Mountain Forum Annual Report 2004

This 2004 has opened for the Mountain Forum with a period of reflection, strategic planning, and potential reorientation. In view of defining the network’s long-term vision and adjusting its strategy in line with recent global developments in sustainable mountain development, the Mountain Forum conducted several strategic planning activities with input from a variety of sectors. Based upon these activities, the Mountain Forum defined a set of strategic objectives for the period 2005 to 2007, which include most notably the need for the Mountain Forum to focus its energies to reach out more effectively to the grassroots and less represented geographic areas, and to explore the use of alternative media.

Following the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the landmark Chapter 13 of Agenda 21, the Mountain Forum contributed to elevate mountain issues to such a stage on the global agenda, that a new chapter of sustainable mountain development has now opened with the formation of the Mountain Partnership, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, in 2002.

Collaboration with the Mountain Partnership--Mountain Forum’s key partner--has strengthened since the Partnership’s establishment in 2002. The Mountain Forum Secretariat (MFS) staff maintains close communication with the staff at the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, based in the Food and Agriculture Organization, in Rome, Italy, for increased coordination and synergy between the two organizations.

As part of this collaboration, the MFS and the regional nodes worked closely with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat for the preparations of a global meeting of the Mountain Partnership in Cusco, Peru, on October 28th and 29th, 2004. In preparation for this event, the Mountain Forum moderated an electronic consultation for members of the Mountain Partnership to air their views and to define the Mountain Partnership’s Plan of Action prior to the meeting. The Mountain Forum provided significant input into the development of the ‘Cusco Framework for Action’, which now steers the future action of the Mountain Partnership. The Mountain Forum and the Mountain Partnership envision to further integrating their activities in the coming years.