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Tropical Forest Research Network |
NEW NAME FOR ICRAF: WORLD AGROFORESTRY CENTRE
Dear Partners, Friends and Colleagues,
ICRAF is pleased and excited to announce that we are adopting a new brand name – World Agroforestry Centre. We are very proud of ICRAF's rich history of accomplishment, but we are also aware that our acronym communicates little about our organization to those who do not already know our work. As we look to the future, we need to foster a more immediate recognition of our focus on agroforestry, ultimately allowing us to reach more people, more effectively. Hence this change. Along with the brand change, we have adopted a new logo and distilled the intended impact of our work into a simple four-word tagline: Transforming Lives and Landscapes.
Our legal name has not changed. While we are adopting a new brand name, all of our existing and future contracts and other legal and governmental documents will continue to refer to the Centre as "ICRAF" and/or feature our full name. We will not be using the acronym WAC for any purpose.
Our mission, vision, values, and core strategies also remain unchanged. The World Agroforestry Centre is the international leader in agroforestry – the science and practice of integrating "working trees" on smallholder farms. Agroforestry is an effective and innovative means to reduce poverty, create food security, and improve the environment. The Centre and its many partners provide improved, high quality tree germplasm, as well as the knowledge needed to use them effectively.
At the heart of our Centre is our passion for creating better choices for future generations and our belief that we have a responsibility to constantly learn and share relevant information to help people improve their lives and their environment. Our approach is deeply rooted in a dedication to top-quality research that results in innovative science, giving us a rich understanding of needs and of solutions, from the village scale to the global level.
We look forward to our efforts with you to attack poverty, hunger, and environmental degradation through agroforestry.
Sincerely,
Dennis P. Garrity
Director General
United Nations
Avenue, Gigiri, PO Box 30677-00100 Nairobi, Kenya
Ph: 254 2 524000 or 1 650 833 6645
Fax: 254 2 524001 or 1 650 833 6646
Email: icraf@cgiar.org
http://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org
CHANGES
AT THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL FORESTRY RESEARCH (CIFOR)
Extract from special Polex message
Some things are changing at CIFOR; others remain the same. We are now working harder to show the important role that forests can play in addressing the challenges of poverty, poor health, violence, corruption, and environmental destruction. We are devoting more attention to communications and becoming more systematic about achieving impact.
At the same time, CIFOR remains a "center without walls", which emphasizes networking, capacity building, and strong partnerships. Our vision of multidisciplinary research that brings together silviculture, ecology, social sciences and other disciplines continues to inspire everything we do. We still stand for rigorous and objective analysis and for promoting constructive and informed dialogue between industry groups, private companies, government agencies, NGOs, and local communities.
Our Board of Trustees recently approved a new program structure whereby we will have only three programs instead of six. These programs will be: Forests and Livelihoods, Environmental Services and Sustainable Use of Forests, and Forest Governance. The new structure will not significantly change the content of our research, but it should make our operations more efficient and give our partners a better sense of what we are about.
CIFOR-POLEX messages can be found at the CIFOR website: http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/
CIFOR's FOREST POLICY EXPERTS (POLEX) LISTSERVE
Forest Policy Experts (POLEX) is an electronic list serve managed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Bogor, Indonesia. Its objective is to keep key opinion leaders in the area of forestry policy informed about recent relevant policy research results by CIFOR and others. The list forms part of CIFOR's program on the 'causes of deforestation, forest degradation, and changes in human welfare in forested areas'. Although CIFOR sponsors the list, the content of the messages sent out reflects only the views of the authors of the original research and the list manager. They are not the official views of CIFOR as an institution.
Because we know you are very busy, we only send two messages per month. Each message includes a 500 word summary of some recent research document with information on how to obtain the document and contact its author. We do not generally post announcements about events, job opportunities, or institutional issues. We try to maintain a balance with regard to geographical region and topic covered. We give particular emphasis to how policies and trends outside the forest sector affect forests and the people who depend on them. This is not a discussion list, as such. It is a channel for keeping you informed about policy research by CIFOR and others. Often interesting dialogues develop directly between list members and the authors of the documents discussed. However, we do not generally post those dialogues.
We are very interested in your feedback regarding the list serve itself and your suggestions with regard to what documents we should promote. Please send them to: David Kaimowitz at d.kaimowitz@cgiar.org. Anyone wanting to subscribe to the list should also contact David Kaimowitz.
Previous
CIFOR-POLEX messages can be found at the CIFOR website: http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/
If you would like to receive CIFOR-POLEX in English, Spanish, French, Bahasa
Indonesia, or Nihon-go (Japanese), send a message to Ambar Liano at a.liano@cgiar.org
FOREST
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES: CAN THEY PAY OUR WAY OUT OF DEFORESTATION?
Polex Message 3 July 2002
Forests provide huge benefits. Besides supplying wood and other products,they store a vast amount of genetic information, regulate the climate and the flow of water, protect and enrich soils, control pests and diseases, pollinate useful plants and disperse their seeds, safeguard water quality, offer beautiful landscapes, and enrich us spiritually.Forests can also create significant costs. Each hectare of forest is one less hectare farmers can use for crops or livestock. Forest animals can become pests. Forests compete with other activities for water. Many people believe economic techniques can tell us when the benefits of forests outweigh the costs and which forest to clear and which to protect. These same people also frequently assume such studies will prove it is better to protect most forest and that once policymakers realize that the forests will be conserved as a result.
Robert Nasi and Sven Wunder of CIFOR and Jose Joaquin Campos from CATIE are not fully convinced. In "Forest Ecosystem Services: Can They Pay Our Way Out of Deforestation?" they argue that in many cases we still know so little about the specific services forests provide that attempting to assess their value in a particular location would take us into the realm of science fiction. They point out that different economic valuation techniques often generate quite distinct results. They also note that such techniques cannot really address the large-scale or long-term consequences of forest loss or the distributional issues concerning who loses and who gains.
In any case, figuring out how much a forest is worth is not enough. To conserve them, someone has to give the people that want to clear forests a real incentive not to do so. That will often require paying them, either because they effectively control the forestland or because they have political influence. Creating protected areas and eliminating perverse policies that encourage people to clear forests are important, but they can only go so far.
Valuation efforts can contribute most by determining how much one would have to pay different groups to get them to maintain land under forest. That is more relevant than trying to come up with some theoretical figure about the forest's "value". Schemes to pay for environmental services should focus on those forests that are under threat but where small payments would be sufficient to keep them from being destroyed.
Of course, it is nice for policymakers to see the value of forests. But for most people who would like to clear those forests the bottom line is "show me the money". Good research can contribute a lot to figuring out how to do that.
To request
free electronic copies of Nasi and Wunder's paper you can write to Levania
Santoso at: l.santoso@cgiar.org
To send comments or queries to the author write Robert Nasi at: r.nasi@cgiar.org
ECOSECURITIES
FINALISES FOUR STUDIES ON CARBON TRADING AND THE CDM, FUNDED BY THE UK GOVERNMENT
EcoSecurities Group, News Release – October 2002
Determination of baselines and monitoring protocols for non-LUCF projects - by Pedro Moura Costa, Jessica Troni, Veronique Bovee, and Justin Guest, written for the UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The study analyses the existing requirements and guidance provided by the Marrakech Accords, and provides a decision tree to help guide project developers and regulatory agencies through the process of developing baselines for GHG (green house gas) mitigation projects in the energy sector.
Simplified Modalities and Procedures for Small Scale Projects in the CDM – by Pedro Moura Costa, Jessica Troni, Jan-Willem Martens and Belinda Kinkead, written for the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the study summarises the official text on small scale projects and analyses the impact of these policies on a wide range of energy projects.
Laying the Foundations for Clean Development: Preparing the Land Use Sector. A quick guide to the Clean Development Mechanism – by Louise Aukland, Pedro Moura Costa, Stephen Bass, Saleemul Huq, Natasha Landell-Mills, Richard Tipper, and Rebecca Carr, written for the UK Department for International Development (DFID). This booklet summarises the steps required for the development of sustainable land use CDM projects, as well as the policies required to address the needs of Host Countries. More information can also be found in the website www.cdmcapacity.org. Versions in Spanish, French and Portuguese will also be available soon in EcoSecurities' website. This booklet complements a previous publication by EcoSecurities and partners, called Rural Livelihoods and Carbon Management (by Stephen Bass, Olivier Dubois, Pedro Moura-Costa, Michelle Pinard, Richard Tipper and Charlie Wilson), also available at EcoSecurities' website.
Moving towards Emissions Neutral Development (MEND) – by Jessica Troni, Pedro Moura Costa, Nasim Haque, Humberto Rodriguez, Ash Sharma, Martin Hession, Sarah Agbey, Lalith Gunaratne and Youba Sokona, written for the UK Department for International Development (DfID). This report summarizes the findings of a 2-year long research project carried out in collaboration with partners in four developing countries: Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana and Sri Lanka, as well as with Imperial College of London and ESD. The objectives of the project were to: examine the developmental potential of the CDM; to investigate strategies to encourage CDM investment flows in small to medium developing countries; and to suggest ways that donors could get involved in capacity building to facilitate the participation of these developing countries in the CDM. Find more information about the project in http://www.ecosecurities.com/mend/index.html.
All these reports can be downloaded free of charge from the publications section of http://www.ecosecurities.com.
For more
information on EcoSecurities, please contact:
Louise Aukland/Belinda Kinkead
EDGE Forestry Coordinator
Tel. +44 (0)1865 202635
Fax. +44 (0)1865 251438
louise@ecosecurities.com
Belinda@ecosecurities.com
FUELWOOD ISSUES PAPERS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOADING FROM ODI FOREST POLICY AND ENVIRONMENT GROUP WEBSITE
We are very pleased to announce that we have now put the next collection of fuelwood papers from our (unpublished) Grey Literature on to the website. This batch of papers is available NOW for downloading in pdf format at:http://www.odifpeg.org.uk/publications/greyliterature/fuelwood/index.html
Should you encounter any technical difficulties downloading these papers, please contact us at: forestry@odi.org.uk
We very
much hope that you enjoy reading these papers – your comments are always
welcome.
Vicky Pett, RDFN Administrator
SYMFOR: SOFTWARE FOR SUSTAINABLE TIMBER YIELD REGULATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS
SYMFOR is a software tool developed by the University of Edinburgh, supported by the Forestry Research Programme (FRP) of the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID). It is designed to be used for the sustainable timber yield regulation for tropical forests and is currently being applied in Indonesia, Brazil, Guyana and Ecuador.
The latest issue of the SYMFOR newsletter is now available from http://www.symfor.org/newsletter/issue6.pdf (240KB), or may be requested by email to info@symfor.org.
The newsletter covers project activities from January to July 2002 including
Stefanie
Halfmann
Project Administrator
FRP-DFID Project R6915
Email:stefanie.halfmann@ed.ac.uk
FERN REPORT CONCLUDES: EC AID MISSES FOREST LINK
Research published by FERN last month reveals that EC aid programming is failing to help people in developing countries who depend on forests for their survival. The findings undermine the claim that the EC Development Policy, revised in 2000, integrates the environment into all focal areas as promised by the European Commission. The research, published in Forests at the Edge: A review of EC aid spending, is based on investigations into 16 Country Strategy Papers and two Regional Strategy Papers, the official documents that say how EC aid will be spent. The report is the first result of the EC Forest Platform, a FERN initiative that links peoples in the South and the EU on aid and forest issues. All of the 16 countries investigated include large areas of forest, yet none of the Country Strategy Papers offers a thorough analysis of how poor people depend on forests for food, fuel, materials and medicines. Almost no money is allocated to forests or forest peoples.
FERN also found that:
"If what is happening in these countries is typical of the wider picture then EC aid is probably making conditions worse for people who depend on forests," said Bérénice Muraille, FERN's aid programme campaigner. "We were told that the environment was going to be prioritised across the whole of the aid programme. It' s now clear that it has fallen off the agenda almost completely. The European Commission needs make urgent changes to the way that aid is allocated and needs to grasp the idea that millions of people rely on forests for their most basic needs." Forests at the Edge includes a series of detailed recommendations for the European Commission. A summary of the report and the main report itself are available as PDFs at http://www.fern.org.
Berenice
Muraille
Forest Policy Officer, FERN
Avenue des Celtes, 20
1040 Bruxelles, Belgium
Tel: +32 2 7333653 - Fax:+ 32 2 7368054
berenice@fern.org - http://www.fern.org
FERN jointly with the Forest Peoples Programme, acts as the Northern Office
of the World Rainforest Movement http://www.wrm.org.uy
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RURAL LIVELIHOODS, FORESTS AND BIODIVERSITY 26-30 MAY 2003, BONN, GERMANY
An international conference on the role of forests in supporting rural livelihoods in developing countries and on the maintenance of biodiversity. Key objectives are to survey current knowledge and identify policy lessons and a future research strategy.
Organizers
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in collaboration with
Germany's Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the German
Foundation for International Development (DSE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
The problem
Hundreds of millions of rural people depend on forests. Forests provide a
wide variety of goods for use in the household or to sell for cash income.
Examples are timber, fuelwood, charcoal, rattan, game, fruit, medicinal herbs
and many other products. Forests are often particularly important to the poor,
providing them with a "safety net", which is to say, a source of
emergency sustenance during times of hardship, when crops have failed, when
an economic crisis has hit, when war or conflict have broken out, or when
floods have washed away homes. Yet forests are under great threat, especially
in developing countries. Clearing forests, either to make way for farmland
or to exploit timber, may provide some economic benefits, but deforestation
and forest degradation frequently undermine the ability of rural people to
make a living and to subsist during hard times. At the same time, forest loss
threatens biodiversity and the environmental services which forests provide.
The objectives of the conference are:
Key
questions
This conference will address four fundamental questions:
In assessing whether forests can prevent or alleviate poverty, there are grounds for both optimism and pessimism. Take, first, the grounds for optimism. Many countries are undergoing profound political changes, with governments ceding power and responsibility to local and district authorities. In some countries decentralization is giving local people greater access to forests and a greater say in how they are used.
The trend towards greater democracy in many developing countries may well increase the bargaining power of communities and local organisations. In the past, power has often been firmly vested with large enterprises and state-owned companies. This may now be changing, to the benefit of both forests and local communities.
There has been a massive redistribution of forest resources in recent years. Rural communities and small holders now own approximately a fifth of the world's forests. This is obviously a good thing: rural people should receive a larger share of forest resources. And security of tenure, if it is obtained, improves the chances of good forest management.
The abuse of natural resources is often exacerbated by corruption. Furthermore, the poor are especially vulnerable to exploitation by corrupt forces. Fortunately, campaigns against corruption are calling to account governments, businesses and international institutions. This should be to the benefit of the poor and to the forest resources on which they depend.
In many countries logging companies over-harvest the resource to such an extent that they do not bother to renew their concessions. This can provide an opportunity for forest communities, providing they gain access to the abandoned resources and the rights to exploit them in a sustainable manner.
The growing threat posed by global warming may work in favour of poor people living in forest areas. The Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol may eventually provide means through which communities in developing countries can be paid to conserve their forests and 'lock up' carbon. The carbon trade between polluting businesses in the North and forest communities in the South will become increasingly important in the future.
There are, however, grounds for pessimism too. Timber harvesting and commercialization may often require amounts of capital that exclude the poorest from participation. Timber also requires a long time to mature and this mitigates against the involvement of the poor, who need to generate income in the immediate, not the distant, future.
In most developing countries it is clear that people in positions of power and those blessed with great wealth and good contacts, tend to appropriate high value resources such as precious timbers. Inevitably, the poor lose out.
The process of decentralization is helping some communities gain access to the forests, but in some countries it has also had a negative impact on the forests and on the poorer members of rural communities. In Indonesia, for example, decentralization has tended to speed up forest destruction and it has done little to increase the bargaining power of local people.
Forests provide many important environmental services whose value is hard to measure in economic terms. For this and other reasons, forest-dwellers are rarely compensated for ensuring that the forests provide environmental services which benefit society as a whole.
Output
A book will be published including selected papers and synthesis chapters.
A web site will be established to post all papers and to encourage dialogue
before and after the conference.
Participation
Approximately 120 participants are expected. Limited funds are available to
support the participation of developing country presenters.
Format
The conference will consist of keynote speeches on the opening day, two and
a half days of presentations and discussions in parallel sessions and a one-day
field trip.
Contact
If you have questions or comments, please contact:
William Sunderlin
Center for International Forestry Research
P.O. Box 6596 JKPWB, Jakarta 10065, Indonesia
Tel.: 251-622-622, Fax: 251-622-100,
Email: w.sunderlin@cgiar.org
1ST
WORLD CONGRESS OF AGROFORESTRY
Working Together for Sustainable Land-use Systems
27 June - 02 July 2004 Orlando, Florida, USA
Background
Agroforestry began to attain prominence in the late 1970s, when the international
scientific community realized its potentials in the tropics and recognized
it as a practice in search of science. During the 1990s, the relevance of
agroforestry for solving problems related to deterioration of family farms,
increased soil erosion, surface and ground water pollution, and decreased
biodiversity was recognized in the industrialized nations too. Thus, agroforestry
is now receiving increasing attention as a sustainable land-management option
the world over because of its ecological, economic, and social attributes.
Agroforestry research and development are, however, at a crossroads today. The potential of the practices has been amply illustrated, but the investment in a science base has not reached a level that can meet the demand for technology delivery. It is time, therefore, to evaluate progress, assess available options, and design strategies for the future.
Program
The overall Congress theme is "Working Together for Sustainable Land-use
Systems." Plenary, concurrent, and poster sessions will be organized
around five major topics:
Who
Should Attend
Academicians, Development Professionals, Environmental Consultants, Extension
Specialists, Farmers/Land Owners, Government Officials, Land Managers/Consultants,
Natural Resource and Forestry Professionals, Non-Government and Private-Voluntary
Organizations, Policy Makers, Private Sector Representatives, Scientists,
Students.
Congress Objectives
Expected
Outputs
Planned publications include a state-of-the-art compendium, a summary document,
a book of abstracts, and refereed journal articles. A declaration that embodies
the essence of Congress deliberations will be developed as a tool for discussions
with policy makers and donor agencies to advance the cause of agroforestry
worldwide.
Sponsorship
The Congress is being organized as collaborative effort by a diverse group
institutions worldwide. Current sponsors the Inter-American Institute for
Cooperation Agriculture (IICA); Mars, Inc.; University of Florida/IFAS; and
the World Agroforestry Centre/ICRAF. If you are interested in becoming involved
in this effort providing financial assistance in support of Congress, please
contact P.K. Nair.
Global
Organizing Committee Chairs
Chair: P. K. Nair, University of Florida/IFAS, Gainesville, FL, USA
Co-Chairs: Dennis
Garrity, World Agroforestry Centre/ICRAF, Nairobi, Kenya, Gregory Ruark, USDA/Forest
Service, National Agroforestry Center, Lincoln, NE, USA, Howard-Yana Shapiro,
Mars, Inc., Hackettstown, NJ, USA
Contact
Information:
Technical Program and Sponsorship
P. K. Nair, Distinguished Professor
Director, Center for Subtropical Agroforestry
SFRC, University of Florida/IFAS,
PO Box 110410 Gainesville, FL 32611-0410, USA
Tel: 1-352-846-0880 Fax: 1-352-846-1277
Email: pknair@ufl.edu
Website: http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/pknair
Congress
Logistics
Mandy Padgett, Conference Coordinator
Office of Conferences & Institutes,
University of Florida/IFAS,
PO Box 110750, Gainesville, FL 32611-0750, USA
Tel: 1-352-392-5930 FAX: 1-352-392-9734
Email: mrpadgett@mail.ifas.ufl.edu
Website: http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HIMALAYAN BIODIVERSITY
In commemoration of The International Year of Mountains (IYM) 2002 and The International Year of Eco-tourism, 2002, the Himalayan Resources Institute (HIRI) Nepal in collaboration with Biodiversity Research Group (BRG), Central Department of Zoology, Tribhuvan University, Nepal, Ecological Association of Nepal and Nepal Biotechnology Association (NBA), are organising an International Conference on Himalayan Biodiversity, from February 26-28, 2003 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The theme of the conference is "Conservation of Himalayan Biodiversity for Human Welfare" with the following the major topics of the conference:
The specific objectives of the conference are to:
Registration:
Registration fee for participants:
All interested
in attending the conference and submitting an abstract are encouraged to pre-register
electronically from the conference homepage at http://www.hirinepal.com.
Alternatively, you may request a pre-registration form from the conference
organisers. This ensures that you will receive the Final announcement containing
detailed conference information. Registration fee should be sent in favour
of Himalayan Resources Institute (HIRI) as a demand draft. Provide following
information in the pre-registration form:
Name, Designation, Full Mailing Address, Phone Number, Fax, E-mail, along
with Title of the Lecture and Abstract addressed to:
Himalayan Resources Institute (HIRI), GPO Box : 13880, New Baneshwor,
Kathmandu, Nepal.
Programmes:
There will be four categories of presentations:
1. Plenary Lecture - 30 minutes
2. Invited Lecture - 25 minutes
3. General oral presentations - 15 minutes
4. Poster session - as per schedule
Plenary and invited lectures will be distributed in all the sub-themes, and
the selected speakers will be invited for the presentation. The poster session
will be reviewed and presented by the conveners in the last session in a summarized
form.
For details
please contact:
Mr. Ram Bhandari
Himalayan Resources Institute (HIRI),
P.O. Box 13880, New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel.: +977-1-490399
Fax : +977-1-332636, 331964
E-mail: hirinepal@mail.com.np or
hirinepal@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.hirinepal.com
COURSE ON PLANT FAMILIES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
From May 6 to May 23 2003, the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, Leiden University Branch, Leiden, The Netherlands, is organising its two yearly course "Plant Families of Southeast Asia". This course is meant for everyone interested in the plants from this region. The main aim of this course is to treat several important plant families in such a way that the participants of the course will get a good basis for plant recognition. Additionally lectures will be given on how to collect plants in the field (both for herbarium as well as molecular purposes), evolution of the plant families, wood, seed and pollen anatomy, tropical vegetations in general, plant morphology, the use of interactive keys, etc. There will also be two excursions to the greenhouses of the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, which harbours living plants of most of the treated species. Participation fee for this course is 500 Euro. Participants have to pay for accommodation and travel expenses themselves. Please react quickly since there is only place for 20 participants!!
For more
information contact
Ferry Slik Email:slik@nhn.leidenuniv.nl
Nationaal Herbarium Nederland Plantdiversity of the Indopacific and Tropical
Asia
Einsteinweg 2 room B101
PO-Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
tel: +31-71-5273529, fax: +31-71-5273511
http://website.leidenuniv.nl/~slikjwf/
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/taskforcebiodi/index.htm
TROPICAL SAVANNAS & SEASONALLY DRY FORESTS
Edinburgh 14 - 20 September 2003
The aim of the meeting is to collate the endeavours of widely disparate research groups and focus attention on the key ecological, environmental and developmental issues. Five principal themes will be addressed:-
The lecture programme will be held at the RBGE while the accommodation will be at the University of Edinburgh Halls of Residence.
Enquiries
and abstract submission through:
Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Trees
Pentlands Science Park, Bush Loan, Penicuik, Edinburgh EH26 0PH, Scotland
Tel: +44 (0) 131 440 0400, Fax:+44 (0) 131 440 4141
Email: savanna-conference@ectf-ed.org.uk
Website: http://www.ectf.co.uk
SOIL PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT THROUGH FARMER FIELD SCHOOLS
The Land
and Water Development Division has launched a web Portal on Soil Productivity
Improvement through Farmer Field Schools
http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/agll/farmspi/default.stm.
This site provides information on FAO's pilot programme on Soil Productivity Improvement through Farmer Field Schools. Specifically, it aims at promoting the exchange of information and experiences on the development and implementation of FFS for enhancing and sustaining soil productivity. The site is targeting those involved in developing participatory or FFS land management and conservation programmes, resource persons and senior extension officers as well as agricultural development specialists.
Your comments
,suggestions and contribution from relevant work for further improvement and
updating of the site would be highly appreciated.
With kind regards,
Parviz Koohafkan, Chief AGLL FAO
Under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the XII World Forestry Congress will be held in Quebec City, Canada in September 2003.
Persons interested in forests and forestry are invited to this important international meeting. During this open forum, the participants will have the opportunity to freely exchange knowledge, experience, and views on the Congress theme Forests, source of life with nearly 5,000 attendees from some 160 countries. Ideas and projects discussed will have a direct impact on forest management, conservation, and development. Discussions are intended to bring together a wealth of knowledge, experience and views that will help guide the development of forestry policies, practices, research, and international cooperation. The Congress will also be a world stage for the latest innovations in the field.
Based on the theme Forests, source of life, deliberations will explore the following areas:
Discussions will also be led on issues and situations specific to individual ecological and major sociocultural units. Their various processes for establishing sustainable forest management criteria and indicators will be taken into account in forming the discussion groups.
The Congress will offer different outings, visits, and study tours throughout Canada and the United States, combining technical and scientific dimensions with the cultural attraction of a beautiful land. Also featured will be an exhibition where some hundred organizations will showcase their products, services, and achievements. Attendees will be able to participate in many side events and seminars related to the main theme.
More details about the Congress are available on the Web site at http://www.wfc2003.org
For more
information:
Secretariat, XII World Forestry Congress
800 Place D'Youville, 18th floor
Québec City, Québec; Canada G1R 3P4
Telephone: (418) 694-2424, Fax: (418) 694-9922
Email: sec-gen@wfc2003.org