Call for case studies for new publication on Mountain Family Farming

As you might know, 2014 will be the UN International Year of Family Farming.  As a contribution to this International Year, and also with the aim of recognizing and supporting the important role that mountain products play in enabling food security and eradicating poverty, the Mountain Partnership Secretariat (MPS), the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) in partnership with other key institutions are joining together to produce a publication on mountain family farming. 

The preparation of the publication is being coordinated by Professor Thomas Kohler of the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat at FAO.

We are contacting you to ask whether you would be interested in contributing a case study to the publication.

At this point, we are just compiling offers of case studies on the following broad themes (please see attachment for more detail):

• Mountain farming and global change: economic globalization, climate change, accessibility, etc.
• Mountain livelihoods: agriculture, forestry, fishery and beyond
• Forms of collaboration/cooperation, both in farming and along the farm product value chain
• Organic agriculture in mountains
• Certification frameworks and mountain products
• Mountain family farming and green agriculture

If you would like to propose one or more case studies, please send them to alessia.vita@fao.org by 28 March providing the following information:

• A brief intro summarizing the contents of the case study
• the country (or countries) to which the case study refers
• the organization(s) involved in funding the activities included in the case study - if relevant
• the organization(s) involved in implementing the activities
• with reference to the attached table of contents of the report, the sections to which the case study refers

Once we have received all the offers of case studies, we will review them and select a representative number, taking into account their geographical distribution, themes, and implementing and funding organizations. 

If your case study is chosen, we will contact you in April with further details. At that point, and only if your proposal is selected, a full case study will need to be provided. Its total length should be up to 1,000 words (which will be possibly edited) and submitted with up to 5 high-quality images (of which some will be used).  Everyone who contributes a case study will be identified in the publication and receive a copy of it.

We hope that you will find this request of interest, and look forward to hearing from you.

We would also be grateful if you could forward this email and its attachment to anyone else who might be interested in submitting a case study.