“If the Earth was one country, would we accept such pollution? If the Earth was one country, would we accept such inequalities? If the Earth was our country: that is the Rio spirit.” Brice Lalonde, former Minister for Environment in France and Executive Coordinator for Rio+20, thus inspired the two-day discussions at the Lucerne World Mountain Conference.
Twenty years on from the Rio 1992 meeting (the first “Earth Summit”), participants coming
from all walks of life met in Lucerne on 11 and 12 October 2011 to make a compelling case for
mountains in international development discussions.
“At an international level, Rio+20 will provide a great momentum for the world to share
common aspirational goals and visions”, explained Mr Lalonde. “Since mountains are
transboundary and interdisciplinary, the key entry in Rio+20 could be about cooperation in
mountain regions at all scales”, he said.
As shown in a number of regional reports ranging from the Andes to the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya,
presented at the Conference, mountains could fuel the debate in all the relevant sectors of
Rio+20: water, energy, food security, planet monitoring, social issues (with employment,
education and culture), risk preparedness.
“All things are interrelated and natural resources are no exception”, participants were
reminded by Mrs Rita Mishaan from the Ministry of Environment (Guatemala). “80 percent of
the earth’s natural resources are in the hands of as little as 10 percent of the world’s
population. We need to make a change.”
Mrs Marina Embiricos (founder president of Botza Association) emphasized the importance of
communicating good success stories of investment in mountain projects: “We are all facing
problems and we need to look at solutions” she warned. “Investment needs to bring in how we
integrate those solutions”.
Participants in the Lucerne World Mountain Conference have produced a Call for Action to
bring a conjunct strong message to Rio+20 in June 2012. Strong in number, diversity and
complexity; still vulnerable owing to high poverty rates, mountains must stand tall on the
development agenda. A source of fresh water for half of the earth’s population, mountains
open the way for concrete ways of reducing poverty, overcoming food insecurity and enhancing
international (often transboundary) cooperation with benefits for all – mountain communities
above and downstream cities below.
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