IFOAM and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)
“Organic agriculture can play an important role to achieve the goals of
the Convention on Biodiversity, in the global context of the Millennium
Development Goals, by significantly reducing the current rate of
biodiversity loss. In addition, organic farming offers direct economic
benefits to resource-poor farmers and thereby makes an important
contribution to both poverty alleviation and sustainable development.”
-Statement made by UNEP Executive
Director Klaus Toepfer at the IFOAM Conference on Biodiversity and
Organic Agriculture that UNEP co-hosted September 24-26, 2004 in
Nairobi, Kenya.
IFOAM is an accredited international organization wth UNEP, but that
only one aspect of a more complex relationship between the two
organizations.
In September 2004, UNEP hosted and jointly organized the Third
International IFOAM Conference on Biodiversity and Organic Agriculture
at the headquarters of UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya.
IFOAM and the UNEP are in the process of developing a three-year joint
work program for biodiversity and organic agriculture in order to
implement the recommendations resulting from the conference.