Giorgio Grussu of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat presented the Coalition for Fragile Ecosystems at the 61st Congress of Rotary District 2080 on 25 May 2018 in Santa Teresa di Gallura, Sardinia, Italy. The Coalition for Fragile Ecosystems is a collaboration between the Mountain Partnership and Global Island Partnership that aims to improve the living conditions of rural populations and strengthen local economies by promoting high-quality local products.

 

Over the last six years, the Global Island Partnership has been looking at working more closely with the Mountain Partnership because of the shared interests the two alliances have. The coalition hopes to improve the living conditions of rural populations and strengthen local economies through the improvement of cultivation, production, transformation, promotion and marketing processes.Giorgio Grussu also discussed several initiatives that are currently taking place such as a summer school in Agro-biodiversity and Climate change, to take place at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, as well as a new pilot project concerning food and sustainable tourism, which is to be conducted in the Philippines.

 

The food and sustainable tourism pilot project in the Philippines aims to include value chain improvement, specific training programmes, marketing strategy development as well as implementing the Mountain Partnership Products (MPP) narrative label. In particular, the MPP Initiative has established a voluntary labelling scheme for mountain products to support small mountain producers from developing countries.

 

Rotary is a global network of 1.2 million leaders who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change.

 

Photo credit: Flickr/Destination 2