General Comment:
PAN Germany welcomes the initiative to support agroecological approaches with the goal of enhancing food security and nutrition. Agroecology has the potential of improving cultivation systems. It is a powerful approach to reduce various negative impacts of prevalent agricultural (but also forestry and horticultural) systems: Agroecology helps to reduce pesticide dependency and farmers’ dependency on international corporations. It is a highly recommended way to reduce the negative impact of pesticide use on human and environmental health by enabling the phase-out of highly hazardous pesticides. Modern and innovative agroecological approaches which integrate hundreds of years of farmers’ experiences with state-of-the-art science are proving to be sustainable, economically advantageous and good for food security. Supporting agroecology-based cultivation systems is key to fight environmental degradation and to secure future generation’s living.
When setting up the project team it is important to make sure that the members of the team are independent from big agribusinesses and other Conflicts of interest. Also, it is important that experts with scientific background as well as “field background” (farmers) are represented. Regarding the principles and procedures of the project team it is of great importance to secure responsible interaction, a high level of transparency and the possibility for the public to follow up the process.
Proposed changes by PAN Germany on the draft Scope by HLPE Steering Committee
[see attachment,Ed.]
Susan Haffmans