Agriculture

Biodiversity is increasingly regarded as a resource for rural development and organic agriculture as a production and marketing method that ensures a more productive future for our species and life-support systems. This publication contains the proceedings of a global gathering in May 1999 in Vignola (Italy) to discuss a declaration and action plan for linking together the organic agriculture and nature conservation movements.

In the European Union methods of farm production in accordance with the demands of environmental protection and conservation of landscape are regulated by the European Council. Several Polish regional and national programs are planned, regarding mainly the protection of biodiversity on farmlands, promotion of organic agriculture, soil erosion prevention and counteraction, as well as the depopulation of agricultural regions.

This report analyses the factors which motivate land use by rural populations and provides a context for any policy or strategy which addresses natural resource conservation in the Sahel. The author suggests that production systems in the Sahel have reached or even exceeded their capacity to respond to the needs of a growing population and further that development aid has only had a negligible impact on the trend to over exploit.