Farmers' Voices, Farmers' Rights: speaking out at COPV
Farmers' Voices, Farmers' Rights
Speaking out at COPV
NB: these pages on COP V were created in May 2000 and have not been updated since. They are included here for reference only.
As drought, famine, global trade, migration to the cities and the spread of genetically modified organisms threaten sweeping changes to the lives of millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries, it is time for the world's policy makers to listen to farmers.
Farmers are the experts, the scientists and the artists who have created and developed a very special category of life forms - 'agricultural biodiversity'.
With 80 per cent of people in many developing countries deriving their income from agriculture, this agricultural biodiversity is a vital source of livelihoods, and of the food security of a third of humanity.
At an international meeting of over 170 governments to discuss biodiversity in Kenya, May 2000, Practical Action (then ITDG) and its partners brought farmers to the international policy arena, to tell policy makers directly what they require to support their livelihoods and food security.
On these pages you can find out more about the COP V meeting and why it is important, about agricultural biodiversity and what it means, and about Practical Action's position and the events it held with farmers in Nairobi.
- What is COP V?
- Agricultural biodiversity
- CBD v WTO
- Practical Action's position
- News releases from COP V
Further archive information and background to COP V can be found on the UKabc website.
Background to COP 6, meeting in The Hague in April 2002 can be found in The Global Commons pages.
Read Practical Action (then ITDG)'s call to the Conference of the Parties to put agricultural biodiversity, farmers' rights and biosafety at the heart of the Convention on Biological Diversity.