Abstract:

On 14 December 2022, in New York, the 77th session of the UN General Assembly adopted the Resolution ‘Sustainable Mountain Development’ which was initiated by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic. In reliance on this Resolution, the period of years 2023-2027 has been declared the ‘Five-Year Action Plan for the Development of Mountain Regions’ in the Kyrgyz Republic. Moreover, currently the Kyrgyz Government is in process of updating the "Green Economy" concept which covers all aspects of sustainable social, economic and environment development with focus on mountain regions. In this context, the panel participants with various professional and academic background will gather to address and discuss the issues of significance related to sustainable mountain development. Specifically, the Kyrgyz Republic is a landlocked and mountainous country with 94% of its territory covered by mountains. As a result, when developing national development programs, it is necessary to take into account geographical characteristics of the regions, traditional and cultural mountain heritage, as well in aligning with innovations in information and technologies in the era of digitalization. The first report is about innovative development of small and medium enterprises which run sustainable production systems (non-polluting, conserving of energy and natural resources and economically viable). The next raises the serious issues related to food security and safety of the country due to climate change, political instability, inappropriate sanitary and epidemiological situation, economic and finance shocks and others. The third work is about perspectives of ecosystem services and goods development and management in terms of availability of rich biodiversity and mountain landscapes. The final report presents the importance of issues of the green financial products which allow business and public sector to use energy and resource efficient technologies and to reduce greenhouses emissions. The panel is expected to be enriched with research knowledge and findings and expertise cases and innovations.