International Mountain Day

The inaugural celebration of International Mountain Day was held on December 11, 2003. Since then, the International Mountain Day has become an annual observance. The objectives of International Mountain Day are to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life; to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to build alliances that will bring positive change to mountain peoples and environments around the world. In 1992, the adoption of Chapter 13 of Agenda 21, ‘Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Sustainable Mountain Development’ at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development put a milestone in the history of mountain development. Increasing attention to the importance of mountains resulted in the UN General Assembly declaring 2002 the UN International Year of Mountains. On this occasion, the UN General Assembly designated December 11 as ‘International Mountain Day’, starting in 2003. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) was tasked as the coordinating agency to coordinate the annual International Mountain Day celebration.