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United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) People, Land Management and Environmental Change (PLEC) General Meeting
"Working with Farmers for the Cultivation of Biodiversity while Improving Livelihoods"
Through generations of learning, experiment and innovation on cultivation of biodiversity farmers have nurtured diversity of plants and animals, either wild or domesticated, and built up agrodiversity - "the diverse and dynamic ways in which farmers use the natural diversity of the environment for production, including not only their choice of crops but also their management of land, water and biota as a whole". Throughout the tropics many small farmers continue to develop agrodiverse practices rich in biodiversity, which successfully cope with new challenges and opportunities arising from social and environmental changes. The role of agrodiversity in conserving biodiversity is demonstrated a variety of resource management systems that protect local genotypes, cropping and agroforestry practices and forest ecologies. Evidence is accumulating that not only is there a wealth of good practice in many previously-overlooked local techniques and systems for biodiversity conservation, but also such techniques and systems reduce land degradation risks, and support local livelihoods. Since its inception in 1993, the United Nations University Project on People, Land Management and Environmental Change (PLEC) - a collaborative effort between more than 200 scientists in 40 institutions, and many hundreds more innovative farmers from across the developing world - has deliberately drawn on these positive experiences of agrodiversity, and demonstrated that small farmers' knowledge and practice can contribute to curbing biodiversity loss and land degradation while enhancing rural livelihoods. PLEC scientists, like most farmers, are well aware that not all diversity - biological or otherwise - leads to an improvement. Specialization often has been a road to success. But the road of ever-increasing simplicity has been well documented, tested, and promoted by mainstream agronomists, foresters, and the government and private organizations. In recent decades the path of maintaining or increasing diversity in agricultural production has been given little official attention, less encouragement, and far less funding by research and agricultural development institutions. Diversity in production and livelihoods, nevertheless, has been the road chosen by innumerable small farmers. Together with other initiatives, PLEC has worked with this large constituency of farmers. During 1998-2002, PLEC has been part of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) work programme with the United Nations University (UNU) as the Executing Agency and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as the Implementing Agency. In this final year of project implementation under GEF/UNEP support, UNU will organize a final General Meeting of PLEC on "Working with Farmers for the Cultivation of Biodiversity while Improving Livelihoods" in order to summarize, present and exchange the project findings and recommendations, and plan a new phase of PLEC among the participating countries, including Brazil, China, Ghana, Guinea, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Tanzania, Thailand, and Uganda. Venue The Meeting will take place in New York, USA, from 23-27 April 2002 at the Faculty House, Columbia University, with kind cooperation of Columbia University's Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC). Program The four-day meeting will include a press conference, an opening session, sessions of project and cluster presentations, and poster sessions. The presentations will focus on the following five themes: (1) Biodiversity assessment: methods and database; (2) Management diversity and models of biodiversity management; (3) Demonstration sites and activities; (4) Capacity building and networking; and (5) Project impacts and recommendations. The detailed program will be finalized and announced in due course. Participation Participation in the meeting is open to interested individuals and organizations. Due to limited space, advance registration is required before 20 March, through the registration form attached. As it is the project meeting of PLEC, oral presentations will be limited to PLEC participants and by invitation. It is estimated that 60 participants will come from PLEC clusters of 12 participating countries, UNU, UNEP, GEF, and other organizations. Secretariat
UNU/PLEC (Mr. Luohui Liang) |