Highlights for Wednesday, 31 October 2007
James Griffiths, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, chaired a morning session on “Forest resources and biodiversity.”
Andy White, Rights and Resources Initiative, US, presented on forests and good governance. Simone Lovera, Global Forest Coalition and Sobreviviencia, Paraguay, addressed the impacts of market-based biodiversity conservation on indigenous peoples, local communities and women. Manuel Guariguata, CIFOR, discussed measuring and monitoring the flow of forest ecosystem services. Anatoly Petrov, All-Russian Institute of Continuous Education in Forestry, explored forestry issues in Russia. A presentation on local forest governance and the role of community-based forest management was given by Yam Malla, Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific, Thailand.
In the afternoon, Bente Herstad, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), chaired a session on “Biodiversity and food production.”
Angeline Munzara, Community Technology Development Trust, Zimbabwe, discussed agrobiodiversity and food security. Ola Westengen, Global Crop Diversity Trust, talked about safeguarding crop biodiversity for a food-secure future. Corazon de Jesus, Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE), the Philippines, presented on the potential impacts of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food production and agricultural biodiversity. Fabrice DeClerck, Columbia University and Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), Costa Rica, elaborated on integrating biodiversity conservation, ecosystem function and production in agricultural landscapes. Emile Frison, Bioversity International, Italy, focused on biodiversity in relation to nutrition and health.
A panel discussion was held under the theme “Food production, food security and biodiversity,” moderated by Ruth Haug, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.