“I am happy to announce that on 7th and 8th October Italy will co-curate an international forum on mountain areas at Expo 2020 Dubai and that in this context UNIMONT will be promoting a working table on the centrality of mountains as places of learning and training,” declared Paolo Glisenti, General Commissioner for Italy’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, during the meeting “Mountains a new beginning” which took place at UNIMONT, in Edolo, on Saturday 31st July.
Italian mountains areas will be protagonists at Expo 2020 Dubai, together with mountain areas in Europe and worldwide, through various events dedicated to skills, good practices and innovative processes that facilitate sustainable development and the resilience of mountain communities. “It is our intention to facilitate the creation of new international collaboration networks to protect mountain communities, highlighting the best practices of sustainability and resilience developed in our inner territories. We want to demonstrate that value can also be produced by acting from a “mountain” dimension, investing in a clear vision, in good organization, in the use of technology and above all in the enthusiasm of young people, researchers and students who live the mountains,” added Paolo Glisenti.
The latter themes will be explored in the first week of Expo 2020 Dubai dedicated to “climate and biodiversity” during an international forum on the mountains “SDG | Reaching for the Stars: Sustainable and Climate Resilient Mountain Development” organized in collaboration with the FAO – Mountain Partnership on 7th October 2021, during which representatives of UNIMONT, recognized as an effective “model” and good practice for the enhancement of mountain areas, will talk about its experience of collaboration and networking with Italian and European mountains. Furthermore, on 8th October 2021, at the Italian Pavilion, the University of Milan with its Edolo centre will organize a themed event entitled “Connecting Youth and Mountains, Creating a lively Future” focused on sustainability and the importance of specific training and innovation to promote the sustainable development of mountain areas.
In the run-up to Expo 2020 Dubai, the professors of the Scientific Technical Table for the Mountains (TTS) – recently established by the Hon. Gelmini, Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies with responsibility for the enhancement of mountain areas – of 7 Italian universities will organize a series of events on sustainable development in the mountains throughout Italy, an activity that is part of the agenda of “Climbing for Climate” of the “Network of Universities for Sustainable Development – RUS” and which will take place on Sunday 12th September. The UNIMONT centre, coordinator of the event, will organize a meeting at the Agriturismo Malga Magnolta in the Municipality of Aprica, during which various mountain experts will discuss issues regarding the protection of agrobiodiversity in relation to climate change in the mountains.