The Alpine Convention was honoured to be invited to participate in the Andean Mountain Initiative’s annual meeting in Bogotá, Columbia, which was held from 2 to 4 July.
In addition to the Andean delegations from Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, and besides the Alpine delegation, the East African Community and the United Nations Environment Programme were also represented.
The four-day meeting included two full days of work meetings and a field trip to the highland páramo ecosystems that are unique to the Andes. In the offices of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Humboldt Institute, many presentations and workshops were held to exchange the participants’ vast combined experience of sustainable mountain governance and to strengthen the network’s role in protecting mountains across the globe. The field trip included a stop at the Vereda Carbonera Alta association of Entrepreneurial Women of Guatavita to learn about their sustainable mountain agriculture project, followed by a stop at the Martos Reservoir Regional Park to experience the páramo ecosystems.
The Alpine delegation presented the governance structure of the Alpine Convention and relevant knowledge that it has gathered in the last 30 years and returned with a trove of new insights from its partner organisations in the Andes and East Africa.
On the last day, a meeting was also held with Colombian Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development Susana Muhamad, who will chair the upcoming 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Cali, Colombia. This allowed both sides to underline the importance of global cooperation on mountains and to elevate the topic in the discussions at COP 16 that will take place from 21 October to 1 November 2024.
“Each mountain region is unique and needs a tailored approach to face the many challenges ahead. Nonetheless, there are many similarities in our respective mountain landscapes and peoples, and we are grateful to be working with our partners in the Andes, as well as in other mountain regions around the world, for a more sustainable future” said Wolfger Mayrhofer, Deputy Secretary General of the Alpine Convention.