Participation in the meeting of the International Planning Committee in Rome – Italy | The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature

(Amman17th November, 2009) APN participated through volunteers Rand Wahbeh and Salah Hammad at a meeting of the International Planning Committee of food sovereignty, which was held in Rome - Italy .

APN have contributed to invite Ruba Bashir, Dr. Khalil Shiha and Dr. Taha Rifai from Palestine and Abla Mahdi from Sudan to form a strong Arab coalition in the conference.

The aim of the conference, which was attended by 450 representatives from international organizations from 93 countries, was to influence the international environmental policy on the issue of food sovereignty, through a wide range of civil society organizations around the world involved in agriculture and the environment to pressure on governments meeting at the FAO Conference, which coincided with the convening of the meeting in the Conference of the International Committee for the food sovereignty, to work to change its policies in the fight against hunger by supporting small and local farmers rather than large and multinational corporations. This has a devastating impact on biodiversity and the environment in general, leading these companies the operations to monopolize seeds, dissemination of genetically modified products and prevent small farmers sustainable planting in their lands and continue production.

The APN’s participation in this conference aim at networking with civil society organizations working in the same area, the formation of sustainable partnerships with it, and raising awareness on the effects of wars and invasions and armed conflicts on the environment and food sovereignty, especially in our region.

APN has worked to increase the Arab representation in the International Planning Committee of food sovereignty by demanding to represent such organizations as the Palestinian Agricultural Relief, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and Stop the wall campaign.

APN made interventions on issues of Arab societies on food sovereignty, which had a large positive effect the final recommendations of the conference.The conference concluded with a number of recommendations to protect the rights of those under occupation, armed conflicts, wars and those suffering from displacement and asylum; monitoring the Human Rights violations, protect their lands, homes, sources of production, property from expropriation and exploitation and foreign investment under the circumstances in which they live. The Conference called upon to stop the confiscation of water resources, land and its isolation from the local communities.