The World Conservation Congress (WCC) is the general assembly of IUCN–The World Conservation Union and takes place every 4 years. It comprises the business meeting of IUCN members, meetings of IUCN's 6 Commissions, and technical meetings within the “World Conservation Forum.” Mountains were clearly on the agenda throughout the 3rd WCC, which took place in Bangkok, Thailand, from 15–25 November 2004. The WCC provided the first global opportunity to present the work of IUCN's Mountain Initiative Task Force (MITF), established in 2003 by the chairs of two of IUCN's Commissions, the Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM) and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). During the first two days of the WCC, MITF activities were reported to both Commissions, as were those of WCPA's Mountain Biome programme, which has been operational since 1993.
The main day for mountain events was 18 November. This started with the launch of two books developed within WCPA's Mountain Biome programme. Both of these had emerged from a workshop just before the World Parks Congress, held in South Africa in September 2003: Guidelines for Planning and Managing Mountain Protected Areas, compiled and edited by Larry Hamilton and Linda McMillan, and published by IUCN; and Managing Mountain Protected Areas: Challenges and Responses for the 21st Century, edited by David Harmon and Graeme Worboys and published by Andromeda Editrice. The launch was widely reported in the international media.
The day's main mountain event was a workshop on conservation and sustainable development in mountain areas, which filled the room to more than capacity. At the workshop, a brochure on the same theme was launched, showing the great diversity of activities being undertaken by IUCN and its partners across the world (see http://www.iucn.org/themes/cem/mountains/docs/conservsust-04.pdf). Many of these activities were presented during the workshop, which began with an introduction to the Mountain Partnership, of which IUCN is an increasingly active member. The workshop concluded with discussion of potential future mountain activities of IUCN and its partners, linked to a resolution sponsored by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) which was to be considered at the Members' Business Meeting of IUCN later during the Congress. A further workshop on cooperation in the mountains of the Mediterranean, which took place on 20 November, attracted participants from throughout the region for a lively multilingual discussion.
During the Members' Business Meeting, the resolution on Conservation and Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions was approved, as were others on a Mediterranean Mountain Convention and on trans-boundary cooperation in mountain areas (to be the theme of WCPA Mountain Biome meetings in 2005 and 2006). Various recommendations also considered specific mountain areas to one extent or another. The final versions of all resolutions and recommendations will be published on the IUCN web site ( www.iucn.org) in late February 2005. In summary, the 3rd WCC showed that the Commissions, Secretariat (headquarters and regional offices) and members of IUCN have great experience and many strengths in mountain regions around the world. The Congress also provided the groundwork for IUCN to play a greater role in contributing to conservation and sustainable development in mountain regions, both regionally and globally, particularly through the implementation of the Mountain Partnership and the Mountain Work Programme of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
