Second Mountains Connect Interregional Workshop

Background

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is co-organising the Second Mountains Connect Interregional Workshop, which will be held from 20 to 22 April in Thimphu, Bhutan. The workshop will bring together stakeholders to boost climate change adaptation and sustainable development across mountain ranges.

This regional convening is the second interregional workshop co-organised by Royal Government of Bhutan, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and ICIMOD on advancing interregional cooperation and learning on regional mountain governance, resource mobilisation and policy-science interfaces.

The workshop is under the Adaptation at Altitude, a collaborative programme funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Objectives

The overall objective is to re-connect mountain adaptation stakeholders from the Alps, the Andes, the South Caucasus, the Carpathians, the East African Community, the Hindu Kush Himalaya and beyond and deepen the exchange and learning on strengthened regional mountain range governance and foster joint activities. The workshop aims to address identified needs and gaps of respective regional mountain range governance stakeholders.

Expected outputs

Possible outputs from Mountains Connect include:

• Key messages on the importance of regional collaboration and science-policy frameworks for increased adaptation
• Briefs on
  1. resource mobilisation and funding for regional mountain range governance mechanisms
  2. closing the observation and data sharing gaps in mountain regions
• Visual materials (e.g. video) for communication and outreach
• Revised mountains-connect.org page with additional resources and knowledge available to mountain range governance stakeholders

Participants

The exchange and action learning workshop for fostering collaboration on mountain adaptation will take place as a closed by-invitation-only event.

The participants will be from relevant government agencies, mountain governance institutions and frameworks, and global or regional science networks. Participants from over 30 countries are expected to take part in the event.