Mountain Biodiversity Day 2021 – biodiversity and pandemic

Abstract

On 13 January 2021, the French Ministry of the Environment in cooperation with ALPARC, UNEP and the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention organized the virtual Mountain Biodiversity Day. The event gathered together experts in the field of mountain biodiversity and political representatives from mountain regions all over the world in order to stress the importance of mountain biodiversity within the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, especially in the context of the on-going pandemic and discussions on building back better. The Alpine session of the event, introduced by Guido Plassmann, was moderated by Chris Walzer and focused on the link between biodiversity and zoonoses – a major challenge for environmental policies worldwide. The topic is developed by the short text which follows.