ENVIRONMENT: U.N. Commemorates 2002 as Year of Mountains

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 3 2002 (IPS) - The United Nations has launched a global campaign to increase international awareness of the world’s mountains, saying these not only possess vast reserves of valuable resources but also are the battlegrounds of several ongoing conflicts.

Beginning Wednesday, the world body is commemorating 2002 as the ‘International Year of Mountains’ following a proclamation by the 189-member U.N. General Assembly last year.

“Mountains are crucial to all life on earth. They are home to one- tenth of the world’s population and sources of biodiversity, minerals and forests,” says Jacques Diouf, head of the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the U.N. agency leading the global campaign.

A mountainous region – the Himalayan Siachen Glacier – also is the venue of one of the world’s longest running military conflicts, between India and Pakistan, extending over more than 54 years.

The latest, U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan – a country where one million people died during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the subsequent civil war – has been prosecuted in mountainous terrain.

In 1999, 23 of the 27 major armed conflicts in the world were fought in mountain regions, according to the FAO.

Diouf says mountain areas are home to most of the world’s armed conflicts – ranging from Afghanistan and the Balkans to the Caucasus and the Andes – as well as many of the world’s poorest and least food-secure populations.

More than three billion people rely on mountains for water to drink, grow food, produce electricity, and sustain industries.

“Many mountain people are among the poorest, hungriest citizens of the world. They face massive barriers to development – rugged terrain, poor communications and transportation systems, political marginalisation and limited access to education and capital,” Diouf adds.

The proposal to designate 2002 as the International Year of Mountains came from Kyrgyzstan, a country with vast mountainous communities.

The importance of mountains was highlighted in Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The World Summit for Sustainable Development, also dubbed Earth Summit II, scheduled to take place in Johannesburg next August, will offer another opportunity to take stock and redefine issues.

Diouf says the goal of the International Year of Mountains is to ensure the well-being of mountain peoples by promoting sustainable development of mountain ecosystems.

The FAO is promoting the creation of national committees to help member states develop new laws and policies ensuring the sustainable development of mountain areas. The agency also is supporting the development of new initiatives in mountain areas to ensure adequate protection of the environment.

According to FAO, large dams are a major source of conflict when mountain communities are forced out of their homes to make way for new reservoirs. About four million people are displaced in this way annually.

Of the 20 plant species that supply 80 percent of the world’s food, six originated in mountains. Among them, the potato first appeared in the Peruvian Andes, corn in the Sierra of Mexico, and sorghum in the high Ethiopian plateaus.

FAO also says that 80 percent of the world’s population relies on traditional medicine, yet one in every eight species of plants, many originating in mountains, faces extinction.

In humid parts of the world, mountains provide about 30 to 60 percent of freshwater downstream. In semi-arid and arid environments, they provide 70 to 95 percent.

FAO also says that all the major rivers of the world depend on mountains for water. Nearly 80 percent of the water of the Rio Grande comes from the Rockies and the Sierra Madre mountains while 60 percent of the Rio Negro comes from the Andes.