Promoting innovations in mountain areas – PRIMA

Mountain farming in the dry region of Ladakh, India
Mountain farming in the dry region of Ladakh, India. Photo: Christoph Oberlack


Mountain regions around the world have a unique potential for sustainable development. Unleashing this potential requires cooperation and sharing of information and practical experiences across regions. Yet innovative development approaches frequently remain isolated, considerations regarding potentially successful outscaling are left unshared, and regional and interregional mutual action learning is ever so often neglected.

Sparking out-of-the-box approaches

PRIMA is a project led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and implemented in collaboration with CDE. Its overall goal is to promote collaboration among partners and across mountain regions on innovative approaches that provide mutual benefits and enhance the effectiveness of action towards inclusive sustainable development in mountains. PRIMA aims to spark out-of-the-box thinking, assess novel approaches, and facilitate wider access to and adoption of innovations.

PRIMA’s activities include:

  • Publishing and disseminating evidence-based innovative approaches in the journal Mountain Research and Development (MRD)
  • Facilitating online dialogues among policymakers, scientists, civil-society representatives, private-sector actors, and other practitioners
  • Organizing a Mountain Innovation Fair to promote exchange and collaboration among stakeholders for effective innovation on behalf of sustainable mountain development
  • Selecting one promising approach for application and adaptation in other mountain regions and awarding it a prize