ICIMOD celebrated International Mountain Day (IMD) by holding a joint programme with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). With the theme ‘Conserve, Construct and Celebrate’ a video conference was linked to IMD Day celebrations in Verbier, Switzerland. The event saw the introduction of the World Mountain Forum for Sustainable Development (WMF-for-SD) that met in Verbier for the second time in 2011 and which will be launched at Rio+20 Conference in June 2012. As a soft opening to the IMD celebration, a street drama entitled ‘Prakriti Prem’ by the Mandapika Art Group was held at ICIMOD Headquarters. The street drama enacted the conflict between humankind and nature by putting Hindu mythological symbols in a twenty-first century setting. A painting contest on “Why we love our Mountains” for school children aged 5-7 and 8-12 saw the participation of about 85 schoolchildren from 24 schools in Kathmandu.