International Conference on Green Economy and Sustainable Mountain Development

-By Shreejana Bhattarai
The International Conference on Green Economy and Sustainable Mountain Development was held from 5th-7th September at ICIMOD headquarters, Kathmandu. Ms. Shreejana Bhattarai along with other Asia Pacific Youth Forum Alumni got an opportunity to participate in the 2nd day of the conference as youth representatives. There were over 150 participants including prominent scientists, economists, government officials, nongovernmental and UN representatives from all over the world representing all the continents.

The morning session of the day was led by Dr. Andreas Schild (Director General, ICIMOD), presenting the broad context of Mountain Agenda. Then key messages from the Regional Sharing Workshop on the Assessment of Potential and Opportunities in the Asia Pacific Region for Rio+20 was highlighted by Dr. Madhav Karki (DDG, ICIMOD). The session was also followed by sharing views and experiences on green economy and sustainable mountain development by Mr. Naseer Ahmad Gillani (Pakistan), Mr. Naba Bikram Singh Tripura (Bangladesh) and Mr. BMS Rathore (India).

Then the participants were divided into four working groups:

• Identification of issues and challenges in promoting a green economy in mountain regions;
• Identification of the potentials and opportunities for sustainable mountain development in the context of green economy;
• How to create enabling conditions for promoting green economy for sustainable mountain development (policies, strategies, institutional mechanisms) and
• Identification of principles and actions that demand priority in the global green economy and Rio+20. 

After the  intense discussion, the group came up with valuable outcomes which were shared among all the participants. Mr. Miguel Saravia (Latin America), Mr. Matthias Jurek (Europe), Prof. Reginald Victor (Middle East), Mr. Augustino Polenza (Europe) and Dr. Chad Dear (Central Asia) also shared their status, views and thoughts regarding green economy and its relevancy along with the opportunities in the context of sustainable mountain development and Rio+20.

Different views, thoughts and ideas were shared by distinguished participants but youth aspect was somehow missing in the whole picture. Ms. Shreejana Bhattarai tried to raise the concern on this aspect and draw attention of the participants on the fact that, youth are the one who will be bearing all the burdens of future climate and environmental impacts but they are not involved in any decision making processes and they are lacking knowledge, capacity and opportunities. However, Dr. Bhaskar Singh Karky, Mr. Tek Jung Mahat and other participants also raised the issue. One of the participants expressed the concern on how can we stop migration of youth from village. In fact, there is some unknown pushing factor (sort of social think) to go urban area, mostly to developed countries. Though the life is not easy compared with home town, youth are attracted by such things. One of the participants emphasized about the urgency of policy requirement to check such brain drain problem. Mr. Mahat shared the views of youth from “Asia Pacific Youth Forum, 8-12th August, 2011” and added that youth are not simply securing their jobs rather they want to contribute to the society and want to become a change maker. Dr. Karky rose a question on how we can include youth in the green economy framework so that village remains green and youth remains happy. During the discussion, Dr. Schild mentioned that this kind of gap has challenges and opportunities both. We need some concrete plans to attract youth by providing mobility, connectivity and technology.

Right Honourable President of Republic of Nepal, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav lit the lamp to inaugurate the conference in the evening at Hotel Soaltee. Mr. Dasho Sherub Gyaltshen, Minister for Agriculture and Forests, Royal Government of Bhutan, Vice Chancellor of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, and Robert Piper, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator also participated in the inaugural program. President congratulated ICIMOD for organizing the conference and urged for mountain issues to be included in Rio+20 deliberations.