World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (17 June)

[S.Annadana]

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (17 June)

2008-06-18 | IFOAM Encourages the Adoption of Organic Agriculture

Ten years after the ratification of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the World Day to Combat Desertification - June 17 - has again come and gone without any significant media coverage. Recognizing that seventy percent of the world's drylands are currently degraded and in the process of desertification, the situation is indeed dire. IFOAM encourages farmers worldwide to adopt organic agriculture methods, governments to integrate investment and support for organic agriculture in their UNCCD National Action Programs (NAPs), and denounces the abuse of water by corporations in industrial agricultural systems.MORE
IFOAM | World Day to Combat Desertification: IFOAM Encourages the Adoption of Organic Agriculture

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World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, 17 June 2008

Winners of the One World Award and One World Lifetime Achievement Award to be announced in Modena during the Organic World Congress

The winners of the first One World Award and of the One World Lifetime Achievement Award will be announced in Modena (Italy)on June 19th, 2008, during the Gala Dinner at the Organic World Congress.

IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture) is patron of the One World Award. The award is aimed to recognize people who are committed to permanently protect and conserve this one world as the basis of existence for all people. The five finalists of the One World Award 2008 carry their parts with extraordinary engagement and have all shown commitment to showing that the future of globalization is positive. The finalists are:

Harald Schützeichel; he started the foundation for solar energy in Ethiopia in 2004 with the aim of supplying the rural population of Africa with energy. He is consistently trying "to help people help themselves" by creating jobs to promote economic development and education.

Anil Rana; he started the Janhit foundation in India in 1988, with the aim of providing cleaner drinking water and fighting water pollution. He also started an ecological cultivation program in 2002 to make a contribution to bio diversity.

Lal Emmanuel; he started the Nagenahiru foundation in Sri Lanka in 1991, to campaign for the protection and the reforestation of Mangrove woods. To this day, about 15 hectares have been forested. He has also set up a teaching and training center, to educate teenagers about ecological issues.

Master Sheng Lyun; he started the Fo Fa Shan foundation in Taiwan in 1995. Using ecological methods tea, vegetables and other agricultural products are cultivated on about 45 hactares of land. The aims of the foundation are the promotion of ecological farming, ecology and conservation, as well as cultural education.

Victor Anania; he opened his first bio store in Turkey about ten years ago and founded the organization Bugday to support the development of ecological farming and environmental protection.

The winner of this exciting competition will receive the first, hand manufactured One World Award statue and prize money of 25,000 euros causing by RAPUNZEL NATURKOST AG. The jury members are: Joseph Wilhelm, founder of RAPUNZEL NATURKOST AG, two previous Nobel Prize winners Vandana Shiva from India and Tewolde Egzeabher from Ethiopia, and the IFOAM vice-president Alberto Pipo Lernoud from Argentina.

As the patron of the OWA, IFOAM is also pleased to lead the selection of the One World Lifetime Achievement Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award acknowledges pioneers and personalities who have played very active roles in the ecology movement and the winner will as well be announced in Modena during the Organic World Congress.

For more information visit ONE WORLD AWARD (OWA) and IFOAM | The 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress

The 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress
IFOAM | The 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress