Bilateral meeting with the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, H.E. Luis Arce Catacora

La Paz, Bolivia - During his visit to Bolivia, FAO Director-General, Qu Dongyu, met with His Excellency Luis Arce Catacora, President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, during which they exchanged views on the current food security situation in the country and discussed current and future collaboration between FAO and Bolivia.

The discussions touched on the issue of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and the Director-General underlined that the Organization had a broad database regarding the use of biotechnology and the regulation of GMOs in several countries, and that the scientific knowledge available could serve to inform the development of national measures and policies.

The Director-General stressed the importance of developing a plan of financial support and incentives for farmers who use and preserve local varieties of seeds on a small scale, which would allow for a balance in relation to the higher production yields that could be obtained by larger-scale producers with the GMO varieties.

President Arce referred to the forest fires situation in the country which had particularly affected the eastern region in the previous two months and requested FAO’s support to address the matter. Fires had consumed at least 3.8 million hectares of land, and the government has declared a health alert due to high levels of pollution, in addition to an “environmental pause” that prohibits the controlled burning of forests and grasslands on agricultural land.

The Director-General reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to helping Bolivia, including through an emergency Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) for the development of firefighting capacities, and to subsequently establish a longer-term project, together with international cooperation donors for the recovery of crops and reforestation of the affected areas, as well as on the recovery of the livelihoods of indigenous populations.

The Director-General and the President reiterated their collective will to further strengthen collaboration.