Inclusive and resilient mountain food systems: Opportunities and best practices - policy brief

Mountain food systems are unique, complex, diverse, and linked with cultures of local communities and indigenous peoples. They shape landscapes, and support biodiversity and nutrition security worldwide. Currently, these systems are playing an important for providing ecosystem services, sustaining the livelihoods of 1.1 billion people living in the world’s mountains and supporting the conservation of crucial plant and animal biological diversity. This policy brief specifically highlights the importance of food systems, underline major challenges facing them, reveals key opportunities and provides practical examples for developing sustainable solutions. It constitutes a call to action for governments to support the relevant institutions and stakeholders for achieving inclusive and resilient food systems in mountain areas.