Balakrishna, P.

Over 800 million human beings suffer from hunger and malnutrition. The future of global food security depends on the success of our efforts in the conservation and enhancement of agrobiodiversity, the biodiversity occurring in plants and animals. It is important that both intensification and diversification of agriculture, particularly in the developing countries, is based on sound ecological foundations essential for sustainable advances in crop and animal productivity.

The commitment of the international community to ensure an equitable supply of food and nutrition to everyone on Earth has been reiterated many times. However, there are very few practical examples on how such equity and benefit sharing principles are to be put into practice. The proceedings of this workshop held in February 1998 relate experiences and lessons from a South-South perspective and critically address the translation of recommendations from this workshop into actions.