I joined the conference from the date of 23^rd November. It was my first international conference and I could learn very much from this experience. Experiencing the negotiations and processes up close, it helped me a lot in order to understand the interaction among the UN-bodies and the democratically system applied at the Convention. And I was delighted about the friendly and charismatic atmosphere that was expressed by all COP participants. People from all around the world – countries I have never heard of – presented their traditional clothes and were not too shy to ask questions and to get involved.

I was especially fond of negotiations and followed “Working Group 1” throughout accomplishing their agenda during the second week of the COP. One of their aims was defining guidelines on digital sequence information on genetic resources. A contact group was established which met throughout the meeting. This contact group always filled the rows of seats with its participants and you could sense this sweet bitter tasting atmosphere that arose during negotiations inside the room, as every participating party was very much in the mood for discussions as the topic was very sensitive and highly important to some of the countries. I noticed ties between parties during my visits and could observe the same parties causing trouble by not being willing to withdraw their requests. Still, parties and the chair of the session where extremely polite and I was simply astonished of the democracy that was displayed. Also when a NGO promoting indigenous people was allowed to have a say, their request was supported by a party and then taken into the paper.

Besides following the contact group I choose, I enjoyed checking out side events about the arctic, the ocean and a very critical panel discussion whether the CBD COP may and should even learn from the pathway of the UNFCCC.

I have seen the reason why my study program pressures students to hold tons of presentations and how people try and use these conferences for networking in every corner. Still, I wish there were more students participating and also more offers for youth engagement.

Overall I want to emphasize that visiting a UN conference is a highly personal contribution and I would even go so far to claim that some people might feel as a different person afterwards, a person part of a big, heterogeneous community working for the same vision.

I want to thank GCE, Bayceer and the ENB to have made this visit possible for me.

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“Agroecology is a key tool in the transition to sustainable food.”

FAO

“The future of agriculture is not input-intensive but knowledge-intensive. We need the integrated approach that agroecology can offer.”

José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General

On November 25^th, 2018, Agriculture Day was celebrated at the United Nation Conference on Biodiversity COP-14 in Sharm El Sheikh. Under theme of Agriculture Day various sessions were organized and one such session was about ‘Agro-ecological approaches and biodiversity-friendly practices to increase productivity ‘. The session was moderated by Emile Frison from IPES-Food and included panelists from Government of France and Bolivia, Friends of the Earth International, Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) and Forest Peoples Program (FPP). The session began with panel members presenting initiatives taken by their respective governments and organizations. Mr. Jean Lanotte, from the Government of France (Ministère de l’agriculture et de l’alimentation) highlighted his government’s agroecology policy which aims at reducing use of pesticides, promoting agroforestry and organic agriculture, conducting training of farmers and building an Agriculture Observatory of Biodiversity. Georgina Catacora-Vargas from Government of Bolivia said her country has regulatory framework on agroecology since 2006 and current focus is on education and the inclusion of the tourism sector for the adaptation of the agroecology law. Other panel members mainly from civil society organisations emphasized on connecting agriculture to local culture and moving political systems from large agricultural systems and investing more in agroecology.

“Agroecology offers a unique approach to meeting the needs of future generations while ensuring no one is left behind.”

FAO

From the presentations, reports and facts presented during this session, I learned that agroecological approaches are bottom-up and territorial processes, that can deliver contextualized solutions to local problems. Agroecological systems works on maximizing synergies between different components (soil, water, plants, animals, livestock’s, trees, human resource) of agriculture for achieving greater resource use efficiency and resilience. The knowledge of agroecology can transform food and agricultural systems, addressing the root causes of problems in an integrated way and providing holistic and long-term solutions. For instance, the farmers in Netherlands have developed a mechanism of exchanging their live stock produce for green manure. The grass/clover mixture is sheared several times a year by a local organic livestock farmer in exchange for the manure. Moreover, these farmers do not use pesticides, ploughing is done with a special eco-plough and weed management is done by use of machinery only in the early stages of crop growth. The growing innovations in agroecology are useful in conservation of above and below ground biodiversity. Agriculture is clearly a crucial sector to achieve the sustainable use and the conservation of biological diversity and agroecological approaches are therefore critical in implementation of post 2020 framework.

References:

• Dalgaard, Tommy, and Nicholas Hutchings, John Porter. “Agroecology, Scaling and Interdisciplinarity.” Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment 100(2003): 39-51.
• Rio Convention Bulletin 26 November 2018 Vol. 200 No. 47
• FAO’s work on Agroecology A pathway to achieve SDGs
• FAO. Agroecology Knowledge Hub. Available at: http://www.fao.org/agroecology/en/

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