International Mountain Day tomorrow
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—International Mountain Day will be observed througout the World including Pakistan tomorrow.
December 11 marks the second celebration of International Mountain Day.
This year, the Day focuses on “Peace: Key to SustainableMountain Development”, and is organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Forestry Department. International Mountain Day is an opportunity to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life, to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to build partnerships that will bring positive change to the world’s mountains and highlands. Mountains cover fully one quarter of the Earth’s surface andare also an important source of fresh water, sheltering important biodiversity and ecosystems.
Much of the water that is used around the world inelectricity, food production, and clean water supply is drawn from mountains.
Violent conflicts are now twice as likely to occur at highaltitudes than fifty years ago: with 12% of the world’s population living in mountain areas. Mountain systems, covering about 27% ofthe world’s land surface and directly supporting 22% of the world’s people, are the water towers of the world, providing for thefreshwater needs of more than half of humanity.
The world’s mountains encompass some of the most spectacularlandscapes, a wide variety of ecosystems, a great diversity of species, and distinctive human communities.
The world’s principal biome types-from hyper-arid hot desert and tropical forest to arid polar icecaps-all occur in mountains.
Mountains support about one quarter of world’s terrestrial biological diversity, with nearly half of the world’s biodiversity “hotspots” concentrated in mountains.