mountains

Covering around 27 per cent of the earth's land surface, mountains play a critical role in moving the world’s towards sustainable economic growth. With the future in mind, the theme for this year’s international day celebrating the world’s peaks and summits on Wednesday, is Mountains matter for Youth.

The UN’s weather watchdog and partners committed on Thursday to a new initiative to ramp up observation and prediction technology that will help address the challenges of climate change, melting snow and ice, and water-related hazards.

The world’s mountain and glacier regions are facing unprecedented challenges due to climate change, imposing a crippling effect on the people and economies that rely on them, the UN’s weather agency explained on Tuesday, ahead of a summit to address the world’s rapidly-changing water systems.  

With 720 million people living in mountain regions covering more than a fifth of the world's land surface, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today announced a major international initiative to promote sustainable agriculture and rural development in these ecologically fragile areas.

Noting that one out of every two people depend on mountain water in some form, and that 245 million people living in rural mountain areas in developing countries are threatened by food insecurity, the United Nations food agency held a series of events in Rome today to mark the first-ever International Mountain Day.

The world’s mountain ranges, so vital to sustaining life, face unprecedented challenges which must be met by a concerted international response, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.

Delegates to an international conference on mountains organized with the support of the United Nations today called for more attention to the plight of millions of people living in high-altitude areas, who often are exposed to poverty, hunger, social and political marginalization and conflicts.

Marking the 2002 commemoration of the International Year of Mountains, the United Nations Postal Administration today issued 12 stamps featuring famous peaks around the world.