The First African Mountains Regional Forum themed “Towards a Shared Mountain Agenda for Africa,” was convened in Arusha, Tanzania, on 22-24 October. The meeting was organized by the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) and the Africa Mountain Partnership Champions Committee, in partnership with the East African Community (EAC), UNEP (providing also financial support to the meeting), the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The forum brought together over 100 participants including representatives of governments, IGOs, civil society and academia, and scientists. High-level participants also were in attendance (Ministers from Uganda and Tanzania).

During the meeting, participants identified strategic actions addressing major emerging issues for sustainable development in African mountain regions, resulting in the "Arusha Outcomes" that will be further mainstreamed into AMCEN and other relevant fora and platforms. Many participants hoped that this meeting - building also on past milestones and activities - would further help to raise the profile of the African sustainable mountain development agenda, regionally and globally. Participants addressed the need to promote linkages and collaboration between different stakeholders for a regional framework on sustainable mountain development in Africa; they also shared information and best practices in the areas of biological diversity, water, energy and food security, as well as climate change in African mountain regions.

UNEP Vienna SCC played a substantive role in co-organizing the Forum (in particular it lead the thematic discussion on climate change in the context of the inter-regional project "Climate change action in developing countries with fragile mountainous ecosystems from a sub-regional perspective") together with the Regional Office for Africa and DEPI/CCAU. At the forum, UNEP also presented some insights into the first African Mountain Atlas, which will be launched at the forthcoming AMCEN meeting in Cairo in 2015.

Detailed report of the forum available at: http://www.iisd.ca/mountain/amrf/2014/

More information: matthias.jurek@unvienna.org