SARD in mountain regions: Second meeting of the "Adelboden Group" to be held on 4-5 October

The Second Meeting of the "Adelboden Group" on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountain Regions will take place at FAO Headquarters in Rome on 4 and 5 October 2004. The meeting will be organised in the framework of the interregional and multi-stakeholder Project for SARD in Mountain Regions.

Formulated by FAO with the support of the Swiss Government, this four-year Project (2005-2008) aims to formulate and put into practice mountain-specific policies inspired by SARD principles in order to enhance sustainable livelihoods of mountain people, thus contributing to the implementation of Chapters 13 (Sustainable Mountain Development) and 14 (Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development) of Agenda 21.

The Adelboden Group was created at the end of the Adelboden International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountain Regions that took place in Switzerland in June 2002. With a balanced participation of governments, international organizations and civil society groups, the Adelboden Group is referred to in the Adelboden Declaration "as a platform for discussion of policies and policy instruments, exchange of experience, and preparation of initiatives."

The First Meeting of the group held in Rome in September 2003 provided advice for the formulation of a SARD-M Project Document (see October 2003 update on the outcome of this meeting). Subsequently, FAO officially presented the Project to potential donors and partners in a meeting held in Rome in April 2004, in which participants highly appreciated the project's themes and flexibility, its multi-stakeholder nature, as well as its commitment in "bridging" the gap between various initiatives (see June 2004 update on the donors and partners meeting).

With the aim of launching the Project in early 2005, FAO is hosting the Second Meeting of the Adelboden Group in order to:

• prioritise first project activities to be implemented in 2005,
• finalise partnerships with the participants,
• explore potential commitments by donors for financial and/or in-kind support to the project,
• discuss the project's implementation and decision-making mechanisms.

A one-day workshop on the Mountain Partnership's Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountains will follow on 6 October. This workshop will be organised by the FAO-hosted Interim Secretariat of the Mountain Partnership in close collaboration with the SARD-M Project Team. It will help the members of the Mountain Partnership and the SARD-M Project to identify common priority areas and produce draft work-plans and strategies for action promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Mountains.

For further inquiries on the objectives/modus operandi of the project and the Adelboden Group, you can read the 6-page brochure on the SARD-M Project available online in English, French, Spanish and now also in Arabic.

For more information on the SARD-M Project, please contact: sard-m@fao.org