The UEMF celebrates International Mountain Day differently
Congresses and conferences
Aware that ecosystems support all forms of life on Earth, the Euromed University of Fez hosted, on March 1, 2024, the work of an international conference under the theme “Restoring mountain ecosystems: case of the Fez region Meknes", organized by itself, its component the Institute of Legal and Political Sciences (ISJP) and the African Network for Sustainable Development (RA2D), in partnership with the Province of Séfrou, the M'Daz Association for Tourism Development (AMDET) and the National Agency for Water and Forests.
Declared by the UN, since 2003, December 11 is International Mountain Day. The celebrations aim each year to raise awareness of the importance of mountains through themes linked to major issues, “Restoring mountain ecosystems” was therefore the theme chosen this year to celebrate this Day. A theme chosen to fully integrate mountains into the “United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030” initiative. An opportunity to converge political support, scientific research and financial resources to significantly intensify restoration activities and prevent the degradation of mountain ecosystems, hence the University's commitment as an institutional and academic partner.
Celebrated over two days, the second edition of this international day took on a new dimension by offering a framework conducive to exchanges and collective reflections bringing together an audience of international experts, researchers in the field and field players gathered during the panels of the conference held the first day of this event.
The interventions and discussions of this conference were organized in the form of three panels around, firstly, the specificity of the mountain ecological problem, the place of the mountain in the problem of sustainable development secondly and to close the day an inventory of research into the protection of mountain ecosystems, thus bringing together the social, economic and political aspects of this problem.
Recommended by the UN, the second day was filmed in the heart of a commune in the province of Sefrou, Tazouta. The day included hiking, a marathon for local children, awareness workshops for participants and exhibitions of local products from cooperatives in the region aimed at strengthening the social and solidarity economy of the region. The ultimate objective of this second day was immersion in a natural context in order to realize the territorial potential of the mountain, which is Tazouta for this edition, but also to find oneself among the natives of the region in order to highlight the mountain problems and to find alternative solutions by being part of an approach which aims to preserve the environment.
Perfectly embodying a significant step forward in raising awareness of the crucial importance of restoring mountain ecosystems, the holding of this second edition of International Mountain Day saw the realization of a success marked by the diversity of activities proposed by the organizers , the quality of the exchanges during the various formal and informal contexts and the relevance of the choice of the conference panels.
