The second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2) will take place at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya
The second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-2) will take place at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya (23-27 may 2016) under the overarching theme of Delivering on the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Assembly, which represents the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment, will culminate in resolutions and a global call to action to address the critical environmental challenges facing the world today.
FAO side-event
Moving towards sustainable pastoralism and responsible consumption of livestock products
Organizer: UNEP, Division of Environmental Policy Implementation, Terrestrial Ecosystems Unit (TEU).
Partners: ILRI, IUCN, FAO, IFAD, Mongolia, Jordan, Spain, Sudan, South Sudan China, Iran, Turkey and the International Land Coalition (ILC).
The rising global demand for livestock products (meat, milk, fat, fiber, hides), the continuing degradation of rangeland ecosystems in drylands, and the increasing environmental degradation caused by intensive production, underlines the urgency for achieving a transformation in production and consumption in the livestock sector. Furthermore, rangelands cover ¼ of the terrestrial surface of the earth and pastoral communities living and managing these ecosystems are some of the most under-represented population groups, in the world, in terms of human development indexes.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides an opportunity to work globally towards sustainable pastoralism because it recognizes the importance of supporting smallholder and pastoral systems while also increasing productivity in the agriculture sector and simultaneously protecting biological diversity, managing waste, and reducing greenhouse gases. UNEA-2 provides a timely opportunity for Ministers of Environment and other stakeholders to discuss the direction that this debate should take, and provide guidance on concrete actions to be taken by UNEP and other champions of environmental sustainability, within a global partnership.
Contact:
Gregorio Velasco Gil
Coordinator of the Pastoralist Knowledge Hub
Animal Genetic Resources Branch
Animal Production and Health Division
Office C 583
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy
Tel: +39 06 570 54355