Seventeenth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development
4 May – 15 May 2009 (UN Headquarters, New York, USA)
Focusing on the thematic cluster of agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa, CSD 17 adopted an outcome document including policy recommendations on the basis of a text prepared by Chair Gerda Verburg, as well as a Shared Vision Statement summarizing the results of the High-level Segment and Ministerial Roundtables.
The outcome document includes several references to TK. On agriculture, enhancement of agriculture production is linked to the employment of science-based agricultural approaches and local and indigenous knowledge. On rural development, harmonization of modern technologies with traditional and indigenous knowledge, and protection and sustainable use of traditional knowledge for natural resource management, are suggested as measures to build social capital and resilience in rural communities. On land, a common understanding of community land resource management should be facilitated through partnerships, networks and the participation of all relevant stakeholders, including taking into account community goals and traditional and indigenous knowledge, in land planning and management. On drought, TK should be taken into account in order to strengthen the knowledge base, and promotion of innovative technical solutions should be combined with TK for drought forecasting. On desertification, land resources should be protected through community-based sustainable natural resource management, based on scientific and indigenous knowledge, while appropriate traditional practices and local knowledge concerning land use, water management and agricultural activities should be supported. On Africa, it is noted that climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction should be integrated into agricultural policies and national development plans, on the basis of scientific and traditional knowledge and local experience; and agro-ecological practices, including the promotion of traditional agricultural practices and indigenous knowledge in general should be encouraged, as some of the resources to develop sustainable agricultural production models.
The Shared Vision Statement notes that farmers and rural people are custodians of the land, water and natural resources, yet their TK has been underappreciated and undervalued. A green revolution would need to wed traditional and indigenous knowledge with modern technologies and the latest scientific knowledge about agriculture and the roots of sustainability.
Visit the meeting’s website … Download the outcome document [pdf] … Download the Shared Vision Statement [pdf] … Read the final UN news release … Read the IISD RS summary and analysis of the meeting …
