World Mountain Forum 2018 to be held in Bishkek

Bishkek, Oct. 22, 2018. /Kabar/. The World Mountain Forum 2018 will be held in Bishkek on October 23-26.

The press service of the State Agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry reported that the organizers of the World Mining Form 2018 are the SAEPF, Aga Khan Foundation, FAO and UNICEF.

The purpose of the forum is to develop a scenario for the prosperous future of mountain regions and to identify possible ways and directions to achieve this goal.

The Forum is aimed at building and strengthening partnerships beyond existing alliances to advance the Sustainable Mountain Development Agenda, develop and primitivize strategic and innovative solutions for the more sustainable future of mountain regions, promote and integrate the Sustainable Mountain Development Agenda into regional and global negotiation processes on the Sustainable Development Goals, exploring investment opportunities and challenges for mountain areas, collecting and sharing best practices and innovative solutions at the regional and global levels, as well as strengthening initiatives for the formation and development of strong and reliable mountain alliances at the regional level.

Mountains are home to 13% of the world's population and cover one fifth of the Earth’s land. Mountain regions also serve as providers of important ecosystem services. As global “water towers,” the mountains provide fresh water to people all over the world, both in mountainous regions and over vast areas in the plains.

In addition, mountains are the places where the largest rivers of the planet start, and 40% of the world's population depends on mountain water for consumption, irrigation and energy production. Mountain landscapes amaze with their diversity and uniqueness, form “hot spots of biodiversity”, including endangered endemic species. This biodiversity forms the basis for many of the ecosystem services on which humankind, including the genetic origin of many major food crops depends. Moreover, mountains are home to 28% of forest areas of the world.

Despite the fact that mountains bring tremendous benefit to the world community and at the same time are under tremendous pressure, the voice of the mountain regions is not strong enough in the international political arena. In addition, decisions on mountain issues are taken away from the mountain regions themselves and without consideration for local perspectives.

After similar mountain forums in Europe, Latin America and Africa, the World Mountain Forum 2018 intends to make an analysis of what has been achieved and identify effective scenarios and development paths to the prosperous future of mountain regions.

The World Mountain Forum 2018 will contribute to the current international processes for sustainable mountain development, with a focus on key thematic aspects, around which an agenda will be formulated with relevant issues for study and discussion.

The World Mountain Forum 2018, which is to be held in Bishkek, will become a platform where national and regional priorities for sustainable mountain development will be considered, which will foster partnerships and the search for new solutions.