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Thursday March 28, 2024

5th Pakistan Mountain Festival starts on Dec 6

By our correspondents
November 27, 2015
Islamabad: The weeklong 5th Pakistan Mountain Festival (PMF) will commence with the rock wall-climbing in the Margalla Hills and artificial wall at the Ibex Club, Rawal Lake Park, on December 6.
United Nations General Assembly designated December 11 as International Mountain Day. As of 2003, it has been observed every year to create awareness about the importance of mountains to life, to highlight the opportunities and constraints in mountain development and to build alliances that will bring positive change to mountain peoples and environments around the world.
While speaking to 'The News' here on Thursday, PMF Festival Director and Executive Director of Devcom-Pakistan Munir Ahmed informed that Pakistan Mountain Festival is an annual event founded by the Development Communications Network (Devcom-Pakistan) to commemorate the UN International Mountain Day that is celebrated on December 11, every year. The core partners of the 5th Pakistan Mountain Festival will be Capital Development Authority (CDA), GLOF and Mountain & Market projects of UNDP and ministry of Climate Change, EvK2CNR, SEED project, Directorate of Central Karakoram National Park, Gilgit-Baltistan Tourism, ICIMOD and Tourism Corporation of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan National Centre for Unesco, The Adventure Club, Ibex Club, NUST, NUML, Bahria University, Fatima Jinnah University, Boy Scouts Association, Girl Guides Association and several other educational institutions and civil society organizations.
The festival director informed that the mountain paintings exhibition is scheduled on Tuesday December 8th , the recently published ‘Central Karakoram National Park Guidebook’ coupled with a seminar ‘Promoting mountain products – a way forward’ will be organised on December 9 (Wednesday). An eco-friendly hiking and Margalla HillsTrail-3 clean-up will be organised in the morning of December 13 (Sunday). The three-day exhibition of mountain products and cultural performances will take place at the Art & Craft Village from December 11 to 13. Promoting Mountain Products is the theme chosen for this year’s celebration of International Mountain Day. Globalization offers opportunities for mountain producers to market their high quality mountain products, such as coffee, cocoa, honey, herbs, spices and handicrafts at the national, regional and international levels. Though mountain agriculture cannot compete with the prices and volumes of lowland production, it can concentrate on high value, high quality products to boost local economies.
Tourism-related services such as skiing, climbing, cultural heritage or nature trails that allow visitors to discover unique biodiversity are also some of the offerings provided by mountains and mountain communities. If sustainably managed, tourism can provide an opportunity for development in mountain regions.