climate change: impacts, adaptation and development in mountain regions

LATIN AMERICA,AFRICA,CENTRAL ASIA

THREEREGIONALMEETINGS:

Strategic Initiative for Climate ChangeImpacts, Adaptation and Developmentin Mountain Regions

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Project1 28-10:DGF-1 11/28/2011 3:16 PM Page 3

At night, deep in the mountains,I sit in medita-tion. Unable to sleep I walk out into the woods.Suddenly, above the highest peak, the fullmoon appears.

RYOKA TAIGU


THERE IS STILL VERY LIMITED AWARENESS,let alone concern, at the global-level of the impactscaused by climate change in mountain ecosystems. Theinformation available generally focuses on retreatingglaciers. While the perception may be one of regionswith lowpopulation density in a harsh environment, thereality ismagnitudes of people are affected directly andindirectly by changes in mountain environments.

Within the framework of the Strategic Initiative for Cli-mate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Development inMountain Regions, the Mountain Partnership Secre-tariat has organized three regional meetings in Chile,Tajikistan and Uganda with support of the World BankDevelopment Grant Facility.


The overall objective of theinitiative was to enhance theadvocacy of climate changeimpacts in mountain regionsand strengthen cross-regionaland cross-thematic coopera-tion in order to mobilize inter-national support andresources for promoting cli-mate change adaptation inmountain ecosystems.

Each regional meetingbrought together governmentdelegates, policy makers, sci-entists and climate changeexperts, to strengthen knowl-edge about the climatechange impacts in mountain

areas, to discuss adaptationoptions in mountain ecosys-tems and to promote better al-liances and cooperationamongst countries withmountain territories so to rein-force their understanding ofkey issues.

Each regional meeting wascomplemented with a eldvisit to a mountain area inwhich the impacts of climatechange were visible. The aimof these eld visits was the ex-posure of participants to local-level adaptation practices intheir respective mountainousdistricts.


The firsT of The Three regional meeTingswas organized in collaboration with the ministryfor foreign aairs of Chile and the food and agri-culture organization of the United nations (fao).it was held in santiago, Chile from 26 to 28 octo-ber 2011

26-28 OCTOBER 2011, SANTIAGO DEL CHILE


A regional strategy for the Met-ropolitan Region of Santiagowas approved in 2005, settingan action plan 2005-2012 withthe joint participation of stateand civil society organizations.This initiative provides impor-

tant management tools for anarea still lacking in basic re-search, and insuciently valued,but providing almost 75 percentof the water required by Chilescapital city.

INCHILE, PARTICIPANTSVISITEDCAJNDELMAIPO,a canyon located in theAndean south-easternportionof theSantiagoMetropolitanRegion. It encompassesthe upper Maipo River basin, where the river hasentrenched itself in a narrow valley


T H E S E C O N D R E G I O N A L M E E T I N Gwas coordinated in collaborationwith theUni-versity of Central Asia (UCA). Themeeting washeld in Dushanbe, Tajikistan from 9 to 11 No-vember 2011

9-11 NOVEMBER 2011, DUSHANBE, TAJIKISTAN


TAN


Almost90percentofthepopulation of CentralAsia relies onwater thatfalls in the mountainswhere it is stored ingla-ciers and snow beforemaking its way down-stream to populationcentres.Overall, Tajikistan holds40 percent of thewaterresourcesservingthe&veCentralAsiacountries.These water resources

also serve China andRussia.However, globalwarm-ing is slowlydecimatingmountain glaciers, af-fecting snow reservesand at the same timeincreasing water re-quirements of basicagriculturalcrops.

INTAJIKISTAN, PARTICIPANTSVIS-ITED THE NUROBOD DISTRICT OFTHE RASHT VALLEY, 160 km fromthecapitalcityofDushanbe

Twovillageswithpilotactivitiespro-vided participants with evidence ofthe complexityof climate change inhighaltitudecontexts


17-19 NOVEMBER 2011, MBALE, UGANDA


T H E T H I R D R E G I O N A L M E E T I N Gtook place in Mbale, Uganda from 17 to 19November 2011 in joint cooperation withthe United Nations Environment Pro-gramme (UNEP)


The African mountainsstand out as areas withfavourable climatic andecological conditions,in contrast to the sur-rounding lowlands thataregenerallymuchdrier.Asaconsequenceofthis,thetotal average pop-ulation density in allAfrican mountains ismore than double thedensityof the lowlands.

The driving economicforces nowhave betterknowledge about andaccess to the rich nat-ural resources in themountains, includinghy-dropower,minerals,timberandagriculturalsoils.

In Uganda, partIcIpants vIsItedMoUnt elgon and communitieson its slopes to observe emergingmicro-climate changes, theircauses and eects so to discusscoping mechanisms and suitableadaptation strategies


www.fao.org/

www.ucentralasia.org/

www.unep.org/

www.worldbank.org/

www.mountainpartnership.org/

Would you like to learnmore? Try these links:


Mountain Partnership SecretariatFAO, Forestry Department

Viale delle Terme di Caracalla00153 Rome, Italy

[email protected]

WITH SUPPORT FROM


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climate change: impacts, adaptation and development in mountain regions

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