Status of Preparation for the International Year of Mountains, 2002

Encourages all States, the United Nations system and all other actors to take advantage of the International Year of Mountains to ensure the present and future well-being of mountain communities by promoting conservation and sustainable development in mountain areas; to increase awareness and knowledge of mountain ecosystems, their dynamics and functioning, and their overriding importance in providing a number of crucial goods and services essential to the well-being of both rural and urban, highland and lowland people, in particular water supply, food security; and to promote and defend the cultural heritage of mountain communities and societies;

Encourages States and relevant United Nations funds and programmes, specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector to support local, national and international programmes and projects for the International Year of Mountains, inter alia, through voluntary financial contributions;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session an interim report on the activities of the International Year of Mountains and to report to the Assembly at its fifty-eighth session on the outcome of the Year and the further implementation of efforts to achieve sustainable mountain development, taking into account any relevant decisions adopted during the ten-year review of the implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 2002.