Mountains are home to a variety of ecosystems that provide vital services directly to 1.1 billion people and billions of others living in connected lowland areas. Half of humanity depends on mountains for the provision of freshwater alone.
While mountain tourism has become an increasingly relevant motivation for travel, data on its size and impact remains scarce, a new report from the UN agencies the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Mountain Partnership (MP) makes clear.
This volume aims to widen the discussion about the diversity of human-nature relationships and valuation methods and to stimulate new perspective that are needed to build a more sustainable future, especially in face of ongoing socio-environmental changes.
Mountainous areas are at the forefront of climate change. This working paper presents approaches to strengthening the resilience of human and natural systems in mountainous areas against the impacts of climate change.
Women play a key role in nature conservation, yet they often lack the inputs, technologies, training and extension services, and various enablers and linkages that can enhance the effectiveness of their efforts. Evidence indicates that gender-inclusive and gender-sensitive conservation practices have far-reaching multiplier impacts.
The International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples (INMIP) aims to support capacity development for biocultural heritage, climate change adaptation and sustainable food systems through community-to-community exchanges. It currently includes communities from 11 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The bottom of the ocean and the roof of the world have something in common other than being extreme and inhospitable environments—they’re also polluted.
Mountains directly contribute to the lives of much of the world’s population through the provision of freshwater or irrigation for agriculture; they are the source of rivers, along which human settlements are able to flourish.
However, a few decades ago witnessed gradual changes, with ice caps at the Mount Kilimanjaro starting to decrease due to environmental degradation and the recent climate change effects.
This brief makes the case for ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) by presenting how it can generate multiple environmental, social and economic benefits. Research shows that benefiting from a wide range of ecosystem services is closely correlated with communities’ degree of resilience to challenges.
