Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) begins

Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) begins

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Environment

In news

• The 9^th edition of the Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) in Dehradun has begun.

Important value addition

• Organised by: Indian Mountain Initiative (IMI)
• The summit seeks to deliberate on issues such as migration, water security, climate resilience and innovative solutions for the farm sector, and disaster risk reduction in the Indian Himalayas.
• Every year 3-5 salient themes engaging the immediate attention of and relevant to the mountains and hills are taken up for threadbare discussion and debate.
• Conclusions and recommendations emerging from this exercise are pursued by IMI subsequently for actionable output.
• The theme for 2020: Emerging Pathways for Building a Resilient Post COVID-19 Mountain Economy, Adaptation, Innovation and Acceleration.
• The first edition was organized in 2011 in Nainital.

Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI)

• It is a civil society led network platform.
• Mission: To mainstream concerns of the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and its people in the development dialogue of India.
• It functions as a platform to integrate the knowledge and experiences of multiple stakeholders working across the IHR, and uses this to inform and influence policy at the national and state level.