah, aimed at the inclusion of the community living in the mountains in the mountain discourse.

Posters and factsheets are available in the six FAO official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) on the IMD website. Please contact the MP Secretariat if you need hard copies of the communication materials created for IMD.

The event hashtags are #WeLoveMountains and #MountainsMatter.

Please send your event plans to Diletta de Leonardis.

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Photo: John Mock