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needs rather than specific ecosystems or territories,
except perhaps in the case of Amazonian forests (e.g.
Peruvian Forest Law). However, a similar trajectory
to the Amazonian forests may be initiated just for
glaciers and mountain environments: for instance,
Ecuador is integrating weather stations’ monitoring
of páramos and glaciers into the national network of
weather stations.
3
The main findings of this chapter are:
• Adaptation is gaining importance within
countries’ priorities. All countries have national
policy instruments in one form or another (e.g.
national strategy or a plan for climate change
adaptation; or joint mechanisms for adaptation
and mitigation in the forest sector in the case of
Bolivia), although the means for implementing
adaptation programmes and measures are still
beingdeveloped.All countrieshave submitted their
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
(INDCs) to the UNFCCC. In generally, funding
remains insufficient and adaptation targets and
implementation tools are general and vague.
• The rising recognition of adaptation in
policymaking is hindered by weak or non-binding
international agreements and the lack of attention
given to environmental issues in supra-national
organizations.
• Mainstreaming adaptation policies across sectors
and from national to local levels is an ongoing but
slow process.
• Institutions from an increasing number of sectors
are articulating policies around adaptation to
climate change.
• Mountains are rarely treated as a specified target
of adaptation policies.
• Ecosystem services provided by mountain
ecosystems, such as wetlands, grasslands and
tropical mountain forests, are both essential to
people and threatened by climate change, and
measures such as ecosystem-based adaptation
measures which are designed and implemented in
a participatory process to address specific issues in
mountain communities could be further pursued.
• Although many sectoral policies do not explicitly
focus on adaptation to climate change in
mountains, they often address broader issues that
influence mountain adaptation. These policies
may be opportunities to include adaptation
measures when explicit mountain adaptation
policies are lacking.
• Gender and ethnic inequalities are insufficiently
addressed by adaptation policy. Recognizing the
contributions of women and indigenous people
to adaptation to climate change may encourage
policymakers to address discrimination.
Farmers, Paramo El Zumbador mountains, Venezuela