By Rowena Davis| Mountain Sentinels Program Manager

What better way to end 2022, and phase one of the UN Year of Sustainable Mountain Development, than by celebrating International Mountain Day? This year, Mountain Sentinels was honored to partner with Canadian Mountain Network to explore the 2022 theme of “Women Move Mountains” by hosting a dialogue featuring Ava Hamilton (Rising Voices), Ataya Cesspooch (UC Berkeley), Louise Misztal (Sky Island Alliance), Kim McCullen (Girl in the Wild), and Coralee McGuire-Cyrette (Ontario Native Women’s Association) on December 9.  The conversation among these extraordinary women will available on YouTube in January, 2023.

Mountain Sentinels also developed a “Women Move Mountains” social media campaign to spotlight a few of the amazing women who work toward mountain sustainability across the globe in collaborative organizations, and to promote other IMD2022 events and resources. We are proud to report that between Nov, 14- Dec 11, this campaign received over half a million impressions and over 400,000 unique views across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

 A special thank you to:

  • Dr. Robin Reid (Mtn Sentinels)
  • Dr. Catherine Tucker (Mtn Sentinels)
  • Dr. Gillian Bowser (YEAH Network)
  • Dr. Berta Martín-Lopez (Leuphana University)
  • Dr. Mandira Singh Shrestha (ICIMOD)
  • Dr. Carolina Adler (MRI)
  • Michèle Egger (MRI)
  • Heather Turnbach (MRI)
  • Dr. Adriene Grȇt-Regamey (MRI)
  • Aster Gebrekistos (CIFOR-ICRAT)
  • Dr. Theresa Tribaldos (UNESCO/MRI)
  • Maria Shahgedanova (University of Reading/MRI)
  • Irasema Alcȧntara-Ayala (UNAM/MRI)
  • Dr. Timberley Roane (Mtn Sentinels)

Thank you for all you do to support mountain ecosystems and communities!

Of course, Alliance partner organizations also developed excellent events and resources for IMD2022. We’d like to call attention to just a few contributions below:

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) released a fact sheet available in six languages and a publication created in partnership with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat and the Feminist Hiking Collective to highlight the voices of rural women from eight countries. The stories in Mountain women of the world – Challenges, resilience and collective power inform, inspire, and outline a path forward to promote empowerment for women as agents of sustainable mountain development. 

UN FAO also released a video and fashion show highlighting the alpaca tenders living in the village of Tolconi, high in the Peruvian Andes.  Recently, the Peruvian women’s collective Illariy Threads4Dreams collaborated with Stella Jean to create garments using alpaca fiber for a 2023 fashion collection and other items to be sold directly by the women online. 

Instituto de Montaña collaborated with regional partners for an event organized by INAIGEM. This panel discussion was held on December 13. Be sure to also check out their story map resource (Spanish).  

ICIMOD (International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development) and the FAO Mountain Partnership Secretariat developed a policy brief on ecosystem restorations in the mountains over the last 20 years. The document provides a great summary of continued threats to these vulnerable and unique ecosystems and recommends areas of action. While it doesn’t focus only on women, it does recommend incorporation of traditional innovation and knowledge from local mountain communities into the development of policies and activities. 

The resources and activities mentioned in this post are just a sample of the many that were created in celebration of the women who move mountains every day. If you would like to call our attention to an IMD2022 activity, please email us at [email protected].