La Via Campesina mobilises during the Convention on Biodiversity Conference in Bonn, May 13-20 May

6 May 2008 Agroecology and Peasants'Seeds

Media advisory

An international farmers delegation of La Via Campesina will mobilise in Bonn, Germany, during the 4th Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on Biosecurity (MOP4) and the 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, COP9). Farmers leaders from Latin America, North America, Europe, Africa and Asia join actions, conferences and debates with the Coalition AktionsbundnisCOP9.

Farmers will demand that governments radically reassess the policies that are wiping out biodiversity and rural communities across the planet. They will also denounce the false solutions –GMOs, agrofuels and forest monocultures, “carbon sinks”, which, far from resolving the current problems, only make the situation worse by marginalizing small producers even more. For millenia small-scale farmers have conserved and renewed plant and animal biodiversity. Peasants and small farmers, women and men, are now asking for their role to be recognised. They are convinced that sustainable family farming and local food production can solve the current food and environmental crisis.

  • 13 May Press conference: "Sustainable family farming creates biodiversity and cools down the earth! Via campesina presents its position and activities towards CBD conference"
    10 am -11 am, CBD media center (time and venue to be confirmed)
  • 17 May : Action against gene technology and patents on crops (morning) by AktionsbundnisCOP9 (with participation of Via Campesina)
  • 18 May: Agrofuel action day – Street action:  Large scale cultivation of fuel crops destroys food supplies by AktionsbundnisCOP9 with participation of Via Campesina. (Full day)
  • 19 May: Demonstration La Via Campesina + allies in front of the CBD entrance (morning)
    Press conference: "Food sovereignty and sustainable family farming to solve food and environmental crisis"
    11 am – 12 am, CBD media center (time and venue to be confirmed)

More information on www.viacampesina.org  and  http://biotech.indymedia.org

Media contact Via Campesina: Morgan Ody + 32 4 86888845 or   
+49 015153630102 –  e-mail: morganody@yahoo.fr

Media Contact Aktionsbundnis COP9:  Info-Phone: + 49 151-51806945

Related posts:

Global Forum for Food and Agriculture: La Via Campesina defends seed diversity, calls for stricter regulation of genetic engineering Biodiversity COP : We are not here to re-negotiate the Convention, says IPC, slams the so-called ‘nature-based solutions’ La Via Campesina meets FAO’s Director-General, emphasizes direct participation of peasants in policy-making