Ouagadougou, 30 November - IUCN PACO, with the support of the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment of Burkina Faso, Niger and Ghana, as well as the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the IKEA Foundation and ASUDEC, is organizing a dialogue on sustainable agriculture in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. This dialogue is being organised for representatives of the governments of the three countries, the private sector, farmers' organisations and technical and financial partners. Together, they will explore ways of accelerating the global transition to sustainable agriculture.

This regional dialogue on agriculture in West African countries is part of a series of global forums organised to discuss feasible solutions for making a successful transition to sustainable agriculture. These dialogues have also been organised at country level for national discussions, at regional level on three continents and at international conferences. In West Africa, the national dialogues were held on 8 June 2023 in Burkina Faso and on 25 and 26 October 2023 simultaneously in Niger and Ghana. During these national dialogues, Dr Jacques SOMDA, Head of the IUCN Programme in Burkina Faso, emphasised the urgent need at this particular time to "maintain healthy land to ensure sustainable agriculture and food security for an ever-growing population".

The actions implemented for the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources are still insufficient to curb the direct and indirect causes of the degradation of nature. There is an urgent need to find nature-based solutions (NBS), which guarantee significant benefits for man, society and the environment by simultaneously working to maintain and support the ecosystems that provide them. This is why IUCN PACO is bringing together stakeholders in the region to examine and demonstrate how nature-based solutions stimulate on-farm biodiversity, preserve off-farm biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and protect against habitat loss by maintaining the long-term viability and productivity of existing land.

Source : UICN