Less than a year ago, what began as a promising dialogue between the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES) has grown into a strategic partnership built on shared ambition, scientific priorities, and broader cooperation.
The bioeconomy – defined by the World Economic Forum as “the use of renewable biological resources to produce food, energy and industrial goods, which supports sustainability” – was the thematic focus of a major conference which took place in Kunming, China, earlier this year.
Held from 24–28 September, 2025, at the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Yunnan Province, south-western China, the fourth edition of the Mountain Futures Conference was entitled “Inclusive Bioeconomy: Mountain-Based Pathways for Nature-Positive and Climate-Resilient Futures.” Nearly 200 participants – comprising scientists, policymakers, private-sector representatives, and mountain community practitioners – from over 30 countries attended this year’s conference.
Guided by the overarching mandate of the Mountain Futures Initiative – to foster local innovations for resilient livelihoods in mountain regions worldwide – the Mountain Futures Conferences are yearly recurring events that bring together experts and stakeholders to share knowledge and innovations for ecosystem restoration, rural revitalisation, and sustainable mountain development.
The 2025 Mountain Futures Conference was organised on four thematic areas: (i) Indigenous wisdom and ecological pluralism, (ii) Scientific exploration and new quality productive, (iii) Ecological restoration and climate resilience, and (iv) Future living and green trade. The selection of these themes is underscored by the understanding of inclusive bioeconomy as a development model that integrates the traditional use of biological resources with scientific innovations.
As a a co-organiser of the event, ICIMOD facilitated the participation of a delegation of technical experts, academics, and private-sector representatives from Bangladesh, China, India, and Nepal, at this year’s conference.
Yunnan Province: A hub of emerging bioeconomy models
ICIMOD facilitated exposure visits for the delegates to a number of innovative enterprises and research centres in Yunnan Province, including: a mushroom cultivation farm in Huaning County, the Centre for Mountain Futures in Honghe County, and the Flower Research Institute, National Potato Introduction and Talent Demonstration Base, and Incubation Center for Sci-tech Achievements of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS).
Reflecting on the experience from these visits, Su Yufang, the Head of ICIMOD’s Living Mountain Lab (LML) in Nepal, said: “ Witnessing Yunnan’s technological innovations and successful models in person was a crucial first step in stimulating dialogues, building a regional network and opening pathways for sustained knowledge exchange on bioeconomy, climate resilience and sustainable mountain development across the HKH.”
The Huaning County mushroom cultivation farm – an endeavour led by women, both in its governance and management – demonstrated an inclusive community-led circular economy model of agricultural waste management, creating local employment opportunities and income. A visit to the jasmine tea factory at the Centre for Mountain Futures helped the team understand the taxonomy of managing an industrial bioeconomy supply chain starting with eco-friendly production to quality-controlled processing to efficient logistics, branding and marketing. The visit to a large-scale photovoltaic (PV) facility in Honghe Prefecture revealed the praxis and importance of energy independence for the climate resilience of remote mountain communities.
From local to regional: What are the chances of amplifying the existing prototypes?
The delegation team reflected on the insights from the exposure visits during a focused workshop, deliberating on the possibilities of leveraging the bioeconomy for building climate resilience and enabling sustainable mountain development in the region. The participants identified and brainstormed three dimensions, crucial for fostering regional collaboration:
- Exploring opportunities for South-South cooperation on the shared ecological and socio-economic challenges unique to the HKH region
- Synergistic solutions that can enable intersectoral technology and renewable biological resource exchange for producing food, energy and industrial goods, sustainably; improve socio-economic efficiency and resilience; and facilitate ecosystems regeneration
- Modalities of intra- and inter-regional transfer of local solutions(technology/ knowledge), such as expert exchanges, joint technology testing, regional training programmes, and shared knowledge platforms.
At the heart of these discussions was ICIMOD’s Living Mountain Lab (LML), providing the guiding vision for building a regional network of demonstration and training sites across the HKH, aimed at fostering innovation and practical learning.
In this context, Anu Joshi Shrestha, ICIMOD’s specialist on rural enterprise and value chain development, highlighted the institute’s unique position as a regional convener to drive knowledge and technology transfer across the HKH – “ Through the Green, Inclusive, and Resilient Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (GIREE) Alliance, under our Himalayan Resilience Enabling Action Programme (HI-REAP) funded by United Kingdom International Development, we are building a hub-and-spoke model of technology transfer. This model is anchored at ICIMOD’s LML in the Godavari Municipality of Nepal. LML serves as a hub for demonstration trials, while the country chapters form the spokes. By fostering innovation, incubation, investment, and inclusion, we aim to scale bioeconomy-based value chains that generate high-value products benefiting people and planet, and boosting profit.
‘Forging alliances’ is the key to replication and scaling up
Based on the discussions from the workshop, ICIMOD convened a parallel session on the theme of ‘Future living and green trade’ at the Mountain Futures Conference, with a focus on sustainable resource use, ecological conservation, and green innovation. Panellists included private-sector representatives and other diverse specialists, showcasing practical examples from different countries. The participants and panellists explored the potential of collaborative pathways such as joint research, capacity building, and policy coordination towards advancing the development of high-value bio-products, clean energy applications, and climate-resilient transformations.
A key takeway from the 2025 Mountain Futures Conference is that the HKH region has no dearth of local bioeconomic solutions for climate resilience and sustainable development, but what it needs now is to “forge connections” for strategically linking these solutions with key talents, sound policies, and targeted investments in order to amplify them at a regional level.
Pema Gyamtsho, Director General of ICIMOD, reiterated this urgency for building strategic collaborations in his opening address at the Conference: “Let us use this conference not only to share ideas but to forge alliances. Let us commit to concrete actions that will empower mountain communities, protect our precious ecosystems, and build an inclusive bioeconomy that ensures prosperity for both people and planet.”
Xu Jianchu, the Conference convenor from the Kunming Institute of Botany, CAS, said in his opening remarks: "This conference has not merely created a platform but has forged a dynamic new arena for global dialogue on the future of our mountains. It powerfully showcases China's proven pathways in mountain ecological preservation and green development, delivering scalable models for mountain regions around the globe.”
Among the major outcomes of this year’s Mountain Future’s Conference is the launch of the Global Montane Bioeconomy Framework, a guiding document for building sustainable development pathways in critical mountain regions worldwide. With the explicit recognition of pathways like eco-tourism and fair trade of medicinal plants, this framework not only closely aligns with ICIMOD and its member states’ long-term mandate for sustainable development of the HKH mountain regions, but also garners stronger international endorsement and opens new avenues of cooperation towards fulfilling this mandate.
