This study, the third of its type published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), adds further evidence that in mountain regions of developing countries, food insecurity, social isolation, environmental degradation, exposure to the risk of disasters and to the impacts of climate change, and limited access to basic services, especially in rural areas, are still prevalent and, under some circumstances, increasing. It also shows the technical challenges for producing more comprehensive and representative assessments based on scientific data, and providing a deeper understanding of the underlying factors of vulnerability of mountain people. Mountains cover 39 million km2, or 27 percent, of the world’s land surface. In 2017, the global mountain population reached nearly 1.1 billion, which is 15 percent of the world’s population, with an increase of 89 million people since 2012. The increase added almost entirely (86 million people) to the mountain population in developing countries, which reached one billion people in 2017. The population has increased in all the regions of the developing world. Only the areas at the highest mountain altitudes (above 3 500 m) continued to experience a depopulation trend in the last 17 years, while at all other elevations population increased. In all African subregions, in South America and in Central and Western Asia, the population density is higher in the mountains than in the lowlands. In developing countries, 648 million people (65 percent of the total mountain population) live in rural areas. Half of them – 346 million – were estimated to be vulnerable to food insecurity in 2017. In other words, one in two rural mountain dwellers in developing countries live in areas where the daily availability of calories and protein was estimated to be below the minimum threshold needed for a healthy life. In the five years from 2012 to 2017, the number of vulnerable people increased in the mountains of developing countries, approximately at the same pace as the total mountain population. Although the proportion of vulnerable people to the total mountain population did not change, the absolute number of vulnerable people increased globally by 40 million, representing an increment of 12.5 percent from 2012 to 2017.
This publication presents a collection of case studies by Mountain Partnership (MP) members from around the world, highlighting experiences of agroecological mountain farming systems. It aims to increase attention toward agroecological principles and approaches and showcase their potential. The MP, the only United Nations global voluntary alliance dedicated to sustainable mountain development, is fully committed to promoting actions that can improve the resilience of mountain people and environments. In mountains, the practice of agroecology and the conservation of agrobiodiversity results in more resilient agricultural and food systems. Sustainable mountain farming systems can drive progress towards reducing rural poverty, contributing to zero hunger, and ensuring the resilience of mountain communities while maintaining the provision of global ecosystem services, especially those related to water. Food security in mountains is a matter of concern. Through adequate and coordinated pro-mountain policies, investments, capacity development, services, and infrastructures, as well as efforts to provide smallholders and family farmers with access to innovation, mountain farming systems have the potential to become pathways for change. In doing so, they can provide valuable support and impetus to the transition to sustainable food systems, contributing to revitalizing rural areas and lifting mountain peoples out of poverty and hunger, while protecting fragile mountain environments for the future.
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