Gorillas in the mist, leopards in the snow, bears in the woods: these impressive and well-known predators can only survive if the mountainous regions where they roam are healthy, protected and carefully managed.
Mountain ecosystems are hugely diverse, holding many plants and animals uniquely adapted to harsh conditions. They supply much of humanity with freshwater. But mountain areas are being hit hard by climate change and unsustainable development, ramping up risks for people and nature.
Mountains are a focus of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global push to reinvigorate degraded landscapes. With momentum building, the UN has now selected 10 World Restoration Flagships to inspire further action, including one that highlights three mountain regions. World Restoration Flagships are eligible to receive funding, advice or promotion from the UN.
Africa’s Virunga Massif, the Alta Planina in Serbia, and the Tian Shan of Kyrgyzstan rise on different continents. But they share several common challenges, from human-wildlife conflict to the risk of disasters, like floods and landslides.
“Mountains are fragile ecosystems where even small changes in climate or tree cover can have devastating effects,” said Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The restoration work in Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Uganda and Rwanda “should serve as inspiration from what countries can accomplish when they work together to protect these awe-inspiring places.”
Here's a closer look at the three mountainous zones recognized as part of the flagship initiative.
Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Confined to two misty forests in central Africa, there are only about 1,000 mountain gorillas left in the wild. Yet that figure represents a steady increase since the 1980s and a reward for sustained protection and restoration work that is also producing welcome eco-tourism revenue for protected area authorities and communities.
Half of the gorillas inhabit the volcano-dotted Virunga Massif, whose tripartite protected area straddles the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Threats, including insecurity, climate change and disease, mean the great apes remain endangered.
Alongside the protection of prime gorilla habitat, restoration work in the region has included the rehabilitation of more than 1,000 ha in Uganda’s Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. Exotic trees have been removed so that native species can return, and there are plans to restore more habitat in the mountain gorilla range.
“Keeping these forests healthy makes them more resilient to climate change so they can continue to provide for the gorillas and other species while also delivering water and other benefits to the people who live lower down the mountain,” said Johannes Refisch, a UNEP expert on mountain gorillas and Coordinator of the Great Apes Survival Partnership.
Kyrgyzstan
Snow leopards range over an estimated 2.8 million sq km of Central Asia. But there are only a few thousand cats left and they are notoriously elusive. Among the few to get a look at them are community wildlife rangers in southern Kyrgyzstan.
The rangers’ camera traps in the 14,000 ha Baiboosun reserve in the snow-capped Tian Shan range have confirmed the presence of four adult leopards since 2019 and the birth of several cubs.
Baiboosun and another new 23,000 ha reserve further east are part of community-based projects helping local herders adopt rotational grazing schemes to restore some 180,000 ha of grasslands and reduce grazing pressure in high mountain valleys, where livestock compete for scarce grass with ibex and mountain goats, the snow leopard’s prey.
“We are participating in this project in order to preserve our lands, mountains, the nature our ancestors left us with,” said Venera Talkanova, a local herder. “We have learned how to properly use our land resources, to improve the soil and our grazing methods.”
Serbia
Large predators are staging a comeback in Europe. Wolves, lynx and jackals are returning naturally or being reintroduced to more and more regions. In Serbia, brown bears are wandering into the Stara Planina protected area from the forests of neighbouring Bulgaria.
Restoration in Stara Planina, whose limestone ridges are dotted with springs and waterfalls, includes expanding tree cover and revitalizing high-mountain pastures by mulching. There are plans to upgrade Stara Planina and Kučaj-Beljanica, another protected area in Serbia’s part of the Carpathian Mountains, to national park status.
These efforts are part of a long-term push across Europe’s Carpathian region to make mountain regions more resilient by using their resources sustainably and protecting biodiversity hotspots, with a strong emphasis on cross-border cooperation.
Cooperation is also growing at the global level. For example, representatives from the Virunga region and Kyrgyz counterparts have exchanged experiences with addressing human-wildlife conflicts.
Beksultan Ibraimov, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources, Ecology, and Technical supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic, said: "The time has come for a common decision to recognize that mountain ecosystems, with all available water, mineral and biological resources and of course the ambassadors of high mountain snow peaks – snow leopards – are extremely sensitive to climate change and, at the same time, are of paramount importance for the present and the future of humanity.”
About the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
The UN General Assembly has declared the years 2021 through 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN together with the support of partners, it is designed to prevent, halt, and reverse the loss and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It aims at reviving billions of hectares, covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. A global call to action, the UN Decade draws together political support, scientific research, and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration.
