UNU Update: Farming and biodiversity

	UNU Update
	The newsletter of United Nations University and its network of research and training centres and programmes
	HOME \| ARCHIVES \| E-MAIL	Issue 16: May 2002

Farming and biodiversity focus of
fourth PLEC annual meeting

Working with Farmers for the Cultivation of Biodiversity while Improving Livelihoods will be the theme of the fourth general meeting of UN University's Project on People, Land Management and Environmental Change (PLEC) to be held at Columbia University, New York April 23-27.

The meeting is being organised by UNU in coordination with the Columbia University's Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) and the International Program of Biosphere and Society ( IPBS) with support from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Since 1998, PLEC has been part of the GEF work programme with UNU as the executing agency and UNEP as the Implementing Agency. In the last year of GEF/UNEP support, UNU plans to use the final general meeting to present 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.

Through generations of learning, farmers have nurtured diversity of plants and animals, either wild or domesticated, and built up agro-diversity. Throughout the tropics many small farmers continue to develop agro-diverse practices rich in biodiversity, which successfully cope with new challenges and opportunities arising from social and environmental changes.

The role of agro-diversity in conserving biodiversity is demonstrated in a variety of resource management systems that protect local genotypes, cropping and agro-forestry 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 that such techniques and systems reduce land degradation risks, and support local livelihoods.

Since its inception in 1993, the UNU Project on People, Land Management and Environmental Change – a collaborative effort between more than 200 scientists in 40 institutions and many hundreds more innovative farmers from across the developing world – has drawn on these positive experiences to demonstrate that small farmers' knowledge and practice can contribute to curbing biodiversity loss and land degradation while enhancing rural livelihoods.

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