We apologise for our absence from the Website since a little while. The Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research is currently developing and expanding its website to provide additional resources and facilities and to make it easier to use. In addition to the main Platform website and the agrobiodiversity and climate change web space you can now explore two other web spaces dealing with crop diversity to reduce pest and disease damage and a new initiative called the Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty.
Please send us your comments and ideas for further improvements.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Scholarship Programme has been established with the funds received on the occasion of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize award to the IPCC. The first funding partner of the Programme is Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Former Norwegian Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change. The goal of this programme is to help strengthen the scientific and technical capability in developing countries to contribute to climate science and research and to develop and implement climate change policies and measures at the domestic and international level. It aims to provide a sound knowledge base and stimulate institutional strengthening in developing countries. Priorities will include research on climate processes, the impacts of climate change in the most vulnerable regions of the world, the potential for adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable development.
Deadline to apply to the scholarship: 31 July 2010.
A recent study titled “Traditional food crops as a source of community resilience in Zimbabwe” by researchers from Cornell and Rhodes universities and the Sebakwe Black Rhino Conservation Trust found that traditional food crops, such as mubovora (pumpkin) and ipwa (sweet reed), are an important source of community resilience in Zimbabwe—including resilience to climate change and economic turbulence.
Happy World Day to Combat Desertification! This day is observed every year on 17 June. This year, the Day’s slogan is “Enhancing soils anywhere enhances life everywhere“ since 2010 is the International Year dedicated to Biodiversity. To this end, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) aims to sensitize the public to the fact that desertification, land degradation and drought dramatically affect the biodiversity resident in the soil.
There is a close relationship between livelihood and ecosystem wellbeing, and soils that are rich in biodiversity. Healthy soils produce life, and yet soil health depends a lot on how individuals use their land. What we do to our soils determines the quality and quantity of the food we eat and how our ecosystems serve us. Our increasing ecological interdependence also means enhancing soils anywhere enhances life everywhere.
The PAR Statement was made in response to Agenda item 4.1.1 Agricultural Biodiversity: Follow-up to requests of the Conference of the Parties in Decision IX/1. Together with Bioversity International, the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research will continue voicing for follow up to the Review the CBD programme of Work on Agricultural Biodiversity conservation.
Among the 783 entries received in five categories, the entry “Cherub of mountain forest” by Sonam Tashi Lama was judged best overall entry. The winning entries can be viewed here.
The best entries in the thematic categories were:
‘Farming in Manang’ by Sunil Sharma, taken in Manang, Nepal (Mountain Agrobiodiversity);
‘Her own technology’ by Md. Mahbubur Rahman, taken in Bandarban, Bangladesh(Traditional/ Indigenous knowledge Associated with Mountain Biodiversity);
‘Harvest time in the Grandfather Mountains’ by Andrew Scanlon, taken in Koh-e Baba Mountains, Afghanistan (Livelihoods and Ecosystem Services Associated with Mountain Biodiversity);
‘Bio prospectors’ by Kyaw Kyaw Winn, taken in Mon State, Myanmar (Threats to Mountain Biodiversity);
‘A tribal ‘mro’ woman preparing rice’ by Jashim Salam taken in the Banderban Hill Tracts’ Bangladesh (Women and Mountain Biodiversity).
A panel of two judges comprising Mr Alex Treadway and Mr. Jagdish Tiwari selected the winning entries. Alex is a British photographer who has photographed extensively in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya region. His photographs have been published in magazines such as the National Geographic Adventure and Geo Special. Jagdish is a well known Nepali photographer, specialising in mountain landscapes. His photographs have been sold as postcards, posters, and calendars and he has published a book ‘Passing by Nepal’ in collaboration with Soren Lauridsen, a Danish photographer. The judges’ profiles can be read here.
We congratulate the winners and all those who participated in the photo contest to showcase the mountain biodiversity of the region to the world-at-large.
The second round of negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010 will take place from 31 May-11 June, in Bonn, Germany. In preparation for these meetings, the UNFCCC Secretariat has posted, inter alia, the Chair’s text to facilitate negotiations among parties at AWG-LCA 10, which maintains the general structure of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWGLCA) presented to 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) with a combination of thematic decisions and a broad decision covering: a shared vision; provisions on mitigation and finance; and reference to the thematic decisions. The UNFCCC Secretariat has also published theAWG-LCA scenario note (pdf).
Looking ahead toCOP 16, the UNFCCC Secretariat has published a note by the Executive Secretary on arrangements for intergovernmental meetings. This document addresses three main topics: COP 16 and the sixth session of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 6); future sessional periods; and organization of the intergovernmental process. Under the fi rst item, information on the sessions is provided, including an organizational scenario and possible elements of the provisional agendas. Regarding future sessional periods, the document addresses arrangements for additional sessions of the Ad Hoc Working Groups in 2010, as well as preparations for COP 17 and COP/MOP 7. Guidance by the Subsidiary Body for Implementation is also invited regarding the dates for the four regular sessional periods in 2014 and 2015.
On the organization of the intergovernmental process, the document focuses on engagement of observer organizations. This documentwill be considered by the 32nd session of the SBI, which will convene from 31 May-9 June 2010, in Bonn as well.
The text to facilitate negotiations among Parties prepared by the Chair of the AWG-LCA and the scenario note by the Chair on the tenth session of the AWG-LCA are now available. The documentation to facilitate negotiations among Parties prepared by the Chair of the AWG-KP is available here.
“Land Day” is a forum for engaging policy makers on the cause pursued by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It is a one-day event, held in close proximity but parallel to a particular intergovernmental or multilateral environmental meeting of relevance to this cause.
1. To increase understanding among SB32 participants of the links between unsustainable use of land on the one hand, and worsening climate change on the other, so that land and soil are recognized and incorporated as important factors in adaptation and mitigation measures, especially at COP16 of the UNFCCC in Mexico and thereafter;
2. To demonstrate the redoubled commitment of the three Rio Convention secretariats to strengthen and tighten their cooperation through synergetic implementation of their respective action programmes – the NAPAs, NAPS and NBSAPs – at country level;
3. To reinvigorate the commitment made by countries for the implementation of the 2007 Bali Action Plan (BAP) as the main vehicle for generating concrete recommendations, supported by concrete examples and evidence, on food security, land and water management for the drylands, these being indispensable elements of the global climate change adaptation agenda.
It is now become clear that, for poor people, climate change adaptation approaches based on local knowledge and strategies are bound to be more successful than top-down initiatives. Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) – formerly PLA Notes and RRA Notes – is published twice a year. This special issue of PLA, titled Participatory Learning and Action 60. Community-based adaptation to climate change, was produced in collaboration with IIED’s Climate Change Group.
The articles in this issue on participatory learning and action focus on the recent approaches to adaptation to climate change utilizing the priorities, knowledge and capacities of local people. Community-based adaptation (CBA) draws on participatory approaches and methods developed in both disaster risk reduction and community development work and sectoral-specific approaches.
The issue describes how community-based approaches to climate change have emerged, and the similarities and differences between the relatively new field of CBA and other participatory development and disaster risk reduction approaches.The issue observes that shifts have occurred in the scope and focus of participation with emphasis on sub-national, national and international decision making downplaying local decision-making. The emphasis now leans to policy processes and institutionalisation, issues of difference and power, assessing the quality and understanding the impact of participation, rather than promoting participation. Participatory Learning and Action reflects these developments and recognises the importance of analysing and overcoming power differentials which work to exclude the marginalised. Read more and/or download the Full text of document.
In response to requests from FAO colleagues in the field, Climate, Energy and Tenure Division (NRC), the Office of Knowledge Exchange, Research and Extension (OEK) and the Land and Water Division (NRL) are organising an event titled “FAO Climate Change Days – Share and Learn” from 21 – 23 June in Rome at FAO Headquarters. This will be an opportunity for the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research to take part to share and learn.
In response to requests from FAO colleagues in the field, Climate, Energy and Tenure Division (NRC), the Office of Knowledge Exchange, Research and Extension (OEK) and the Land and Water Division (NRL) are organising an event titled “FAO Climate Change Days – Share and Learn“.
The purpose of the event is to offer FAO staff, project personnel and national counterparts/ representatives in regional, sub-regional and country offices working on field projects with climate change aspects the opportunity to meet, share their experiences and learn new skills from each other that can improve the effectiveness of field work efforts. At the same time, it is an opportunity for colleagues from headquarters and field offices to interact and explore linkages between FAO’s normative work and field activities.
The aim of the Climate Change Days is enhanced connections, co-operation and networking among professionals working on climate change issues, be they in the field assigned to projects, in regional offices or at Headquarters. They hope to improve the capacities of the participants through both thematic sessions where participants will share their experiences and targeted learning sessions on specific themes, methods and tools.
Building on the successful experience of the Share Fair in 2009, two and a half days have been programmed sessions leaving the last afternoon reserved for individual meetings between participants.
The event will be held in English. If you have any further questions, you are very welcome to contact the event focal points on climate-change [at] fao.org. Please monitor this site for continuous updates prior to and during the event.
Dear readers,
