It's been a busy year for us at GRID-Arendal in our quest to create action on the ground and bring mountain topics to the forefront of global discussions on climate, biodiversity and pollution. For International Mountain Day, here are some of our handpicked highlights for the year. This year’s theme is “Women move mountains” and much of our work has a gender dimension to it.
With UNEP, the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Secretariats and the UIAA, we launched the very first policy brief for the International Year of Mountains (IYM 2022): “Keeping our Mountains Waste Free” looks at the problem of waste in mountains and what can be done about it. Earlier in the year we launched a whole series of information products about the topic, including the StoryMap “Plastic waste on the Peak”.
At the more local level, we've been working throughout the year with our partners in Kathmandu, Nepal, to understand the flow of plastics in the city and the hotspots of river pollution. We’re also taking a strong gender lens to understand the status and challenges of informal waste workers in order to increase their capacity, and linking this to the ongoing negotiations of the global plastics treaty.
The Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report produced a cross-chapter on mountains this year . Amongst the many interesting findings, the chapter talks about the solutions space for adaptation in mountains. It's an area we have been very active in this year. We launched two booklets with UNEP and partners for the East Africa and South Caucasus mountain regions. From taming wildfires to revitalising ancient wines for erosion control, the solutions showcase the excellent work already being done in the region. The booklets also had a focus on promoting gender equality.
In a similar vein, in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, our recent work with ICIMOD culminated in the publication of the Resilient Mountain Solutions : 10 Local Solutions for Global Impact. Resilient Mountain Solutions place women -being in the frontline of adaptation and often the first responders of disasters- at the centre. Handpicked after extensive research, the solutions have the potential to do what it says on the tin: have global impact. A larger coffee table book will follow soon.
Building on our historical expertise in running journalist training workshops, we ran workshops for regional journalists in Central Asia and Hindu Kush Himalaya.
We also coordinated an intensive four-day training for Central Asian journalists for the UNEP Vanishing Treasures programme. The topics covered included snow leopard conservation and climate-smart conservation, while the journalists also got a chance to improve their own environmental storytelling skills. The training brought together Kyrgyz journalists, environmental experts, and institutions in what we aim to be the start of a new network to support environmental reporting in the country.
Training on digital storytelling on climate change resulted in video stories and online articles about resilient mountain solutions published widely in the regional media outlets and receiving tens of thousands of views this far. The journalist training was led by video journalist Nani Walker, the Director of Los Angeles Short Docs, and jointly organized for sixteen journalists in Nepal with ICIMOD from the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region.
Fetching water is traditionally women’s job in Hindu Kush Himalaya. Reviving springs makes water more accessible closer to their homes. Watch a video story on how the villages in Hindu Kush Himalaya revive their spring water published via Down to Earth by Joel Michael and Asadullah Khose.
In 2022, we became a full-fledged member of the Mountain Partnership and we were also voted onto a seat of the Steering Committee. We're really looking forward to help steer the work of the Mountain Partnership over the coming four years and delivering on the Aspen Declaration together with our partners. At its 77th session this year, the UN General Assembly also adopted a Resolution on Sustainable Mountain Development.
In early 2023, we'll be launching a new project called “Greentrails”, in partnership with the Kilian Jornet Foundation, ADP Sports, and Ecoserveis. Greentrails will focus on understanding the climate, environmental and social impacts of trail running events and work to develop a green certification scheme applicable to a wide range of events. It's a project we're really excited about, not least because we get the chance to continue our collaboration with Kilian Jornet and his foundation.
© 2026 GRID-Arendal
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