UN agency launches new mountain facility to tackle hunger in highland areas
At a ceremony today
marking Earth Day, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva stressed
the need to protect the world's ecosystems, which form the basis of
food security.
Earth Day, he said,
"has called to our attention the fact that the earth and its ecosystems
are our home. And we must take care of them. It has also served to help
us reflect on the environmental challenges facing us in order to
determine how we can best meet them."
On the campus of
FAO's Rome headquarters, the Director General planted a symbolic tree to
mark the occasion- later in the day, parties to the Paris Climate
Agreement will come together in New York to officially sign the landmark
climate treaty.
Earth Day also
coincided with the launch of a new Mountain Facility that aims to
address the needs of people living in highland areas in the world.
New mountain facility
Faced with rising
levels of hunger in mountainous regions across the developing world, FAO
launched the special funding-and-planning mechanism to ensure
sustainable development and food security in highland regions, home to
some 329 million people at high risk for hunger.
FAO research shows
that one in three people living in mountain areas across the developing
world are very likely to go without the calories and nutrients they need
to live healthy lives in rural areas that number shoots up nearly
half the population.
An FAO report
released late last year found that vulnerability to hunger has risen by
30 percent in mountain areas between 2000 and 2012, at the same time
that hunger levels worldwide have fallen.
Through the new
Mountain Facility, FAO aims to respond to this alarming trend by
supporting governments and NGOs in addressing long-term and emerging
challenges related to climate change, market access and management of
natural resources, among other issues.
Spearheaded by the
Mountain Partnership within FAO, the Facility is raising funds to tackle
the mountain hunger problem through five areas of intervention: local
economies, climate change adaptation, natural resources, policy, and
capacity building.
"We cannot talk
about fighting hunger and boosting development worldwide without giving
special attention to the plight and needs of mountain peoples. The
numbers show this and our pursuit for progress requires it," said FAO
Assistant Director-General Rene Castro Salazar.
Examples of
interventions include improving value chains of environmentally-friendly
mountain products, increasing access to training and credit for
vulnerable groups including women and indigenous peoples, and creating
disaster risk management plans that can help communities mitigate the
negative impacts of shocks.
The action plan
also foresees actions to preserve and restore water sources, soils and
forests, and in protect precious mountain biodiversity.
Mountain zones
cover 22 percent of the earth's land surface and are home to 13 percent
of the human population. Ninety-percent of the people who live in
mountains, live in developing countries.
For mountain
peoples, the key factor is inclusive growth, meaning growth that
promotes access for everyone to food, assets, infrastructure and
training, particularly for poor people and women so they can develop
their potential.
Including mountains
in national development plans and developing strong mountain-specific
policies and institutions are two specific areas to which FAO aims to
channel resources through the Mountain Facility.
The facility was
launched at an event in Rome convened by the Permanent Missions Costa
Rica, Italy, Uganda and Switzerland to the United Nations, who through
the Mountain Partnership have taken a leading role in promoting mountain
issues in developing countries.
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