December 11, 2006
The UN General Assembly declared 11 December from 2003 onwards as “International Mountain Day,” and designated FAO as the lead agency to coordinate worldwide observance. This special UN Day serves to highlight the global importance of mountain ecosystems and to promote ongoing attention to the unique needs of mountain communities.
In particular, International Mountain Day presents an excellent opportunity to create awareness of mountains, their diverse people and their natural resources and the challenge they face in attaining sustainable development, for a wide audience—the public, governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, UN agencies, the private sector and the media.
“Managing Mountain Biodiversity for Better Lives” is the theme of UN International Mountain Day 2006—an opportunity for us all to raise awareness about the need to manage mountain biodiversity in a sustainable manner, to highlight promising models and to build partnerships at all levels to promote biodiversity management that will reduce poverty, improve livelihoods, and protect mountain environments for us all.
As one of the 76 global major groups and NGO partners of the International Partnership for the Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions, or simply called the Mountain Partnership based in the FAO Rome headquarters, the Broad Initiatives for Negros Development (BIND) is spearheading the Negros Occidental celebration of the event.Our celebration will feature caravan, public information, trade fair mountain products and organic crops, non-timber forest products, medicinal plants, processed food and wild and uncultivated crops, film presentation and a concert of local bands as the culminating event. The days after will showcase organic food fair and cultural and indigenous people’s presentation.
