permaculture

[Victor Guest <vic@daena.eepo.com.au>]

From: Rob Ravenscroft <robr@cris.com>

A forwarded message follows concerning a conference on Livestock and the
environment. 

Forwarded Message:

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN AN ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE ON:
**********************************************************
**BALANCING LIVESTOCK, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND HUMAN NEEDS **
**********************************************************
!! Please pass this on to interested collegues and friends!!

If you are involved in livestock production, policy formulation,
research, or development activities and are concerned about the
interaction between livestock production and environmental degradation,
the International Livestock Research Institite (ILRI), the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International
Development Research Centre (IRDC) of Canada, and INFORUM (and
International Non Governmental Organization), would like to invite you
to participate in a global electronic conference from March 10 to May
24, 1997.

Since most stakeholders who are concerned about these issues do not have
access to electronic mail, we are setting up a consultative process that
will also include face-to-face local intervieews and national roundtable
discussions in 15-20 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America where
short-term demand for livestock products is in conflict with longer-term
concern for environmental degradation, such as deforestation, loss of
biodiversity, land degradation, nutrien depletion, pollution from
excessive nutrients, ets.

The electronic conference will begin wi9th an overview of teh issues
related to livestock and environment interactions and the types of
environmentsal degradation that can be associated with:  (a) grazing
systems,  (b) mixed crop/livestock systems, and  (c) industrial
(land-detached) livestock systems.  Conferees will then have the option
of dividing into groups organized by types of system to discuss and
identify possible future policy and technology options and research and
development strategies.  Throughout the 12 week conference, the emphasis
will be on sharing experiences and discussing issues of common interests
that could lead to future cooperation among institutions with different
perspectives but a common concern for human welfare and the design of
policies and technologies that provide people with both environmental
services (such as clean water and air, biodiversity, etc.) and important
livestock products and services (such as meat, dairy products, manure,
animal traction, and recycling wastes, etc.).

While the global electronic exchange will be conducted primarily in
English, some resources have been allocated for translaation from
Spanish and French to English.  More information will be available soon.

This electronic conference is a follow-up activity to a multi-donor
study on livestock and the environment that was coordinated by FAO, the
World Bank and USAID.  Other donors that supported the study included
Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the
United Kingdom.  Results of this study which has just been completed
(January 1997) will be released as an input to this electronic
conference at various stages.

The specific objectives of the consultative process (including both the
face-to-face and electronic components) are;

1. to give all stakeholders the opportunity to have their views on
livestock, environment, and human welfare interactions, included in a
position paper to be developed at a global meeting in The Netherlands in
June, 1997.

2. based on all stakeholders perspectives, to identify policy, research,
and development strategies to alleviate the negative and enhance the
positive impacts of livestock on natural reasources in different types
of livestock production systems in different countries and ecoregions

3. to identify areas of common interests which can lead to future
research and development institutional collaboration, partnerships,
networks, etc.

*****************************************
**HOW TO JOIN THE ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE**
*****************************************

In order to participate in the electronic conference, you need to have
access to Electronic Mail (E-Mail).  The Listserver and various Lists
that we will be using for the discussion have been set up on FAO's
computer in Rome.  To join the conference please:

STEP 1

Send an E-Mail to the address:

Mailserv@Mailserv.fao.org

What you put in the subject line of the E-Mail message is optional, but
the text that you send should read:

Subscribe LxE-L

By sending in this subscription message you will be adding your E-Mail
address to the Livestock and Environment Interaction List where we will
begin our exchange of information before we divide into subgroups by
subscribing to other lists.  After you send in this E-Mail message you
should receive two E-Mail messages from Mailserv (the name of Listserver
on the FAO computer).  One message will be anacknowledgment from
Mailserv that you are subscribed; the other message (also from Mailserv)
will include information about how th unsubscribe from the LxE List and
the request that you introduce yourself.

STEP 2

The message asking you to introduce yourself will include the
instruction that you send a message to the address:

LxE-l@mailserv.fao.org

NOTE! this address is different from the address that you used to
subscribe.  This is the address that we will be using for the
conference.  Please follow the instructions and send an E-Mail address
(to:  LxE-L@mailserv.fao.org) that includes the following information:

Your Name
Institution
Address
Tel:
Fax:
E-Mail Address
Two or three sentences (no more!) describing your interest in livestock,
environment, and human welfare issues. Please subscribe and introduce
yourself as soon as possible!  The formal conference will begin March
10.  If you have any problems subscribing or introducing yourself,
please send an E-Mail message to either Bob Hart (Bhart@undp.org) or
Victor Mares (V.Mares-ETH@cgnet.com).

On behalf of the Electronic Conference organizing committee from ILRI,
FAO, IDRC, and INFORUM, we look forward to your participation in this
important event.

Rossen Roussev
Informational Systems Project Manager
Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe
Ady Endre ut 9-11
2000 Szentendre, Hungary

Tel:  (36-26) 311-199
Fax:  (36-26) 311-294
e-mail:  Rossen.Roussev@rec.org
http://www.rec.org/

EnviroPhantom - The Environmental Information Spider for Central and
Eastern Europe, http://phantom.rec.org