The
phrase "mountain agenda" was used to express the idea of
urgent action in addressing the "mountain problematique" which itself
was an earlier phrase used in academia. This latter phrase conveyed the growing diversity
of problems affecting mountain environments and their peoples and had been
used by geographers since the1972 UN Stockholm
Environment Conference.
Mountain
Agenda
-a brief
historical note
The name Mountain Agenda was proposed at a small meeting
of environmentalists in Opener, Switzerland on Dec.15, 1990.
From the beginning it was applied both to a project
and to the group of people determined to execute the project.
The aim of the project was to put mountains on the
world's environmental agenda (with the Rio Conference of 1992 as the initial
focus). The group of people was an open network of professional workers
in the fields of environment and development, academia, and international
affairs. Mountain Agenda had no constitution and no central office. It
had a small core of activists particularly interested in policy advocacy
with a wider group of supporters and counsellors. It had no specific membership.
It's mailing address was the University of Berne's Department of Geography.
Two strands of activity were envisaged from the beginning.
One concerned the documentary testimony as to the state of the world's
mountains and the people who live in them, the other was about "preparing
the ground" so that the message of concern would readily sink in.
Those at the FIRST MEETING in Appenberg were Ruedi
Hoegger, Peter Stone, Bruno Messerli, Jack Ives, Yuri Badenkov, and Frank
Tacke associated severally with the UNU, the International Mountain Society,
and ICIMOD.
Stone and Hoegger had made separate and parallel
approaches in April 1990 to Maurice F. Strong shortly after his appointment
as Secretary General of the UN Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED). Both had made detailed proposals for mountain environments to
be considered as a subject of concern at the Conference. Strong introduced
them to each other. Meeting in Berne in September,1990, they consulted
Bruno Messerli and from his office, contacted others known to share their
interests - at which point the network began to function.
A basic "mountain document" - a status report on
mountains world wide - was envisaged from the beginning and the prime task
of the Mountain Agenda group was to form a writing task force to do the
necessary work in a very short time. Ruedi Hoegger was instrumental in
raising US$ 200,000 from the Swiss Government which permitted substantive
activities to begin.
A FURTHER MEETING at Aeschi on 22-26 April 1991 gathered
a wider group of participants adding Larry Hamilton, Martin Price and Jayanta
Bandyopadhyay and decided on the final outline of 1) the long resource
book and 2) a shorter illustrated glossy presentation intended as a quick
read for busy decision makers. It apportioned work between network members
and approved a budget and timetable.
What was unclear in the beginning was the mode of
work of the UN Rio Conference and Mountain Agenda's initial proposals were
aimed at the elaboration of the conventional UN Conference resolution.
A draft resolution was written and widely circulated for comments in the
mountain community. Ground was broken in negotiations in May 1991 with
the UNCED secretariat in which Mountain Agenda sought to persuade them
of the need for consideration of mountain environments. During a visit
to UNCED at this time Ruedi Hoegger had the opportunity to address an inter-agency
meeting setting the record of UN family activities in environment and development.
Interestingly the FAO delegate argued strongly that a separate initiative
on mountains was unnecessary and, indeed undesirable, since soil erosion,
biodiversity and other headings already covered everything that could happen
in mountains. Several years later FAO was appointed UN Focal Point
The text of the note on why UNCED should be interested
in mountains is available (Desai Draft)
for historical interest. The document is a letter to Nitin Desai, chef
de cabinet to Maurice Strong.
With the support of Secretary General Maurice F.
Strong, item 3b of the Third (Intergovernmental) PrepCom provisional agenda
was drafted with a mention of mountain problems and Mountain Agenda itself
under the heading "fragile ecosystems". Excerpts of this were then circulated
by Mountain Agenda to the government diplomats who had preparatory responsibility
for UNCED affairs.
The concept of Agenda 21 with its thematic chapters
gained wider acceptance and made it easier for outsiders to relate to the
conference process. Nevertheless the conference process was a moving target,
difficult to track, and this was well illustrated by what happened at PrepCom
3, held from 12 August to 4 Sept. 1991 in Geneva.
Mountain Agenda decided to produce a BACKGROUND PAPER
for the edification of flatland-living PrepCom delegates. This was culled
from material already in hand for the glossy and short "Appeal Document"
intended to accompany the long and authoritative "State of the World's
Mountains". It was thus hoped to persuade the delegates to look favourably
on the secretariat's text which would encompass discussion of the mountains
at Rio.
In the event the presentation was greeted with enthusiasm
particularly by the Latin American group and the mountain item was formally
put on the PrepCom agenda for immediate debate. Hoegger and Messerli were
summoned from Berne and had to standby for two days as the item was pushed
down the timetable by endless discussion on forests.
It then transpired that people with NGO or IGO status
like Mountain Agenda would only be allowed to speak last after the government
delegates - of whom very few had been briefed or knew much about the topic.
Happily the Swiss Ambassador consented to co-opting Messerli and Hoegger
onto the Swiss Delegation for the day. Their advocacy at the beginning
and end of the PrepCom agenda item secured a place for mountains in the
Rio Conference agenda - and so in Agenda 21 itself.
After the PrepCom a so-called "Research Paper" (backgrounder)
for internal distribution was prepared at the request of the UNCED Secretariat.
Simultaneously a member of Mountain Agenda, Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, was
hired by the Secretariat to write the necessary draft chapter for Agenda
21.
The first version of the DRAFT CHAPTER bears only
some resemblance to what was eventually put to the Conference at Rio since
many editorial hands were laid upon it, not least at the next and final
PrepCom in New York. Again for historical reasons the original version
has been appended to this note. It may be useful in the present circumstances
to glance at it again since it addresses the mountain problematique undistorted
by the need to pay attention to the political and diplomatic considerations
peculiar to the Rio Conference process.
Mountain Agenda's Editor in Chief then addressed
the pile of texts and photographs for "the State of the World's Mountains
- a Global Report" and the glossy brochure "An Appeal for the Mountains".
Suitable publishers were sought and launching arrangements worked out so
as to involve the European Community and its press corps. The European
Commissioner for the Environment, Carlo Ripa di Meana, expressed the interest
and support of the European Community.
By the time the original persuasive PUBLICATIONS
(THE STATE OF THE WORLD'S MOUNTAINS - A GLOBAL REPORT and THE APPEAL FOR
THE MOUNTAINS) were published (May 14, 1992) and in the hands of delegates
the die was already cast in the shape of the draft chapter in Agenda 21.
Nevertheless the earlier intimations of the size and weight (200,000 words
and one kilo) of the case being made for publication, together with a massive
bibliography on mountain environments and their people, were most important
in convincing delegates that sustainable development of the world's mountains
was a topic of pressing importance.
The presence in Rio of the publications themselves
set the seal on this perception. Ironically they contributed to the passing
of the mountain item by the Earth Summit participants without further discussion.
How was "The State of the World's Mountains" received?
It was warmly welcomed by all reviewers and occasioned
many editorial articles as well as conventional book reviews. These have
been compiled as a booklet made available for inspection. Most commentators
recognised that the speed and manner of preparation had precluded desirable
features such as thematic approaches, peer review and workshops on specific
issues but the intention to do an update five years later was welcomed.
The Appeal was widely praised and should have been
promoted in the educational world after Rio but lack of money and manpower
prevented this.
The Mountain Agenda formula proved successful and
cheap as a way of giving public visibility to mountain problems on the
occasion of Rio. It will need some consolidation however if it is to develop
this function in the future since it is too small, too narrowly based and
has no continuity of funding.
(first draft of Ch.13 omitted for web site- Ed)
Mallory´s
body found, Knoydart
rescued, Himalayan
glaciers-alarm grows, Everest
Forests-a Sherpa's view,
The epic of Mt. Everest, The state of the world mountains, My first summer
in Sierra
Poems and Belles letters, The Yellow brick Road
- Polemic, Paradise fishing at Autannes, Traditional
Solar Science,Dogs on high, Obituary,
Esme Percy, Web-sites for browsing
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan on sustainable
mountain tourism
P.B. Stone on mountains under pressure (general overeview of so-called Mountain
problematique
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