Mountains play a crucial role for both the highlands and lowlands, but are particularly vulnerable to climate change and human interventions. A new policy brief, co-authored by MRI SLC member Rob Marchant, focuses on ecosystem restoration in the mountains.

The policy brief highlights the role of healthy mountain ecosystems and their services and provides a set of recommendations to help design effective restoration plans. It also reflects on the achievements made during the last 20 years.

In a recent press release, Marchant says that more action is urgently needed to safeguard the world’s precious mountain ecosystems.

“Twenty years on, climates are still changing, populations are still growing, and mountain environments continue to be developed and transformed – but what hasn’t happened is any corresponding establishment of sustainable policies,” says Marchant.  

In the policy brief, the authors are calling on countries to invest more in mountain ecosystem restoration activities and to formulate effective climate change policies that consider the unique nature and resources of mountains.

“We are hoping for some progress at COP15, but what is really needed is an international treaty or code of practice that accepts the value of our mountain ecosystems, and I suspect that is some way off,” says Marchant.

The policy brief was presented on 13 December 2022 at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (“COP15”) in Montreal, Canada.

Read the press release “Mountain ecosystems should be prioritised in biodiversity policies

Download the policy brief


Cover image by Jyoti Singh

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