Sustainable mountain development in East Africa in a changing climate

in different mountain communities in order to develop strategies for ensuring sustainable highland- lowland interactions. This may be facilitated through the following actions: • Carrying out an assessment of existing highland- lowland interactions and determining the type and magnitude of these interactions; • Documenting, publicizing and conducting consultations on how such interactions should be enhanced; and • Developing and implementing policies and strategies for enhancement of interactions that are important for development and the sustainable management of mountain resources. It is worthwhile assessing the socioeconomic benefits of mountain resource exploitation for mountain communities and identifying causes of poverty in

mountainous areas. This could be used to develop policy reforms for empowering vulnerable groups by increasing their resilience and ability to adapt to the challenges of mountain environments, including the impacts of climate change. Possible actions include: • Undertaking socioeconomic benefit analyses of resource exploitation and export out of the mountain areas; • Identifying the causes of poverty in mountain communities, particularly in relation to the exploitation of mountain resources; • Identifying vulnerable groups among mountain communities, especially women and children, in order to develop measures to address their vulnerabilities; and • Implementing policy reforms for empowering vulnerable groups to increase their resilience and adaptive capacity.

Street market in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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