SAMC25 an enabling environment for a growing Community of Practice for (southern) African mountains

The 2nd Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2025) “Overcoming boundaries and barriers co-organised by GLOMOS” – co-organised by GLOMOS at the foothills of the wonderful Maloti Drakensberge mountains – represents a key activity for the United Nations’ Five Years of Action for the Development of Mountain Regions (2023–2027). Through high-level representation – at Ambassadorial, Vice-Chancellor, SADC Secretariat, UNESCO, Royal House, Alpine Convention, International Mountain Conference, and United Nations (Mountain Partnership) scale – SAMC2025 has become an accelerator for stronger representation of African mountains at global scale.

SAMC2025 was attended by 313 delegates from 22 countries including 10 African countries. SAMC2025 created an enabling environment for stronger transboundary mountain co-operation from local to Southern African Development Community (SADC) scale. The conference enabled conversations for bridging traditional and elected governance systems for mountains, bridging disciplines for sustainable mountain futures, and bridging science, policy and practitioner sectors. GLOMOS’ various inputs contributed particularly to the discussions on climate-related disaster risk management, respective early warning systems and cross-border environmental problems.

Particular attention received the special session about the potential for an international agreement for southern African mountain regions, drawing on Eurac Research’s expertise with the Alpine and Carpathian Conventions, chaired by Stefan Schneiderbauer (GLOMOS) and Raphael Lelouvier (Alpine Convention). This event offered the chance to exchange experiences about constraints and benefits from various types of governance mechanisms and discuss their potential within the specific southern African context. It resulted in a proposal to proceed with a possible SADC Mountain Treaty/Convention supporting the Southern African states in their effort dealing with environmental protection, sustainable development, and biodiversity conservation.

👉 Official SAMC2025 website