Message-ID: <32FBC7E0.42ED@rodaleinst.org> Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 16:25:04 -0800 From: Bob Hart <mailto:bhart@RODALEINST.ORG> Subject: Liv-X-Env E-conf Invitation To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN AN ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE ON: *********************************************************** ** BALANCING LIVESTOCK, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND HUMAN NEEDS ** *********************************************************** !! Please pass this on to interested colleagues 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 Institute (ILRI), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, and INFORUM (an 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 interviews 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, nutrient depletion, pollution from excessive nutrients, etc.
The electronic conference will begin with an overview of the issues related to livestock and environment interactions and the types of environmental 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 translation 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 resources 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 message to the address:
mailto: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 an acknowledgment from Mailserv that you are subscribed; the other message (also from Mailserv) will include information about how to 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:
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: mailto: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 (mailto:Bhart@undp.org) or Victor Mares mailto:(V.Mares-ETH@cgnet.com).
On behalf of the Electronic Conference organizing committee from ILRI, FAO, IDRC, and INFORUM, we look forwarded to your participation in this important event.