A month before the 1992 Earth Summit, with its adoption of a special Chapter for Mountains, a Mountain Theme was set up in IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). The appointed Vice-Chair for Mountains, Professor Lawrence (Larry) Hamilton, had before that time been playing an active role in the small group calling itself Mountain Agenda and representing WCPA, IUCN therein. This group was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the adoption of Chapter 13 for Mountains. Under the Theme, a Mountain Protected Area Network was initiated involving 41 managers and scientists working in mountain PAs. This has grown today to 495 managers from 67 countries. Though periodically pared back by elimination of inactive members, the network hovers close to the 500 mark. It is nourished by a quarterly newsletter called Mountain Protected Areas UPDATE, now at Issue Number 38, which usually contains 12–14 pages, hard copy.
The Network has stimulated several PA partnerships, joint research projects, and collaborative publications. In addition to producing the newsletter, the Mountain Theme has been IUCN's principal representative in the unfolding Mountain Agenda created from the 1992 UNCED conference, whose progress was marked by the International Year of Mountains 2002. The Theme has used its very limited support-funds to cosponsor and cooperate with other organizations to implement several landmark events during this 10-year period. These include: Parks, Peaks and People Consultation (Hawaii); Desarolla Sostenible de Ecosistemas de Montaña: Manejo de Areas Frágiles en los Andes (Lake Titicaca); The Mountain Conference (Golden, Colorado); Wildlands Exchange: Beyond the Border (USA–Canada, in Paul Smiths, New York); Mountain National Parks and Biosphere Reserves (Vrchlabi, Czech Republic); and Human Use Management of Mountain Areas (Banff). Some publications resulting from Theme activities include: Guidelines for Mountain Protected Areas: Mountain High, IUCN Bulletin; Mountain Protected Areas, PARKS theme issue; Campaign for Cloud Forests; Transborder Protected Area Cooperation; A Global Overview of Mountain Protected Areas on the World Heritage List; Parks, Peaks and People; dozens of articles and chapters in books (including Mountains of the World, Mountain Biodiversity: A Global Assessment, Transboundary Protected Areas for Peace and Co-operation, Protected Area Management: Principles and Practice, and Bosques Nublado del Neotropico).
A deputy vice-chair, Graeme Worboys, was appointed for the Mountain Theme in 2002.
Current activity includes planning for a pre-World Parks Mountain Workshop in South Africa's Drakensberg during 5–8 September 2003, participation in a Mountain Biodiversity Workshop in connection with The Millennium Assessment, preparing material for the UNEP–IUCN State of the World's PAs, and participating in Planetary Garden 2003 in Chamonix, 26–30 October.
Information on the Theme may be found at http://iucn.org/themes/wcpa/biome/mountain/programme.htm
