92
East Africa provides a good case on which the
framework for an Africa Mountain Agenda can be
developed. East Africa has some of Africa’s most
prominent mountains, and also home to large
mountain communities.
Over the years, several assessments have been
conducted on Africa’s mountain regions, including
the Africa Mountain Atlas, which has a chapter on
East Africa. As such, the current state and trends of
mountain ecosystems is generally known. Several
political pronouncements have also been made
on mountain regions, including by the African
Ministerial Conference on the Environment at its
15th session.
In this report, an East Africa mountain agenda is
proposed, and will benchmark an Africa-wide
mountain agenda. The proposed East Africa
mountain agenda provides priority areas of action
following the identification of gaps in on-going
efforts to protect mountain ecosystems and to
achieve sustainable development of mountain
regions. In line with the Sustainable Development
Goals, Africa’s Agenda 2063 and various on-going
programme in the region, the proposed timeframe
for East Africa’s mountain agenda is 15 years, from
2015–2030.
A total of 12 priority areas of action are identified
and proposed, and their objectives and activities
provided. The priority areas are comparable with
developmental plans for other mountain regions of
the world. Therefore, East Africa’s mountain agenda
will provide useful inputs into the global mountain
agenda should this come into being.
Conclusion
Bigo Bog at Mount Rwenzori, Uganda