INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN AN ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE ON:
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** BALANCING LIVESTOCK, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND HUMAN NEEDS **
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!! 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.
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** HOW TO JOIN THE ELECTRONIC CONFERENCE **
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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:
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:
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 forwarded to your
participation in this important event.
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