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The Human Development International in partnership with the Philippine Norway Foundation in Skjeberg, Norway is poised to re-echo the Call to Save the Mountains of the World at the summit of the highest mountain in Scandinavia - Mount Galdhøpiggen (2,469 m asl) this mid September 2008. The call was first done at the Philippines’ tallest mountain, Mount Apo during the celebration of the International Year of the Mountains in 2002 and since then has been continually re-echoed in many places including at Mount Everest and has raised awareness on the need to save and restore mountains. Equally important through the years, it has been transformed into program of actions, influenced policy decisions and triggered prompt and timely intervention on emerging issues confronting mountains and its people.
This upcoming call at Mount Galdhopiggen will be of great significance in the continuing advocacy to save the mountains. It is the first call of its kind to be done at the Arctic – North Pole (Arctic is the area around the Earth's North Pole, that includes parts of Canada, Greenland - a territory of Denmark, Russia, Alaska, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland as well as the Arctic Ocean) at a time when melting of the polar ice cap due to global warming has raised serious global concern. The Call to Save the Mountains, aside from reducing the use of fossil fuels and initiate adaptation measures like the use of cleaner energies, etc., is a vital mitigating measure in addressing global warming the fact that mountains are the habitat of forest which are natural sink of carbon dioxide that causes the warming of the earth‘s surface. Further as great water towers, mountains provide water to woodlands in the lowlands for vegetation to grow.
John Ryan Largo, HDI Founder said that the call at Mount Galdhopiggen will give further impetus as the call moves towards becoming a global movement that derived strength from the endorsement of the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1993, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Former President Fidel V. Ramos and other international leaders and influential individuals. The momentum built through the years is further fuelled by movers‘great accomplishments like influencing policy decision at the world body - noting that it was able to share inputs in the UN Resolution on Sustainable Mountain Development last year in collaboration with the Philippine Mission to the United Nations - Department of Foreign Affairs and the Forest Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The call at the Arctic – North Pole is likewise in keeping with the efforts of the Human Development International to forefront Philippines’ international advocacy effort to address climate change.
The call will be spearheaded by the HDI Founder and accompanied by Kjell Roar Iversen, Chairperson of the Philippine Norway Foundation based in Skjeberg, Norway and Laida Quidato - Ambassadress of the Call to Save the Mountains of the World. The trio team will jump off to the top from Spiterstulen lodge in Visdalen deviating of having to pass the dangerous Styggebreen glacier but still will be subjected to a strenuous climb of 1,300 meters and the cold arctic weather before reaching the summit. (more updates through www.humandevintl.org)
Posts: 1 | From: Philippines | Registered: Sep 2008
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