Global Forum on Access to Land (WFAL) – Valencia, Spain March 30-April 2, 2016
Access to land and natural resources is the basis of peoples’ food sovereignty.
Participants: 400 participants from 70 countries representing family farming
2016: the Road to Marrakech, the voice of mountain people at COP22
WFAL 2016 called for : Promote governance of territories by the people who live there (especially indigenous peoples) by enabling communities to define the rules and rights of use of their commons, and to implement lifestyles that are most in line with their technical, ecological, economic and cultural choices; to put an immediate end to the repression that all too often continues to be suffered by those who struggle for more equitable access to land and natural resources, and to support, wherever they manifest themselves, the movements of poor peasants, landless peasants, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, women and youth who are fighting for their rights.
The WMPA, represented by 6 members from North Africa, Bolivia and France, has brought the voice of the mountain populations, often forgotten by agricultural policies and disqualified by intensive farming methods. WFAL 2016 was an opportunity for the WMPA to create new links and strengthen existing ones with organizations representing communities.
International Meeting of Fez – Morocco February 20, 2016
What future for the mountains of North Africa in the face of climate change ?
Organizers: WMPA Morocco, the Regional Centre for Agronomic Research in Meknes, the Faculty of Science and Technology in Fez.
This meeting brought together representatives of ministries, climate researchers, agricultural research organizations and members of the WMPA Bolivia, Morocco, Tunisia and International in front of an audience of nearly 200 people. An open forum allowed the public to take the floor to present the observations of local populations on climate change in their territories.
On this occasion, the representatives of the Moroccan Ministry of the Environment reaffirmed the commitment of the State in the fight against climate change as well as their support to the actions of the civil society which tend towards this objective.
Road to Marrakech: Territorial listening – Morocco May to August 2016
To carry a faithful and united expression of the Moroccan mountain people.
Organizers : WMPA Morocco
During 2 months, volunteers of the WMPA Morocco travelled through the 17 provinces spread over the 4 massifs (Atlas, Anti-Atlas, High Atlas and Rif) of Morocco in order to meet the inhabitants, the local authorities, the members of associations and all the actors of the economic, social and cultural life. This program of territorial listening has helped to better understand life in the Moroccan mountains as it is lived by the population.
In each territory, moments of exchange between the interviewees were organized in order to draw a true picture of the place where they live. Once the listening was done, a meeting of the participants was organized to write a global diagnosis. Reports were made during this period to illustrate the observations of the mountain dwellers.
Road to Marrakech: International Meeting of Demnate (Morocco) 6 and 7 November
People of the Mountains of the World and People of the Forests
Organizers : WMPA Morocco and the Latin American Foundation for an Alternative Development
For 2 days, a delegation of the WMPA International made up of members from China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Guatemala and Nepal worked with a delegation of Forest Peoples from South America and Mesoamerica, brought together by the Tie Weavers Project of the Latin American Foundation for Alternative Development, on the issue of “Forests of the World”.
On many occasions, mountain and forest peoples have met and have identified many common themes: the plundering of territories, access to resources, the rights of indigenous peoples. This joint event has brought together the members of these organisations in order to encourage exchanges of experience and to join forces at international meetings to increase the visibility of their actions.
Marrakech Summit (Morocco) – COP22 from November 7 to 21, 2016
Mountain people in COP22
Negotiation space : proposals to national and international negotiators for taking mountain populations into account in the mechanisms for fighting climate change, in particular the fund for the management of mountain territories.
Civil Society Area in the Territories Pavilion : presentation of Solutions with WMPA mountain people from Africa, South America, Mesoamerica, Asia and Europe. 24 members of the International WMPA were able to be present at the event.
WMPA Morocco and WMPA International were each able to have their own stand to present their activities and promote the products of the Moroccan mountains.
2015: the voice of the Mountain at the COP21 climate talks
Drafting of a Mountain Green Book – Summer 2015
Mountains and Climate – COP21
Organizers: Montagnes et Climats, a collective of associations, citizens, elected officials, French and international scientists and the Coordination Montagne (mountain professionals with little facilities).
Within the framework of COP21, a collective of national and international associations working on mountains decided to question political decision-makers on the issue of global warming in mountains. Particularly sensitive, mountain territories deserve a special place in the envisaged solutions.
A work was carried out during several months to write The Green Book of the Mountain and to draft an appeal to political decision-makers. The book leads to 21 proposals for adapting to climate change so that the world’s mountains will be a major stake in the debates of COP 21, which will take place in December in Paris.
The WMPA contributed to the book under the pen of Jean Bourliaud.
Activity report for the year 2015
The year 2015 closes with the feeling that, more than ever, the WMPA has a great role to play in the years to come. Several members met in the framework of COP21 in December where 195 countries committed themselves to fight against global warming. The WMPA contributed in its own way to the work of sensitizing the COP, while affirming the strength of the mountain expression.
In 2015, the WMPA worked in the Himalayas, the Andes and the Atlas mountains in particular. The association has been particularly sensitive in Nepal, which is trying to recover after the terrible earthquake. It has also been active in North Africa, China and South America.
2014: family farming, common property and mountain villages
In 2014, the WMPA has shown that it has been able to meet the challenges imposed by the year 2013. The association has once again made the voice of the world’s mountain populations heard by developing an alternative methodology to the current single thought process.
The year 2014 has been structured around several projects:
Meeting Family farming, common goods and paradigm shift with CAFOLIS-UITC-APMM (Quito, Ecuador); Mountain villages, ethnic minorities and heritage in the province of Guizhou (China) with as partner the University of Guiyang; Participation in Cusco (Peru) in the Mountain Partnership conference on family farming and the World Congress of Terraces (4-8 August 2014).
2013: defense and management of common assets
Meeting in Guérande, France – October 7 to 12, 2013
Declaration of Guérande “Let us defend and manage our common goods. Territories, Resources, Communities.
Organizers: WMPA and the Sustainable Earth International University (UiTC)
The project on “management in the common good”, initiated in connection with the FPH and the Sustainable Earth International Alliance, was concretized by the international meeting in Guérande. This meeting brought together representatives of communities from various backgrounds to confront their specific experience in managing their natural resources. The place of the meeting (shores of the Atlantic Ocean), Guérande, has allowed to inscribe the mountain populations in the same dynamic and the same spirit that links together the people of the sea and their resources. People from the forestry sector were also present.
World Social Forum in Tunis, Tunisia – March 26 to 30, 2013
The WMPA took part in the World Social Forum in Tunis. This 12th World Social Forum brought together more than 60 000 people representing 4500 organisations from 128 countries. By their presence, they also showed their support for the revolution of 14 January 2011 and for the Tunisian people in their continuing struggle for dignity and rights. The WMPA intervened in particular on 2 themes: Mountain communities and spoliation of their territories by the extractive activities of large companies, what responses to spoliation? Charter on the right of mountain and coastal territories to the common good management of their natural resources.
Water Seminar – Agua de Castilla, Argentina – March 2 to 3, 2013
Gathered 150 participants from the surrounding communities of the Argentinian Altiplano.
The presence of representatives from Bolivia is a first and decisive step towards a better synergy between the centers of resistance to large-scale mining in Argentina, the Andes and beyond in other massifs.
Activity report for the year 2013
The year 2013 will have allowed the WMPA to test the robustness of its network throughout the world and the unfailing commitment of all its members. Thanks to the involvement of the technical committee, the board members and volunteer collaborators, the WMPA has been able to meet its objectives, namely :
– to enable the members of the WMPA to meet and exchange,
– to echo the resistance and struggles of mountain populations around the world,
– to ensure the representation of mountain populations at the international level.
2011 : time for assessments and preparation for Rio +20
WMPA International Bureau – Chambéry 20 to 26 November 2012
Building the WMPA’s actions in the regions of the world
One year after the 3rd world meetings (Oloron Sainte-Marie, French Pyrenees, 25 September – 3 October 2010) of the WMPA, the city of Chambéry hosted from 20 to 26 November 2011, an international office bringing together notably the Secretary General and the 5 regional vice-presidents. On the theme “Building WMPA’s actions in the regions of the world”, this meeting allowed to take stock of the actions undertaken in the different massifs, to draw up a work programme for 2012 and to prepare the Earth Summit of 20-22 June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro.
2010: the time of the mountaineers has come!
Emergency Mali – April 7, 2010
Alert to the drought threatening the populations, the WMPA refers the matter to the French high authorities.
The WMPA board received on April 7th a delegation of Malian elected officials led by Abdou Salam Ag Assalatt, the new President of the Regional Assembly of Kidal and Arbacane Ag Abzeyack, the mayor of the Urban Community of Kidal.
The President of the WMPA, Jean Lassalle, immediately informed the highest French and European authorities of the need for an urgent intervention in favour of Northern Mali which is experiencing a real catastrophe with a drought that is decimating the herds of this pastoralist land.
Meeting in Tiquipaya (Bolivia) on changes climate – Bolivia April / May 2010
The World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of “Mother Earth” was held from April 20 to 22, 2010, in Tiquipaya, Bolivia. Convened by the socialist government of Evo Morales, the summit was attended by more than 20,000 people from 136 countries. The main objective of the government and the organizing NGOs was to break with an approach that exclusively legitimizes scientific expertise in order to give a voice to the people and socially and politically raise the issue of climate change.
The WMPA participated in the summit by filming 20 hours of interviews with mountain populations (presented at Oloron). It took part in a colloquium on the theme of glaciers entitled: “Climate change, glaciers and human, economic, social and cultural rights”.
3rd World Meeting of Mountain People – Oloron Ste Marie (Pyrenees) – France September 25 to October 3, 2010
Communities, territories and natural resources
Oloron Manifesto
Organizers : WMPA France. Participants : 300 delegates coming from mountain regions of 40 different countries
Organised in the French Pyrenees, in Oloron Sainte Marie, whose history and the lives of the inhabitants of the three valleys of Ossau, Aspe and Barétous are emblematic of the values carried by the WMPA, the 3rd Meeting allowed the political project of the Association to be updated.
2009 : the WMPA brings together mountain producers of crops classified as illicit.
Meetings on the Rif – Nador, Morocco January 9 and 10, 2009
Rif Workshop and WMPA Morocco Office
Organizers: ASTICUDE (Tisghnas Association for Culture and Development) and WMPA Morocco
Tourism reality, environmental assessment, development dynamics in the Rif… are some of the topics discussed during these meetings which ended with a workshop: What development strategy for the rural world of the Rif?
Premier Forum Mondial des Producteurs de Cultures classées illicites – Barcelone, Espagne 29 au 31 janvier 2009
Organisateurs : l’APMM en coopération avec l’ONG espagnole CERAI et l’ONG hollandaise TNI. Participants : producteurs de coca (Bolivie, Colombie, Pérou, Mexique), de cannabis (Maroc, Lesotho), de pavot (Birmanie), experts internationaux, ONGs de développement et représentants de l’APMM.
Pendant les 3 jours de cet événement international, soixante participants ont témoigné et échangé pour parvenir à une déclaration finale. Dans celle-ci, ils se prononcent notamment en faveur de la reconnaissance par la communauté internationale des cultures et usages traditionnels de ces plantes et contre leur éradication forcée. Ils demandent enfin aux autorités internationales compétentes de prendre en compte les demandes des paysans producteurs et d’engager avec leurs organisations et représentants un dialogue durable pour mettre un terme à leur criminalisation et paupérisation au nom du respect des droits de l’homme et des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement.
2008 : WMPA Morocco organizes a serie of meetings on the development of mountains
Meeting of Amghass (Azrou region, Middle Atlas) – Morocco March 9, 2008
Meeting with the populations of the Middle Atlas
Organizers : WMPA Morocco
The objective of the meeting is to sensitize the populations of the Middle Atlas Mountains to claim their rights, as well as to establish a debate with them by offering them the opportunity to expose their problems and grievances. The number of participants in this meeting exceeds 600 people, they came from the following provinces: Ifrane, Khenifra, El Hajeb, Sefrou, Taza and more than 15 tribes are represented.
Meeting of Errachidia (Anti-Atlas) – Morocco 11 and 12 May 2008
What development strategy for the Moroccan mountain areas? Case of the Eastern Anti-Atlas and the South East region)
Organizers: WMPA Morocco, Tariq Ibn Ziyad Center and Moulay Ismail University
The objectives of the meeting are: to enlighten the actors concerned, through studies and work on development constraints in the region; to sensitize local development associations and other stakeholders to the expected roles and development issues; to formulate recommendations that can help strengthen interventions in oasis and Saharan environments for a more accelerated and sustainable development.
Meeting of Ugmas (Azrou region, Middle Atlas) – Morocco May 18, 2008
Meeting on the poetry of the Middle Atlas
Organizers : WMPA Morocco
On the program: the contemporary history of the Amazighs. The meeting was a great success with 500 participants.
Meetings in the Himalayas 2008
Rencontres sur le projet de création d’un centre himalayen d’échange et de coopération
Plusieurs rencontres sur cette thématique ont lieu au Meghalaya (Inde du Nord), et au Népal (à Kuringhat, Dhading et à Kathmandou).
Le projet de centre himalayen s’articule autour des thèmes de l’agriculture biologique et des herbes médicinales.
2007 : Creation of 4 new WMPAs in Africa
Creation of the WMPA Niger – Agadez 3rd February 2007
Definition of the main lines of the 2007 agenda
Organizers: the provisional committee and the coordinator of the WMPA Niger
In relation to the meeting in Nador, the WMPA Niger is entirely in line with the conclusions of the final communiqué. However, the participants wished that the WMPA take into account in its statements, the whole territory of the population whose origin is this mountain. In other words, the mountain as it is considered here implies the territory of the populations originally from the mountains but which can be found outside the massifs.
Creation of the WMPA Mali – Kidal 6th April 2007
Definition of the main lines of the 2007 agenda
Organizers: the provisional committee and the coordinator of the WMPA Niger
Following the first meeting of the mountain populations of North Africa, organised in November 2006 in Nador (Morocco) by the WMPA, a work of sensitisation has been carried out in the field for several months in order to create the WMPA-Mali. Consequently, a large number of actors and representatives of the communities of North Mali met on 6th April 2007 in Kidal. This assembly was held at the home of the deputy ALGHABASS AG INTALLA. After a long exchange of views on the objectives of the WMPA and on the interest of creating the WMPA-Mali, the assembly opted for the decision to found the WMPA-Mali and to adopt its statutes.
International Meeting of Ifrane (Middle Atlas)- Morocco April 14, 2007
Public policies in the face of the singularities of mountain areas, lessons from experience: France, Morocco
Organizers: the WMPA in collaboration with the Moroccan State Secretariat for Rural Development-SEDR and the Tarik Ibn Zyad Centre.
In the presence of the Moroccan Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Maritime Fisheries, the Secretary of State for Rural Development and a large delegation of development associations and elected officials from Morocco and France, this colloquium provided an opportunity, based on the French experience of the Mountain Law, to exchange views on the theme of public policies in the face of the singularities of mountain areas.
Creation of the WMPA Algeria – May 2007
The newly elected board consists of 7 members.
Petition in support of the Lepcha – Sikkim – North India July 23, 2007
The Mountain Peoples express their great solidarity with the Lepcha of Sikkim, who are on hunger strike to oppose the destruction of their territory by the construction of dams on the Teesta River. They stress that it is extremely worrying that in India, the largest democracy in the world, the citizens have no other means than hunger strike to bring to the attention of the population the lack of transparency and the weak points of the decisions and decision-making process in the Teesta hydroelectric projects.
2006: regional meetings in the Andes, Africa and the Himalayas
Andean Regional Meeting, Cusco, Peru September 7 to 10, 2006
Present: representatives of the different peoples from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, members of the WMPA.
The aim of this meeting of WMPA partners and members from the Andean region was to share, update and deepen the main issues, demands and proposals in terms of policies and collective actions that need to be implemented to ensure the future of our mountain territories .
Sai Ropa Meeting – Himachal Pradesh, India October 11 to 15, 2006
The Himalayan chapter of the WMPA was born with the first regional meeting held in Yuksam (Sikkim) in 2002. The very idea of organizing the WMPA into regional chapters was to be able to examine pan-regional issues but specific to a given context: to see the points of convergence, similarity as well as the distinctions between the different chapters, as well as within the same region. In the light of this broader objective, the Himalayan regional meeting highlighted the issues of socio-economic and political status as well as those of territorial management and the rights of mountain people living in the Himalayas.
Shillong Regional Meeting – Meghalaya, India March 8-10, 2006
Living in the mountains: local cultures and innovative production strategies
Organizers: the NGO Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya and the WMPA – 30 participants
The program of this meeting focuses on sustainable and fair production and services from local cultures: sericulture, organic agriculture, tourism, water management, agroforestry. On the basis of the exchange of experiences and information on the ongoing projects of the different participants, the debates will allow to identify common axes of mobilization and action in the perspective of the creation of a WMPA of North East India and the next Regional Meetings.
Maseru Regional Meeting – Lesotho, Southern Africa 16,17 October 2006
Understanding, problems and strategies of the South African mountain populations
Organizers: the NGO GRET and the WMPA – 42 participants (4 Southern African countries, France, Spain)
The meeting was organized by ESAFF Lesotho and PELUM Lesotho and was held in Maseru for two days. The objective was to discuss how to link the mountain populations of the region with those of other parts of the world, with a view to developing common strategies to address the challenges they face.
Regional meeting of Nador – Morocco November 7 to 10, 2006
Social and Cultural Identities and Territorial Development Issues
Organizers : Organized by the WMPA in partnership with : AVSF, CERAI, World Amazigh Congress, Coordination des Berbères de France.
The mountain populations of North Africa are witnessing their institutional and economic marginalization and a permanent and increasing degradation of their living conditions and standards. Yet they produce wealth that benefits almost exclusively the inhabitants of the plains. Poverty and unemployment lead, in particular, the younger generations to emigrate to the plains, cities and Europe. This marginalization is compounded by an exclusion of identity that mainly affects Amazigh culture, language and history.
Moshi Regional Meeting – Tanzania November 13-15, 2006
Understanding, problems and strategies of the mountain populations of East Africa
Organizers: MVIWATA, ESAFF, GRET and WMPA – 30 participants including 23 farmers (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia)
The objectives of the meeting were to develop a common understanding of mountain populations, to establish the problems encountered by mountain populations in East Africa, to identify the strategies used to respond to these problems, to develop strategies to fill the gaps, to explore partnerships and links with other actors such as the WMPA and GRET, to develop a declaration of mountain populations in East Africa, and finally to develop a follow-up and an action plan.
Bafoussam Regional Meeting – Cameroon November 27 to 29, 2006
Challenges of sustainable development and cooperation of mountain territories
Organizers : WMPA and Cameroon Town Hall-Councils – 70 participants (Cameroon, DR Congo, Congo B, Burundi, Gabon, France)
The meeting has 3 objectives: to develop and make coherent the proposals of all participants on the main issues (water, biodiversity, agriculture, fair trade), to analyze the relevance and feasibility of the creation of a “Center for cooperation and exchange of experiences and knowledge for the mountains of Central and West Africa”, to create the framework for linking the political and social actors of the mountain territories and the national and international partners supporting projects and programs.
2005 : Creation of the WMPA India and declaration of La Paz
Thematic Seminar in Tripuradevi, Uttaranchal, India April 11-15, 2005
30 Indian and Nepalese participants
The primary objective of the meeting was to revive the dynamics of Yuksam (2002), which was to create a place where mountain people could talk and make known their situations and their ways of looking at them and wanting to deal with them.
On the first day, the problems inherent to the marketing of mountain products and the specification of their origin were specifically addressed. The second day was devoted to the creation of the WMPA India.
WMPA Executive Board – Martigny – Switzerland May 2005
2nd executive board of the WMPA
33 participants : France, Italy and Switzerland
Tracks for the reinforcement of the WMPA network, proposal for the organization of a ministerial conference on mountains in Paris in 2006.
Andean Regional Meeting in La Paz (Bolivia) September 2005
Territories, Indian Autonomies and State
Organizers: Conamaq, VSF, CICDA and WMPA
The seminar concluded with the declaration of the “Mountain Peoples of the Andes”, adopted unanimously. In it, the signatories assert their right to live on their territories according to their own ancestral rules and customs within a multicultural state. They demand that control of 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.
2004: Emerging themes, the labeling of mountain products and local autonomy
WMPA Office in Cameroon – May 2004
Mission of the members of the WMPA Cameroon to meet local elected officials from the North West and the West, government authorities and NGOs.
WMPA International Office Turin – Italy 3rd and 4th December 2004
2nd plenary bureau of the WMPA
85 participants : Cameroon, Madagascar, Morocco, Uganda, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, India, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland
Thematic sessions on “mountain products and labelling” and “local autonomy and mountains” in Europe, decision to organize an intergovernmental conference on mountains.
2003: Adoption of the text of the World Mountain People's Charter.
WMPA International Bureau Ispoure – Basque Country, France September 2003
1st plenary bureau of the WMPA
Delegations present : Cameroon, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, India, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland
The holding of the first international office of the association in the small mountain town of Ispoure, in the heart of the Basque Country, has a strong symbolic dimension: it affirms the will of men and women to meet so that the organization of the world by capital alone is no longer a fatality. The text of the Charter of Mountain People of the World is definitively adopted.
Seminar “Mountain Agriculture and Globalization” Ispoure – Basque Country, France September 2003
Delegations present : Cameroon, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, India, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland
How can mountain agriculture cope with globalization? This seminar is part of a series of meetings that the World Mountain People’s Association (WMPA) organised in 2003 and 2004 on the consequences of globalisation for mountain areas, and in particular the effects of the global agreements made within the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Its objective is to define the policies and actions to be taken so that mountain territories, among the most exposed on the planet, can maintain full control over their evolution. Decision to start on mountain agriculture, because of its major role and its multifunctionality, agriculture is one of the major assets of mountain areas.
2002: first regional meetings in the Himalayas, France and the Andes.
Meeting in Yuksam, Sikkim – India April 15 to 19, 2002
Himalayan regional meeting of mountain populations
Organizer: WMPA – 135 participants from Bangladesh, India, Nepal
Yuksam Declaration
On the theme “the management by local communities of their own territory” the meeting led to the decision to create national and regional branches of the WMPA in the Himalayas.
Meeting in Grenoble – France April 24-27, 2002
Cities and mountains: for an equitable sharing and concerted management of water resources
Organizers : City of Grenoble and the WMPA – 80 participants
5 Andean cities present : Cusco (Peru), Cochabamba (Bolivia), Cuenca (Ecuador), Quito (Ecuador), Santander (Colombia).
4 Alpine cities participating : Grenoble (France), Trento (Italy), Gap (France), Seyne Les Alpes (France).
The purpose of this meeting was to explore the question of the distribution of the resource between mountain or piedmont towns and mountain municipalities or communities, the management, realization and modernization of the networks and their financing.
The in-depth reflection was organized around three workshops: urban water management, water use conflicts, and water management control.
Achocalla Meeting – Bolivia August 22-25, 2002
Andean Regional Meeting of Mountain People
Organizers: CICDA Bolivia and the WMPA
Declaration of Achocalla of the Andean Mountain Peoples
The Andean participants defined 3 priority work themes:
- The respect of coca as an identity, cultural and economic issue in the Andes
- Defending access to water as an essential natural resource in land management
- The rejection of free trade agreements, especially those concerning agriculture on a continental scale, promoted by the United States.
World Summit on Sustainable Development – Johannesburg August 26 to September 4, 2002
4th Earth Summit to review and complete the agenda of the Rio Summit
Organizers: United Nations – more than 100 Heads of State and about 60,000 people
Main themes of the international meeting: access to water and water stress, energy, agricultural production, collapse of bio-diversity…
The WMPA participates in the preparation of the World Summit and proposes to the Heads of State a new wording of Article 40 which better defines the respective responsibilities of the States, the international community and the populations, in the realisation of a project for the mountains, agreed upon jointly and setting clear objectives and obligations of result.
Meeting in Quito – Ecuador November 17 to 19, 2002
Andean Regional Meeting of Mountain People
World Mountain People’s Charter
Constitution of an international board of more than 40 people and 1st constitutive General Assembly of the association. Work on the elaboration of the Charter of the populations of the Mountains of the World which will be definitively adopted in September 2003.
World Mountain Summit – Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan November 2002
Within the framework of the International Year of the Mountains
Organizers: United Nations Environment Programme – 600 people, 60 countries
The United Nations proclaimed the International Year of Mountains in 2002 to raise awareness of the importance of mountain ecosystems and the challenges facing their inhabitants, and to encourage long-term action on the ground. The WMPA took part in the world summit that took place in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia.
2001: an association to carry the voice of the world's mountain dwellers
Birth of the Association des Populations de Montagne du Monde – Paris April 10, 2001
Statutes of the WMPA
During a constituent assembly, an association is created in favor of the cause of the mountain populations of the world. On the initiative of three associations of elected mountain representatives from Europe (Anem, AEM, Uncem), representatives of mountain territories from some fifty countries, NGOs and researchers, it responds to a priority objective: better control of their destiny and their development choices by mountain populations.
2000: the emergence of a universal mountain consciousness
World Mountain Forum – Paris – Chambéry 5 to 9 June 2000
1st Meeting of the Mountain People of the World
Organizers: Anem (National Association of Elected Mountain Officials) and the City of Chambéry – 855 participants from 70 countries
The participants from 70 countries expressed in Chambéry the wish to have a permanent framework for meeting and exchange and a tool for expressing their concerns and proposals at the global level, in the face of the growing power of international organizations in environmental management but also in development aid, regulation of international trade, definition of sustainable development … They adopt in a final declaration the project of a charter of mountain people.
