A manifesto in which the representatives of the Mountain Peoples of the world, gathered in Oloron-Sainte-Marie in 2010, address the international community, national governments and local authorities, their sisters and brothers in the cities, plains, countryside and coastlines.

The representatives of the mountain territories of 40 countries, meeting in 2002 in Quito (Ecuador), defined a Charter with the following objectives: To open up new prospects for progress in the mountains, to win new social and political rights, to widen the scope of what is possible for the mountains, to regain control of our development, to strengthen the cohesion and autonomy of communities, to set up representative mountain organizations, to build a global community based on solidarity and concern for gender equality.

In the Declaration of La paz (2005), the “mountain peoples of the Andes” claim their right to live in their territories according to their own ancestral rules and customs within a multicultural state. They demand that control over natural resources be restored to them for the benefit of all. These autonomies are not seen as an isolation, but on the contrary as a new solidarity between mountain and lowland areas.