ICARDA News

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE DRY AREAS
P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012
Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105; E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG
Website: http://www.icarda.cgiar.org

4 & 11 September 2003
For more information contact: S.Varma@cgiar.org
Dryland Agrobiodiversity Project
Fifth Regional Technical and Steering Committee Meetings

The GEF/UNDP project, coordinated by ICARDA, on conservation and sustainable use of dryland agrobiodiversity in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Authority and Syria, organized its Fifth Regional Technical and Planning Meeting and Fifth Regional Steering Committee Meeting on 3 and 6 September, respectively, in Lebanon. The meetings were held under the auspices of H.E. the Minister of Agriculture in Lebanon, Dr Ali Hassan Khalil, who attended the opening session along with H.E. the Syrian Minister of Agriculture, Dr Noureddine Mona; UNDP Resident Representative, Dr Yves de San; Director General, Ministry of Environment, Lebanon, Dr Berg Hatjian; the GEF representative, Dr Hani Daraghma; Dr Michel Afram, Director General of Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI), and Dr Mohan C. Saxena, Assistant Director General (At-Large) of ICARDA.


Present at the opening session were: H.E. Dr Ali
Hasan Khalil (center), Minister of Agriculture, Lebanon; H.E. Dr Noureddine Mona (third from right), Minister of
Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Syria;: Dr Michel
Afram (left), DG, LARI, Lebanon; Dr Mohan C. Saxena
(second from left), ADG, ICARDA; Dr Yves de San
(third from left), Res. Rep. UNDP in Lebanon; Dr Berj
Hatjian (second from right), DG, Ministry of
Environment, Lebanon; and Dr Hani Daraghma (right),
GEF/UNDP Representative.
     In his welcoming statement on behalf of the DG of ICARDA, Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, Dr Saxena thanked the dignitaries present for their keen interest in, and support to the project. He thanked the participants from national, regional and international organizations for making this project a successful model for conserving dryland agrobiodiversity. He stressed the need to extend the model to other regions and to share the experience with farmers and researchers. He informed the participants about the international conference on dryland agrobiodiversity and the livelihood of local

Participants in the fifth Regional Technical and Planning
Meeting of the GEF/UNDP Dryland Agrobiodiversity Project,
held in Beirut 3-4 September 2003.
communities, to be held at ICARDA in spring of 2004. Dr Yves de San appreciated the progress made by the project. Dr Daraghma thanked ICARDA and the project teams for the substantial progress made, and stressed the need for a strategy to sustain the project activities. Dr Hatjian informed the participants about the commitment of the Ministry of Environment in Lebanon to support the activities of this project. H.E. Dr Mona expressed the keen interest of the President of Syria in conserving agrobiodiversity. He acknowledged with satisfaction the inputs of the project, particularly the work done in introducing biodiversity conservation within the education system. He also acknowledged the inputs of ICARDA in capacity building and transfer of technologies. H.E. the Minister of Agriculture in Lebanon thanked the project teams for their work. He expressed great satisfaction on their achievements and assured them of full support of his Ministry.
     Dr Ahmed Amri, Regional Coordinator of the project, presented the highlights of the achievements for the fourth year, focusing on the impacts of the project, actions undertaken to sustain project activities, and greater involvement of local communities.
     The technical presentations covered the use of GIS/RS in assessing biodiversity and environmental similarities among the countries (Dr De-Pauw), the status of on-farm agrobiodiversity and special case studies (Dr Shideed), the status of agrobiodiversity under natural habitats (Dr Amri), rangeland rehabilitation options (Dr Abu Zanat), and technologies for yield improvement of landraces (Dr Ajlouni). Other contributions covered actions undertaken: to introduce biodiversity in school curricula (Dr Al-Khatib), to enhance the involvement of local communities (Mr Sbeih), to sustain project activities (Dr Jamal) and the lessons learned from the project (Dr Ajlouni).
     The workplan for the fifth year was presented by Dr Assi, after discussions within the four concurrent group meetings covering genetic resources, policy and socio-economics, public awareness, and natural resources management.
     During the closing session, the GEF, UNDP and NARS representatives thanked the Lebanese component for hosting the meetings, ICARDA for making arrangements for the meeting and for its continued support, Dr Ahmed Amri for his dedication to the project success, and all participants for their valuable contribution and suggestions.
     On 5 September, the participants visited the agrobiodiversity fair organized by the project in Baalbeck, and the project activities in Aarsal. They also visited the fruit trees nursery developed with Aarsal Rural Development Association (local NGO) and the natural habitat selected in Wadi Sweid for conservation of wild species.
     On 6 September, the members of the Regional Steering Committee (RSC) met at LARI headquarters at Tel Amara and discussed the recommendations of fourth RSC and fifth RTP, the budget utilization, the fifth-year workplan and the actions for sustaining project activities. It was decided to seek an extension of the project duration at no additional costs and to work on the development of new project proposal building on the achievement of this project.
     At the closing session, Dr William Erskine, ICARDA's Assistant Director General (Research), on behalf of ICARDA, IPGRI and ACSAD, thanked GEF, UNDP, and the representatives from National Components for the good partnership and good team spirit developed within this project.

ICARDA's (www.icarda.org) mission is to improve the welfare of people and alleviate poverty through research and training in dry areas of the developing world by increasing production, productivity, and nutritional quality of food, while preserving and enhancing the natural resource base. ICARDA is a Future Harvest Center.
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