sustainable development

The FAO Mountain Mandate
The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) are the guiding principle for FAO's multi-disciplinary work in forestry, agriculture, and fisheries, including technical cooperation projects at the national and regional levels.  FAO's work in mountains contributes directly to tackling the MDGs, particularly those reducing extreme poverty and hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability.
Spiritual values in Madagascar: The starting point for endogenous conservation initiatives
Ancestors, taboos, spirits, rice, and cattle are Madagascar's strongest traditional foundations—indispensable “food” for most, if not all, rural Malagasy people. On the other hand, nationalism, “development,” private enterprise, and conservation of biodiversity are unavoidable modern spin-offs of globalisation that influence Malagasy life, even in the most...
Peru's approach to climate change in the Andean mountain region: Achieving multidisciplinary regional cooperation for integrated assessment of climate change
Climate change aggravates the challenges of sustainable development in mountain regions and calls for deeper insights into impacts on the vulnerability of mountain people and their options for adapting to changing conditions. Peru is considered highly vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, its government has initiated a programme to strengthen the capacity for transdisciplinary research in...
Is “culture” still relevant to regional policy? Conclusions from DIAMONT, a European Union Research Project
The Alps, in the heart of Europe, are obviously an asset, but they also pose a serious challenge: some Alpine regions lag quite far behind economically, mainly because of the disadvantages of location. At the same time, their fragile ecological and cultural systems suffer from the unbalanced economic exploitation inherent in the “open access” policy formulated by the European...
ICIMOD's Regional Rangeland Program for the Hindu Kush–Himalayas
Together with its partners and regional member countries, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) shares a vision of prosperous and secure mountain communities living in peace, equity, and environmental sustainability. This vision defines ICIMOD's overall goal: secure and sustainable livelihoods for mountain peoples. ICIMOD's work as a “Mountain Learning...
Effects of European Common Agricultural Policy and regional policy on the socioeconomic development of the central Pyrenees, Spain
Although the European Union has invested important subsidies in European mountain areas since the 1980s, the influence of these subsidies on the economy and society of these regions has so far not been analysed. For this reason, the aurhors conducted a quantitative analysis of the effects of public policies on the development of the Central Pyrenees from 1986 to 2001. During this period,...
Mountain ecotourism and sustainable development ecology, economics, and ethics

Many mountain communities around the world have promoted ecotourism ventures to ameliorate problems of environmental degradation and underdevelopment. Although there is no agreement on what ecotourism is or should be, it is generally believed that this form of tourism in the mountains will foster responsible tourist behavior, conservation of important wildlife habitats and ecosystems,...

Switzerland and the International Year of Freshwater 2003: The involvement of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

For the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the United Nations (UN) International Year of Freshwater 2003 (IYFW2003; see Box) is a logical continuation of its significant engagement in the International Year of Mountains (IYM2002). IYM2002 allowed Switzerland to confirm its leading role in sustainable development of mountain regions and establish itself as a source of...

Developing forested conservation corridors in the Kangchenjunga landscape, eastern Himalaya

The Kangchenjunga landscape in the trans-boundary region of Nepal, Bhutan, and India has rich forest resources offering a wide range of ecosystem services to local people and habitats for many rare plant and animal species. Despite conservation efforts in several fragmented protected areas in the past, forest ecosystems and their multiple functions have been affected by over-extraction of...

Restoring forests through carbon farming on Maori land in New Zealand/Aotearoa
Forests perform a range of valuable environmental functions, such as sequestering carbon, controlling erosion, and sheltering a diversity of species. Traditional cultures such as the Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ) have long seen forests as a source of livelihood. Recent policy innovations in response to environmental issues like climate change are creating markets for environmental...

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