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By WAM
CAIRO, Sep 6 2018 (WAM)

The 102nd ministerial session of the Arab Economic and Social Council began today at the headquarters of the Arab League General Secretariat in the Egyptian capital,Cairo.

The UAE is participating in the session through a delegation headed by Mohammed Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Shehhi, Under-Secretary for Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Economy.

Al Shehhi said that the UAE desires to participate in the council’s meetings, which will address several key issues, to strengthen the region’s cooperation and integration and serve its economic and development goals.

He added that the current session will look at several key topics and discuss the outcomes of the 30th session of the Arab League Summit, as well as the implementation of the Riyadh Declaration issued at the 4th Summit of South American-Arab Countries that was held in Riyadh in 2015.

It will also discuss many economic issues and other key topics, to advance the level of Arab regional and international cooperation and promote communication with emerging markets, which will serve their economic and development goals, he further added.

Al Shehhi stressed that strengthening joint Arab work will assist the development of Arab countries, encourage foreign investments, and fulfil the requirements of sustainable development.

The agenda of the session includes a discussion on the economic cooperation between the Arab League and the United Nations, investing in Arab countries, an Arab project to develop the small and medium-sized enterprise, SME, sector, upgrading the work of the Arab Ministerial Water Council, and an agreement with the Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organisation.

WAM/Tariq alfaham

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Miroslav Lajčák, President of the current 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, in his address to the Forum on a Culture of Peace

By Miroslav Lajčák
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 5 2018 (IPS)

As we open this Forum, I will make three main points. First, I want to ask: what does a culture of peace actually mean?

And, frankly it might be different for every person in this room. But I will share some elements, which have stuck with me.

Miroslav Lajčák

The first is time. Peace takes a lot of time.

It cannot be installed. It cannot be erected,

It must be built up – block after block, layer after layer. And this must be done, not by the hands of internationals– but by the people on the ground; the people who were there – in their countries, and in their villages – when peace was not.

Cultures do not come about in a day or a week. And neither does peace. A second element is simplicity. “The culture of peace”.

This is a very simple phrase. It can be easily translated into different languages. And it can be understood – even without a degree in philosophy, or years of experience at the United Nations.

Because we all have some idea of culture.

It is around us, every day. It’s in what we do…where we go…how we speak. And if peace is not a part of these everyday habits – then we simply do not have a culture of peace.

And, thirdly, another element is hope. Let’s be frank: a culture of peace is not, yet, a reality.

Conflicts rage on, across the world. International terrorism poses as grave a threat as ever. And political and religious intolerance is rising.

But we have chosen not to accept this, as our fate. In fact, through this resolution – and this Forum – we are saying no.

We are recommitting to the very ideals of the United Nations Charter. We are showing that it is in our power, to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Not in some places in the world – but in all.

And that is a powerful message of hope. This brings me to my second point – on the United Nations Charter.

The document doesn’t specifically mention a “culture of peace”. But I believe it is embedded in every word.

And I think we are closer now – than we have ever been – to an international system, which can support and promote a culture of peace.

In the past, our tools and mechanisms were designed to react to conflict. They jumped into action when there was an outbreak in violence, or when a peace treaty was signed.

Now we are opening our eyes. We are asking ourselves the question: what can we do, proactively, to build peace, from the ground up, and to make sure it won’t go anywhere, in the future?

So, we have moved from reactive to proactive; from response to prevention; from concentrating on the effects of conflict to exploring the accelerators of peace.

And central to that has been a renewed focus on conflict prevention and peacebuilding – which are all part of a larger cycle of Sustaining Peace.

Not just in theory. But also, in practice. And here’s the thing: We are doing this. Now.

We are reforming the United Nations’ peace and security pillar.

We are investing more in mediation and peacebuilding capacities.

We are reviewing the way our peacekeeping operations work on the ground.

And we are looking at how our efforts for Sustainable Development and human rights have a direct impact on prospects for peace.

Last April, we all met in this hall. We listened to leaders, policy makers and activists give their take on this new approach to peace. And what we heard was very exciting.

Commitments to preventive diplomacy. Calls for a “quantum leap” in peacebuilding finance. Discussions on coherence and partnerships. And success stories from the ground.

So, it is happening. In this hall. In offices nearby. And in UN country teams and peace operations all over the world.

We are moving our international system towards a culture of peace.

But, as my third point, I want to highlight that, to get there, we need to widen our approach.

We cannot achieve a culture of peace from a hall like this. We need to take action on the ground. And we need new approaches. In some cases, that means a complete re-set.

For example, students all over the world are studying peace theory in university. But maybe we need to start much sooner. Maybe young children should not, only, be learning lessons in maths and history – but also in humanity and peace.

Also, we are seeing some exciting initiatives, which bring all three pillars of the United Nations together. For example, the UN’s Peace and Development Advisers – who are deployed in the field. Now, we need to scale these best practices up – and bring all areas of the United Nations’ work together, for a cultural shift.

And we must remember: culture includes– not just some – but everyone.

So, gender equality is crucial. Every time a woman is denied her voice, her rights, or her place in society – we are taking a step away from a culture of peace. Also, if young people continue to be excluded from our decisions and processes, we won’t get very far.

So, we need everyone involved. From heads of states and top United Nations officials, to the people who work, for the United Nations, academic institutions or NGOs on the ground.

The late Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, delivered a Nobel Lecture, in 2001. During it, he said, “Peace must be made real and tangible in the daily existence of every individual in need”.

That is a simple message. But it is an important one. Peace should not be a theory. It should not be a principle, or an aim, or an outcome. It should not have a budget or a timeline.

Instead, peace should be something that we can touch, see, feel and experience – on a daily basis. It should be in the air around us or the ground we walk on. It should, in essence, be a culture.

And one that is here to stay.

The post Culture of Peace Embedded in Every Word on the UN Charter appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Miroslav Lajčák, President of the current 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, in his address to the Forum on a Culture of Peace

The post Culture of Peace Embedded in Every Word on the UN Charter appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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A drought stressed maize crop on Leo De Jong's farm, in the Netherlands. De Jong says he spends between 20,000 and 25,000 Euros per week on irrigation. Courtesy: Friday Phiri

By Friday Phiri
WAGENINGEN, The Netherlands, Sep 5 2018 (IPS)

“This season, the month of May was particularly hot and dry,” says Leo De Jong, a commercial farmer in Zeewolde, in Flevopolder, the Netherlands. Flevopolder is in the province of Flevoland, the largest site of land reclamation in the world. Here a hectare of land costs up to 100,000 Euros. “At the moment, we are spending between 20,000 and 25,000 Euros per week on irrigation.”

While most reports point to developing nations being the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, it is slowly emerging that farmers in the North who generally have more resources are feeling the heat too.

From incessant wild fires and powerful hurricanes in the United States and the Caribbean, to record-breaking high temperatures and droughts in Europe and Asia, the scientific community is unanimously in agreement that climate change is the more likely cause of these extremes in weather.

And it is causing severe disruptions to agricultural production systems, the environment and biodiversity.

This is troubling as, according to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a rise in temperature of more than 2°C could exacerbate the existing food deficit and prevent the majority of African countries from attaining their Sustainable Development Goals on poverty and hunger.

While De Jong can afford spending thousands of Euros on irrigation each week, he knows it is no longer sustainable for his farming business. He currently grows potatoes, onions and wheat, among other crops, on 170 hectares of reclaimed land.

Leo De Jong in his potato field, in the Netherlands. Courtesy: Friday Phiri

Soil health emerges as key

With 18 million inhabitants, the Netherlands is densely populated. Half of the Netherlands is below sea level, but part of the sea was reclaimed for agricultural purposes.

After a flood in 1916, the Dutch government decided that the Zuiderzee, an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be enclosed and reclaimed. And later, the Afsluitdijk was completed—a 32 kilometre dyke which closed off the sea completely. Between 1940 and 1968, part of this enclosed inland sea was converted into land and in 1986 it became the newest province of the Netherlands—Flevoland.

Soil health in the Flevopolder, Flevoland, which sits about four meters below sea level, is of particular importance. De Jong sees it as a hallmark for every farmer in this era of climate change, regardless of their location.

He believes the answer to the climate challenge lies in farmers’ ability to “balance between ecology and economy.” This, he tells IPS, can be achieved through various ways such as improved and efficient irrigation technology, research and innovation, as well as farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchanges like the one to which he belongs—the Skylark Foundation. At the foundation he exchanges knowledge with a group of colleagues, mainly focusing on soil health.

“I have a feeling that the climate is getting extreme but consistent usage of manure, cover crops and other efficient sustainable practices guarantees good soil health, and soil health is the hallmark on which sustainable crop production is built.”

Similarly, Peter Appelman, who specialises in farming broccoli and cabbage, agrees with the soil health argument.

Appelman says that farmers should not be preoccupied with the various systems (conventional and organic farming) currently being propagated by researchers. He says that farmers should rather adopt systems that work for them depending on the type of soils on their farms.

“We have stopped feeding the crop but the soil,” he tells IPS, pointing at a pile of composite manure. “I am not an organic farmer but I try to be sustainable in whatever way because this comes back to you. You can’t grow a good product in bad soil.”

Market access for sustainability

In addressing the production cost side of the business, Appelman points to consumer satisfaction and predictable markets as key enablers to farmers’ sustainability in this era of climate stress.

As consumer preferences become more obvious, Appelman says farmers should not expend their energies complaining about market access and growing consumer demands but should rather work hard to satisfy them.

“I think my fellow farmers complain too much, which is not the best practice for the business,” he says. “As farmers, we should exert this energy in looking for customers, and work to satisfy them—I believe better farmer-to-customer relations should be the way forward.”

According to Appelman, production should be determined by consumer/market preferences. “I travel around the world looking for markets, and through these interactions, I learn and do my work according to the needs of my customers. Look for customers first and then proceed to produce for them, because it is tough in the production stage,” says Appelman, whose farm has an annual turn-over of about two million Euros.

The Appelman family grow broccoli on 170 hectares and red and white cabbage on 60 hectares.

Research and innovation

According to Professor Louise Fresco, president of the research executive board of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, the answer to the global food challenge lies in ensuring that the contribution of agriculture to climate change is positive rather than negative.

This, she says, is only possible through investment in research and innovation in order to achieve maximum efficiency for food production and to minimise waste.

“The agriculture sector therefore needs to do more than produce food—but produce efficiently,” she said in her opening address to the 2018 International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress held in the Netherlands in July. “Food has to be produced not as a chain, but in a circular way. Water and energy use are highlights.”

Under the theme: Dutch roots—small country, big solutions; the congress highlighted what lies at the centre of the Netherlands’ agricultural prowess.

“Productivity through innovation and efficiency is the answer to why the Netherlands,ca small country, is the second-largest agricultural exporter [in the world],” said Wiebe Draijer, chief executive officer and chairman of Rabobank.

Draijer said Rabobank, which was founded as a cooperative, was happy to be associated with the Dutch agricultural prowess, which is anchored in sustainable and innovative practices.

“In response to the global food challenge, we keep refining our lending modalities to support environmental sustainability. For example, we track farmers that we give loans to to monitor their environmental sustainability practices, and there is an incentive in the form of a discount on their loans.”

Sustainability is the buzz word globally. However, it seems there is much more to be done for farmers to achieve it, especially now that negative effects of climate change are similarly being felt in both the north and the global south.

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The post Climate Change Becomes a Reality Check for the North appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Magnus Tut a member of the Trio Cacao Farmers Association cuts open a white cacao pod from one of several bearing treen in his plot. The group is hoping to find more buyers for their organic white cacao and vegetables. Credit: Zadie Neufville/IPS

By Zadie Neufville
BELMOPAN, Sep 5 2018 (IPS)

In one of Belize’s forest reserves in the Maya Golden Landscape, a group of farmers is working with non-governmental organisations to mitigate and build resilience to climate change with a unique agroforestry project.

The Ya’axché Conservation Trust helps farmers to establish traditional tree crops, like the cacao, that would provide them with long-term income opportunities through restoring the forest, protecting the natural environment, while building their livelihoods and opportunities. Experts say the farmers are building resilience to climate change in the eight rural communities they represent.

The agroforestry concession is situated in the Maya Mountain Reserve and is one of two agroforestry projects undertaken by the 5Cs, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), in its efforts to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies in communities across the Caribbean.

Close to 6,000 people both directly and indirectly benefit from the project which Dr. Ulric Trotz, science advisor and deputy executive director of the 5Cs, noted was established with funding from the United Kingdom Department for International Development (UK DFID).

“It is easily one of our most successful and during my most recent visit this year, I’ve seen enough to believe that the concept can be successfully transferred to any community in Belize as well as to other parts of the Caribbean,” he told IPS.

The Trio Cacao Farmers Association and the Ya’axché Conservation Trust have been working together since 2015 to acquire and establish an agroforestry concession on 379 hectares of disturbed forest. The agroforestry project was given a much-need boost with USD250,000 in funding through the 5Cs.

According to Christina Garcia, Ya’axché’s executive director, the project provides extension services. It also provides training and public awareness to prepare the farmers on how to reduce deforestation, prevent degradation of their water supplies and reduce the occurrence of wildfires in the beneficiary communities and the concession area.

Since the start, more than 50,000 cacao trees have been planted on 67 hectares and many are already producing the white cacao, a traditional crop in this area. To supplement the farmers’ incomes approximately 41 hectares of ‘cash’ crops, including bananas, plantains, vegetable, corn and peppers, were also established along with grow-houses and composting heaps that would support the crops.

This unique project is on track to become one of the exemplary demonstrations of ecosystems-based adaptation in the region.

The 35 farming families here are native Maya. They live and work in an area that is part of what has been dubbed the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve, which connects the forests of the Maya Mountains to that of the coastal lowlands and is managed by Ya’axché.

Farmers here believe they are reclaiming their traditional ways of life on the four hectares which they each have been allocated. Many say they’ve improved their incomes while restoring the disturbed forests, and are doing this through using techniques that are protecting and preserving the remaining forests, the wildlife and water.

On tour of the Ya’axché Agroforestry Concession in the Maya Golden Landscape. From right: Dr Ulric Trotz, deputy executive director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC); Dr Mark Bynoe, head of project development at the 5Cs; Isabel Rash, chair of the Trios Cacao Farmers Association; Magnus Tut, farmer and ranger and behind him Christina Garcia, executive director Ya’axché Conservation Trust. Credit: Zadie Neufville/IPS

Other members of the communities, including school-age teenagers, were given the opportunity to start their own businesses through the provision of training and hives to start bee-keeping projects. Many of the women now involved in bee-keeping were given one box when they started their businesses.

The men and women who work the concession do not use chemicals and can, therefore, market their crops as chemical free, or organic products. They, however, say they need additional help to seek and establish those lucrative markets. In addition to the no-chemicals rule, the plots are cultivated by hand, using traditional tools. But farmer Magnus Tut said that this is used in conjunction with new techniques, adding that it has improved native farming methods.

“We are going back to the old ways, which my father told me about before chemicals were introduced to make things grow faster. The hardest part is maintaining the plot. It is challenging and hard work but it is good work, and there are health benefits,” Tut told IPS.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) supports the farmers’ beliefs, reporting that up to 11 percent of greenhouse gases are caused by deforestation and “between 24 and 30 percent of total mitigation potential” can be provided by halting and reversing deforestation in the tropics.

“The hardest part of the work is getting some people to understand how/what they do impacts the climate, but each has their own story and they are experiencing the changes which make it easier for them to make the transition,” said Julio Chun, a farmer and the community liaison for the concession. He told IPS that in the past, the farmers frequently used fires to clear the land.

Chun explained that farmers are already seeing the return of wildlife, such as the jaguar, and are excited by the possibilities.

“We would like to develop eco-tourism and the value-added products that can support the industry. Some visitors are already coming for the organic products and the honey,” he said.

Ya’axché co-manages the Bladen Nature Reserve and the Maya Mountain North Forest Reserve, a combined 311,607 hectares of public and privately owned forest. Its name, pronounced yash-cheh, is the Mopan Maya word for the Kapoc or Ceiba tree (scientific name: Ceiba pentandra), which is sacred to the Maya peoples.

Of the project’s future, Garcia said: “My wish is to see the project address the economic needs of the farmers, to get them to recognise the value of what they are doing in the concession and that the decision-makers can use the model as an example to make decisions on how forest reserves can be made available to communities across Belize and the region to balance nature and livelihoods.”

Scientists believe that well-managed ecosystems can help countries adapt to both current climate hazards and future climate change through the provision of ecosystem services, so the 5Cs has implemented a similar project in Saint Lucia under a 42-month project funded by the European Union Global Climate Change Alliance (EU-GCCA+) to promote sustainable farming practices.

The cacao-based agroforestry project in Saint Lucia uses a mix-plantation model where farmers are allowed to continue using chemicals, but were taught to protect the environment. Like the Ya’axché project, Saint Lucia’s was designed to improve environmental conditions in the beneficiary areas; enhance livelihoods and build the community’s resilience to climate change.

In the next chapter, the Ya’axché farmers project is hoping that, among other things, a good samaritan will help them to add facilities for value-added products; acquire eco-friendly all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to move produce to access points; and replace a wooden bridge that leads to the main access road.

Tut and Chun both support the views of the group’s chair Isabel Rash, that farmers are already living through climate change, but that the hard work in manually “clearing and maintaining their plots and in chemical-free food production, saves them money”, supports a healthy working and living environment and should protect them against the impacts of climate change.

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The post Maya Farmers in Central Belize Hold Strong to Their Climate Change Experiment appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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