Report (Part 1): Sustainable Development Convention 2002

Track 3: Agriculture

Time: 30 October 2002, 11:30 Location: Salle A Chair: Peter Sissons Presenters/ Participants: Dr. Thomas Schauer, German Society for Rare Agricultural Plants
Eric Herger, Eco Energie Etoy; Thomas Vellacott, WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Reporter: John Copland (ICVolunteers) Languages: English Key words:

Sustainable Agriculture is a diverse and essential component of sustainable development. Three representative projects for this track were presented by their project leaders.

Chair Peter Sissions led each of the project leaders through a series of questions to try to extract:

1. the basic idea of each project;
2. the current stage of development of the project and
3. what each project leader hopes to achieve at this conference.

Below is a summary of the project leaders' comments:

Dr. Thomas Schauer, of the German Society for Rare Agricultural Plants (DGSK), introduced his project dealing with biodiversity. He began by stating that about 7,000 different plant species have been used for agriculture throughout human history, but that we now only use 30 different species. Moreover, just three species (wheat, corn and rice) provide 50% of the calories consumed worldwide. Genetic diversity is therefore being lost. For example, 80% of the corn varieties of Mexico have been lost. The mechanism for this loss, he continued, is the economic disadvantages of these other varieties. That is, the are less productive than commercial varieties. However, these other varieties are incredibly valuable in protecting form future diseases because a large gene pool is needed to breed for crop resistance. he emphasized that their project aims to preserve genetic diversity not in frozen seed banks or on the Internet, but in real, living plants.

Eric Herger, of Eco Energie Etoy, described his biodiesel project as an agricultural cooperative to convert rapeseed oil into fuel for diesel engines. The project has currently developed diesel fuel from rapeseed, but would now like to move on to exploring the potential for making fuel out of the sub-products of rapeseed oil and also used vegetable oils. Mr. Herger explained that rapeseed fuel is less polluting than conventional diesel fuel, has fewer particle emissions and also contains no sulphur.

In Switzerland, rapeseed fuel could supply 3% of the country's fuel consumption. The technology could also be used in other countries, with other oils, such a s palm oil. Mr. Herger concluded by emphasizing the need to concentrate efforts on developing fuels from sub-products and used vegetal oils. He hopes to make partnerships and find opportunities for funding at this conference.

Thomas Vellacott, of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), then talked about his tropical forest conservation project. WWF's mission, he began, is to preserve the earth's biodiversity. Tropical forests are the world's most important reservoirs of biodiversity, and also the most threatened. Mr. Vellacott mentioned that the expansion of soybean and palm oil plantations, as well as the expansion of paper and pulp factories are factors that threaten tropical forests. He emphasized the need to choose key areas of biodiverstiy to protect and also to challenge the trailers and traders in the North to shift their sourcing to sustainable products. The project also aims to get banks in the North to change their leading criteria for forest projects sectors. The idea is to change the incentive structure to favor sustainable forest projects. The project has already gotten four banks to change their leading criteria and hopes to accomplish the same with many more. Mr. Vallacott would like to use this conference to form links between the conservation work that is being done in the field (such as reforestation projects) and advocacy that is being done in the North.

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The function of this 15 minute presentation was to briefly introduce the three projects in Track 3 - Agriculture, which would be fully discussed in the afternoon workshops. Peter Sissons introduced and interviewed te three project managers so that those attending the plenary session were in a position to decide if the project described merited their further consideration.

Dr. Thomas Schauer of the German Society for Rare Agricultural Plants, described his project dealing with BIODIVERSITY, and specifically the Preservation of Agro-biodiversity in the Republic of Moldova.

Stressing the reduction of available plan species, he specifically noted that only 30 species are used to produce the nutritional needs of the world population and wheat, corn and rice alone provide 50% of the calories. In the USA, apple varieties which once numbered 7 000 are now down to 1 000, and in Mexico 80% of the corn varieties have disappeared since 1930.

This project proposes to maintain the genetic potential and plant diversity not in the laboratory but in reality, by establishing preservation and school gardens in the Republic of Moldova, a country where poverty is severe, and where kitchen gardens are still maintaining a variety of plant species.

Dr Schauer was looking for funding for his project as well as partners who might replicate the project in other areas.

M. Eric Herger of Eco Energie Etoy presented (in French) his project, BIODIESAL, Generatin Diesal Fuel from Oil Seed and Recycled Vegetable Oil, in which rapeseed (or other oleaginous products) is converted into Biodiesal. This product may be used in vehicles without modification. The project will also investigate the feasibility of recycling cooking oil used in restaurants within the same process in order to reduce the overall dependence on oilseed. In Switzerland for example this process for biodiesalcould produce 3% of the national consumption of fuels.

Partners were being sought who could push this process in developing countries.

Thomas Vellacott of World Wildlife Fund presented the fund¹s ongoing project, Fighting Tropical Forest Conversion, an initiative that addresses the root causes of this phenomenon. The project does this by working with producers, retailers and financiers, and by building public awareness of the issue. WWF¹s work with retailers focuses on issues of sourcing sustainably produced palm oil and soy. In the financial sector, WWSF has engaged several leading international banks and developed criteria for investment in the forest product sector. By applying such criteria , banks can ensure that they do not finance the further destruction of these forests.

As this project is already funded an ongoing, it was brought to the attention of the participants as an indication of activities that can be accomplished in this area.

As this session was devoted solely to brief presentations there were no questions or comments from the floor.