ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Today is the International Mountain Day which has been celebrated annually, especially by mountainous countries for more than twenty years, and this past October the Kurdistan Region joined this international club.

The Mountain Partnership, which started in Aspen, Colorado, United States in 2002 and is led by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is an alliance that focuses on the lives of mountain peoples around the world and the protection of their environment, resources, livestock and way of life.

This partnership, which is a voluntary alliance, recognizes a wealth of resources, biodiversity, ecosystem and local knowledge among indigenous peoples and mountain communities which it hopes to utilize for their protection and sustainable development since some of these communities across the globe are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

When the Kurdistan Region joined the partnership, it became one of 470 members which also includes governments, inter-governmental organizations, subnational authorities, major groups, civil society and other organizations.

The mountainous region of Hawraman, which surrounds Halabja province in the Kurdistan Region. Photo: Ayub Nuri

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Senior Advisor to Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Foreign Affairs and Climate Change, said in a statement on this day, “Kurdistan Region’s mountains are integral to our identity, heritage and culture. They have been our refuge, and they are our source of water. Climate change threatens mountain communities and endangers Kurdistan’s biodiversity. Working with other organizations in the Mountain Partnership, we will work to ensure that mountain communities can adapt to climate change and live sustainably.”

Home to some towering mountains such as Halgurd-Sakran, Gara, Qandil, Bamo, Korek, Piramagroon among others, the Kurdistan Region took its case to an international arena at the UN COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan in November where its water, biodiversity and agriculture experts told the story of the Kurdish people’s deep and historic connection to these mountains and the growing threat of climate change to their future.

The mountainous region of Hawraman, which surrounds Halabja province in the Kurdistan Region. Photo: Ayub Nuri

At the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) and the Iraqi pavilion, a case was made for the mountains of the Kurdistan Region where rising temperatures and changes in weather patterns are threatening glaciers and ages-old snow that have capped these towering giants and as a result affecting groundwater, wildlife, agroforestry and the mountain communities as a whole.

According to ICCI, ice sheets, sea ice, glaciers, snow, and permafrost cover more than 15 percent of earth’s surface and that “ice loss from these regions brings increased risk to ecosystems and human communities on a global scale.”

“Every fraction of a degree matters.” ICCI states on their website. “These impacts from our planet’s loss of its natural ice regions will grow ever more catastrophic with each fraction of a degree of temperature rise, especially if we exceed the Paris Agreement limit of 1.5°C, and even more so above 2°C.”

One of the ever-present risks to wildlife, forests and mountain communities of the Kurdistan Region are deadly landmines and explosives left from the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, as explained by Ali Miran of the Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA) at COP29 in Baku, who said that their goal was “to clear the mountains of landmines, unexploded ordnance and other remnants of war that pose a threat to local residents, forests and wildlife.”

At an event in Kyrgyzstan -home to some of the world’s most striking mountains- last year, and ahead of COP28, the United Nations announced the Five Years Action for Sustainable Mountain Development and proposed four pathways to encourage stakeholders to contribute to the five-year agenda, such as expanding nature-based solutions, increasing access to sustainable infrastructure, strengthening international cooperation, and empowering mountain communities by prioritizing women, youth and indigenous people.

The Partnership envisions a world by 2030 where mountain communities are empowered and there is increased investment from public and private sectors that will address the climate crises in mountains “and ensure social and economic livelihood and wellbeing of mountain people leaving no one behind as well as the conservation and sustainable use of mountain ecosystems and resources, for the benefit of people and planet.”

This self-governing alliance expects its members to fulfill their roles by participating in national and international dialogues on sustainable mountain development, considering the voices of mountain communities in national policies and international agreements, promoting mountain-specific research, sharing case studies and best practices for the partnership’s databases, mobilizing funds for investments in mountain areas, prioritizing mountain development in national budgets and organizing capacity building.