IMD 2024: Promoting sustainable development in mountainous areas

Every year on December 11, the United Nations observes International Mountain Day (IMD) to raise awareness about the vital role mountains play in sustaining life. The day highlights both the opportunities and challenges in mountain development and aims to build partnerships that bring positive change to mountain communities and environments around the world.

IMD 2024 focuses on the mountain solutions for a sustainable future: innovation, adaptation and youth.

Innovation encompasses technological advancements and creative problem-solving, such as climate-smart agriculture. Adaptation becomes imperative for building resilience and reducing vulnerability. Meanwhile, the active participation of youth is essential for ensuring the long-term sustainability of mountain solutions.

In promoting both protection and development in China's mountainous regions, creative solutions have been adopted utilizing the advantages of the local ecological environment.

Surrounded by the Daba Mountains, people had been stuck in poverty in Chengkou County, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. In 2019, the National Forest Reserves project was launched in Chengkou County, Chongqing. Commercial logging was phased out gradually to preserve high-quality timber and develop ecological poverty alleviation.

By the end of 2020, 43,000 hectares of woodland have been purchased in Chengkou. A total of 2,035 households in 41 villages were involved in the project. An additional 30 million yuan (about $4 million) is expected to be added to the fund every year.

One of the oldest fruits on Earth, the turnjujube is a specialty in Xunyang County in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The First Emperor of China named the turnjujube "longevity fruit" as it is good for the liver and other organs.

The turnjujube growing and processing industry has provided more than 1,000 local jobs in Xunyang. The annual income for the poor households in the region has increased by 1.7 million yuan, lifting 13,320 households out of poverty.

Adaptation strategies were adopted to deal with climate change pressures on mountain regions, including ecosystem-based approaches to disaster risk reduction and integrating Indigenous knowledge systems.

According to a United Nations Environment Programme report on ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction, protection forests are regarded to be a highly effective and efficient measure against natural hazards in the Alps, playing a key role in integrated disaster risk management strategies in the region.

Modern management of protection forests is mainly based on harnessing the protection potential of natural ecosystems, aiming to maximize both effectiveness and efficiency.

Over millennia of adaptation to different environments, Indigenous peoples have developed a deep knowledge of and respect for the ecosystems in which they live. They often take a holistic approach to food generation and production, preserving biodiversity and preserving their cultural heritage.

By acknowledging the vital role of mountains in sustaining life on IMD 2024, greater awareness is expected to be raised about the importance of protecting these critical ecosystems.

(Cover: Qinling Mountains in northwest China. /CFP)