Mountain Forum Annual Report 2009

The past year has been a very intensive one for our global network because of the enormous global challenges and the thorough institutional change process.

More than ever before, in 2009 the world was worried about the effects of climate change and this attention was concentrated at the Copenhagen Conference of Parties in December. During the whole year, as well as at the Copenhagen conference itself, Mountain Forum, together with our sister networks and organizations, made the case for the specific effects of climate change on mountain environments and their human communities. 2010 has been declared the "International Year of Biodiversity". Mountain Forum has chosen the topic of mountain biodiversity as one of the key themes for policy and advocacy support. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requested in 2009 support from the Mountain Forum for its activities in the area of mountain biodiversity and therefore much work was done on this theme. Among others, Mountain Forum is actively evaluating the Mountain Biodiversity Programme of Work for the upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity-meetings. Also, in early 2009 a compelling and high quality Mountain Bulletin was developed on mountain biodiversity.