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Pitch

Through the Life Monetary Fund and the Crocus, regenerative agriculture will turn the degraded landscapes of LDCs into rich agroecosystems


Description

Summary

Let’s reshape development paths in LDCs by implementing a clever tool, the Global Complementary Crocus Currency, a systemic measure that could address significant challenges: cool the planet, save biodiversity and the major Earth balances, feed people, and give them jobs, hope, and peace.

All this needs is for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to set up the Life Monetary Fund (LMF), which will issue the global complementary currency, the volume of which is indexed to the amount of living organic matter grown under a Micro-farm Cluster (MFC) label. The crocus currency can only  be exchanged for the local complementary currency (CC).

An MFC is a group of small, multipurpose agricultural units applying the principles of agroecology, agroforestry, and permaculture (no chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, GMOs, or intensive livestock farming). It allows farmers to share their know-how and supply populations with fresh food through short distribution channels.

The scientific community provides annual figures on the amount of living organic matter grown by each MFC. Every member country's government receives the corresponding amount of crocuses and allocates to each MFC its due, to be distributed among the natural persons who work there.

These can exchange crocuses for the local CC. The CC collective is allowed to include in its accounting the crocuses received, considered units of the collateral account to which the CC is attached. As a last resort, crocuses are repayable from the IMF in the relevant national currency. The LMF-Crocus scheme is a project  of large-scale natural geo-engineering through the power of photosynthesis. Diversified living matter is good for water and spontaneously inflationary, it makes the land indefinitely fertile instead of depleting it, which means growth and abundance for communities worldwide.

Ultimately, it will allow us to reach a good part of the SDGs, as this way of driving agroecosystems will lead to highly resilient societies.


Is this proposal for a practice or a project?

Project


What actions do you propose?

This is how we will capture CO2 to put carbon back where it is most useful: in soils.

The Crocus Currency Project consists in the creation by the highest international governance bodies of a monetary tool able to reconcile ecology with the economy.

Principle: At the solemn request of the U. N. General Assembly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sets up a division called the Life Monetary Fund (LMF), which will issue the crocus currency. Its volume is indexed to the amount of living organic matter grown under a “Micro-farm Cluster” (MFC) label.

All IMF member countries can volunteer to be part of the LMF scheme provided that their country features MFC-labelled farming cooperatives.

An MFC is a group of small, multifunctional agricultural units that apply the principles of regenerative agriculture. The aim is to significantly increase organic matter, which consists of all living things: plants, animals, and especially, rich and thick brown soils. Key practices include: no-till/minimum till; cover crops; incorporation of crop residues; composts; multispecies planting; no fire; biological soil enhancement; biochar; holistically managed grazing; animal integration; ecological aquaculture; perennial crops; silvopasture, i.e. a common form of agroforestry; agroecology; and permaculture. No chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, GMOs, or intensive livestock farming.

Being part of an MFC allows farmers to share their know-how and experience, as well as equipment and services through a cooperative. The MFC supplies the local population with fresh food through short distribution channels.

The global scientific community provides annual figures on the amount of living organic matter grown by each MFC in the volunteering countries.

The greater the growth of rich and diversified living biomass in a country's farms working under regenerative agriculture principles, the more crocuses the country will be granted by the LMF.

The corresponding crocuses are then allocated by the country’s government to the MFCs, where they are distributed among the natural persons working in them.

Only these persons can exchange crocuses, and exclusively for the local complementary currency (CC) of their place of residence. One crocus = one CC unit = one national currency unit. The CC collective will be government-certified and authorized to include in its books of accounts the received crocuses, legally considered as units of the collateral account to which the CC is attached. Crocuses are repayable as a last resort from the IMF in the relevant national currency.

The global Crocus Complementary Currency would not compete or interfere with the current financial system because it is designed as complementary to it.

To address the challenges facing LDCs, including climate change, the international community should implement this smart and strong measure, the originality of which lies in its cross-cutting nature. Moreover, it’s the way to achieve simultaneously a good part of the 17 UN Sustainable development goals because if implemented, this measure will have the following beneficial effects:

1) It will help to end poverty in all its forms everywhere (SDG #1) by providing additional income in crocus currency to anyone involved in augmenting living organic matter under an LMF-delivered “micro-farm cluster” (MFC) label. This will ultimately involve a very large number of small farmers and agricultural workers, as the agriculture practiced in these micro-farms should develop very rapidly worldwide.

2) It will help to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG #2) because practices that make farmers eligible for crocuses are extremely productive and comply with ecological principles and interactions, mainly pollination. And that, without chemical pollution of water, air, or soil, thus resulting in excellent nutritional qualities.

3) It will help to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (SDG #3) thanks to plentiful and good-quality food, and to the fact that local communities are invigorated by the use of local complementary currencies with which the crocus is articulated.

4) It will help to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all (SDG #4). Families will benefit from an improved quality of life, including good education of their children (especially girls) thanks to the income provided by the crocus. In approved micro-farms, farmers and farm workers apply to the field, in a way adequate and efficient for food production, the vital principles at work in nature, allowing the emergence, everywhere, of solutions that will be very diverse but always relevant and adapted to local conditions, including social ones.

The individuals who comprise the MFCs will thus develop their skills throughout their life. Moreover, they will share them widely as is already being done by permaculture communities, which are interconnected via the Internet all over the world. Communities of the future will use traditional knowledge as well as the latest progress in natural sciences, systems science, environmental techniques, etc.

5) It will help to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls (SDG #5), for whom the crocus will be a privileged means of access to proper financial income.

6) It will help to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all (SDG #6), because the deep and rich soils of agroecosystems in the approved MFCs will have a beneficial effect on the freshwater resource, reducing pollution, regulating the water cycle, filtering out impurities and preventing erosion.

7) It will help to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all (SDG #7), since raising the populations’ standard of living—thus increasing the resources of local communities hosting MFCs—will facilitate pooling the resources needed to equip them with clean and decentralized renewable energy systems (solar, wind, biogas, geothermal energy, etc.).

8) It will promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all (SDG #8), for when farming respects ecological balances, living organic matter increases perpetually. Micro-farms will therefore provide more and more sustainable, quality, and highly productive jobs (in this scheme, agricultural employees are required to have trade-union rights for their employer’s micro-farm license to be renewed).

9) It will help to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation (SDG #9), because implementing the crocus will lead to a more massive use of bio-sourced products, stimulate the circular and/or local economy, stimulate research on ecological engineering, biomimicry, and favor all systems inspired by the functioning of nature.

10) It will help to reduce inequality within and among countries (SDG #10). The resolution, through the crocus, of many current problems such as hunger, unemployment, women's hardship, etc., will mechanically promote social justice and democratic vitality in solidarity and resilience within local and national communities.

11) It will help to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable (SDG #11):

- either by producing the immediate effect of relieving urban congestion thanks to the creation of a considerable number of jobs outside cities;

- or by leading to the establishment of clusters of urban micro-farms wherever possible, thus contributing to the food autonomy of cities and to cooling their climate conditions through the ensuing microclimates.

12) It will help to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG #12), as the crocus will favor short distribution channels, thereby reducing the transportation of foodstuffs, packaging, and food waste. Thanks to the link between the crocus and local currencies, the agricultural, craft-based, and industrial productive fabric will be relocated as close as possible to their need.

13) It will be part of taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG #13). From this point of view, the LMF is a perfect complement to, and even reinforces the diplomacy of the COPs (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change); the Convention on Biological Diversity; the Convention against Desertification) because it will rapidly set in motion a virtuous circle.

Communities will have an interest in taking ownership of the regeneration of their agricultural environment because they will receive rapid financial contribution in the form of crocuses, which will irrigate the local economy. This "snowball" effect will ultimately enable us to sequester massive amounts of atmospheric CO2 and store carbon in living matter, with the resulting positive impact on global warming.

14) It will help to conserve and use sustainably the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development (SDG #14). The crocus will act directly on the cause of sea-level rise and ocean acidification (due to the excessively high CO2 levels in the atmosphere), as well as of eutrophication, which is largely due to pollution discharges from industrial agriculture.

15) It will help to protect, restore, and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, to manage forests sustainably, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss (SDG #15). The crocus is indeed the ideal tool for organizing the regeneration of degraded agricultural land, rapidly and on a very large scale.

Regenerative agriculture practices:

- improve soil health, primarily through practices that increase soil organic matter,

- augment biodiversity both above and below the soil surface,

- boost both water holding capacity and sequestering carbon at greater depths,

- draw down climate-damaging levels of atmospheric CO2,

- and improve soil structure to reverse civilization-threatening human-caused soil loss.

This model allows agro-ecosystems to be restored as sufficiently diversified, rich in interactions of all kinds, and perennial, because resilience spontaneously emerges from complex and regenerative functioning. A resilient system is stable, homeostatic, and self-regulating. It is therefore able to withstand sudden changes such as disasters, droughts, floods, heat waves, fire, cold, wind, pollution, diseases, plagues and pests, conflicts, social disturbances, etc.

Since the productivity of MFCs would be much higher than that of industrial agriculture, the pressure on natural environments to feed the new billions of unborn human beings would be kept to a minimum. Such a reorientation of agriculture would be very beneficial to wildlife as it would respect the areas that are essential to wild fauna and flora.

When we apply these principles to our agricultural systems, we will usher in a new era of abundance for all through the power, incredible diversity, and generosity of life.

16) It will help to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels (SDG #16). The positive action of the LMF will be a major contribution to restoring people's confidence in the international institutions. The universal sharing of a common value, the crocus, will materialize human-to-human cooperation and seal the alliance between our species and nature.

17) The proposed new governance system will revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development (SDG #17) and help to strengthen the means of its implementation, because it is cross-cutting in nature. It would even be a very relevant indicator—since the crocus money supply is by definition quantifiable—to materialize and make tangible this common good of the Earth's inhabitants that will help mitigate (and adapt to) climate change: living organic matter.


Who will take these actions?

Stakeholders in the LMF-crocus process

To favor a paradigm shift toward regenerative agriculture, the United Nations General Assembly solemnly requests the International Monetary Fund to set up a division called the Life Monetary Fund (LMF).

The drafting and observance of its statutes are ensured by a group of eminent personalities, the Statutory Council.

Each participating country has one vote in the LMF Decision-making Assembly (DMA).

An elected Executive Committee, in charge of managing the tasks to be accomplished and the functioning of the Fund, reports bi-annually to the DMA.

Its primary mission is to organize the Observation Network, a task force made up of world scientists who:

- draw up the specifications with which a multi-farm cluster (MFC) will have to comply in order to be awarded the LMF label;

- establish the baseline (amount of living biomass in each MFC at time t=0) in order to observe its evolution;

- produce scales indicating the weighting coefficients to be applied in terms of the geographical location of any MFC: latitude, altitude, orientation, nature of the substratum, etc.;

- publish annual figures of the healthy living biomass generated in each labelled MFC;

Based on this data, the LMF's DMA will decide to grant a significant number of crocuses per year to the various countries participating in the scheme.

A share of the crocuses received by a country is allocated by its government to each MFC, equal to the share of the living biomass it produced the previous year.

An MFC may comprise:

- several farmers wishing to share their know-how and acquire new practices aimed at soil and biodiversity (natural and agricultural) conservation;

- a group of unemployed persons with a collective and viable project; land would be made available to them either by the central government or by a local authority under a 99-year lease;

- one or more private investors, companies, non-profit organizations, foundations, NGOs, landowners, sponsors, etc. wishing to encourage the conversion of farmland impoverished by intensive monoculture; they would benefit from a favorable tax system by supporting the establishment of one or more MFCs.

- or a mix of the above formulas.

Each MFC, formed as a cooperative, distributes the crocuses to each of its members (farmer or agricultural worker), all of them natural persons.

Cooperative members are the only ones authorized to exchange crocuses, only for the local complementary currency (CC) of their place of residence, which is at parity with the national currency, at 1 crocus = 1 CC = 1 national currency unit.

The CC collective is accredited by the state to include in its books of accounts the received crocuses, legally considered as units of the collateral account to which the CC is attached. Crocuses are repayable as a last resort by the IMF in the relevant national currency.

This proposal is a project of international scope that has never been tried before.

"Farmers can be our climate change heroes." (Timothy J. LaSalle)


Where will these actions be taken?

The strength of the LMF-crocus system lies in its simplicity and ease of implementation. It doesn't require mobilizing substantial funds or expensive technologies. On the contrary, the model of agriculture that will make it possible to obtain crocuses is largely based on the wisdom of ancestral customs practiced by small farmers. This is why it will be of interest to most countries, especially the least developed ones.

There will even be a broad consensus among countries regardless of their level of development, because the cross-cutting nature of the crocus currency project enables:

- its extension to all the cultivated lands of the planet, with local values, habits, practices, and customs being respected;

- the commitment of all levels of society, from the small farmer in any country to the consumers we all are, to the General Assembly of the United Nations;

- and the simultaneous achievement of adaptation to global warming and climate change mitigation.

On this last point, it is important to stress that climate change mitigation through soil carbon sequestration can bring co-benefits in terms of adaptation. This is particularly important in developing countries, which are vulnerable to climate change and where mitigation is not perceived as a priority.

Actually, a mitigation-only strategy will not work because many changes are already underway and are now unavoidable.

An adaptation-only strategy will not work either, as with time, most adaptation measures will become increasingly costly and less effective, in some cases ineffective, as the magnitude of climate change escalates.

"Previously at climate talks, disagreement focused on whether helping farmers adapt to climate change, or reducing the greenhouse gases produced by the sector should be prioritized, largely along developing vs. developed country lines.

Developed countries, already equipped with successful techniques for ramping up agricultural production, are more interested in mitigation, making existing techniques more climate-friendly. On the other hand, in developing countries, drought, floods, and hurricanes all wreak havoc with the mostly smallholder-driven agriculture sector. Their priority is to help those farmers adapt and reach food security.

In Bonn at the latest round of climate talks, a compromise was reached to allow two technical bodies to work together to identify solutions on how the agriculture sector can be a part of the solution. The question is: where to begin? How can we rein in emissions in agriculture, while making farmers more resilient to the whims of the weather?

One solution stands out, which lies in capturing carbon on farmland soils, i.e. carbon sequestration. Not only does this process suck harmful carbon out of the atmosphere, it makes soils healthier and more fertile for future food production, boosting resilience to climate change."

(Dr. Louis Verchot - Director, Soils Research Area at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture ; qz.com, January 24, 2018)


In addition, specify the country or countries where these actions will be taken.

United States


Country 2

China


Country 3

India


Country 4

Brazil


Country 5

France


Impact/Benefits


What impact will these actions have on greenhouse gas emissions and/or adapting to climate change?

"The Farming Systems Trial conducted by the Rodale Institute in the USA, showed that CO2 was sequestered into the soil at the rate of 3,596.6 kg of CO2 per hectare per year. Aguilera et al. 2013 found that the organic systems sequestered 3559.9 kg of CO2 per hectare per year.

When extrapolated globally across agricultural lands, would sequester 17.5 Gt of CO2 per year.

Total Agricultural Land: 4,883,697,000 ha. Source: FAO, 2010

3,596.6 kg CO2/ha/yr x 4,883,697,000 = 17.5 Gt of CO2/yr.

CO2 was sequestered into the soil at the rate of 8,220.8 kg per hectare per year in the Rodale Compost Utilization Trial and extrapolated globally would sequester 40 Gt of CO2/yr.

Machmuller et al. 2015: reported an increase of 29,360 kg of CO2/ ha/yr. in three farms converted to management intensive grazing.

If these regenerative grazing practices were implemented on the world’s grazing lands they would sequester 98.5 gt CO2/yr.

Grasslands: 3,356,940,000 ha (FAO, 2010) x 29.36 = 98.5 gt CO2/yr

The above examples show that there are agricultural systems that could sequester enough CO2 and store it as soil organic carbon (SOC) to meet the aspirational goals of the 4 per 1000 Initiative, that is to stop the present increase in atmospheric CO2 which is of 2 ppm of CO2 per year."

(4 per 1000 and Soil Carbon - Andre Leu, IFOAM and Regeneration Internationalhttp://bit.ly/2lnFFoW

"The role of soil organic carbon in global carbon cycles is receiving increasing attention . . . as a natural sink for carbon able to reduce atmospheric CO2. There is general agreement that the technical potential for sequestration of carbon in soil is significant, and some consensus on the magnitude of that potential."

"Soil carbon sequestration and the conservation of existing soil carbon stocks, given its multiple benefits including improved food production, is an important mitigation pathway to achieve the less than 2°C global target of the Paris Climate Agreement."

(Global Sequestration Potential of Increased Organic Carbon in Cropland Soils. Scientific Reports 7, December 2017)https://tinyurl.com/y6zhrz3w

"A literature review of soil organic carbon storage in Sub-Saharan Africa showed that 79 and 63% of the observations had rates that were larger than 4‰ yr-1 in agroforestry and conservation agriculture respectively. Highest rates were observed in fallows or multistrata agroforestry."

"Roots of Sesbania improved fallows in Zambia bring 0.6 to 1 ton of carbon per hectare after 2 years + fuelwood for farmers."

"In Amazonia, tropical pastures under appropriate practices can store 1.27 t C ha-1 yr-1 in humus or soil (0.2 to 1m), contributing to soil fertility and resilience.

"A permanent soil cover, with trees, cover crops or grasses is key to maximize soil carbon sequestration."

“If adaptation is well done, mitigation will result.”

(Fostering Mitigation-Adaptation Synergy in Tropical Agriculture, Emmanuel Torquebiau with V. Blanfort, Y. Prin, M. Corbeels and CIRAD’s 4‰ taskforce, France, June 2017)


What are other key benefits?

Small-scale, labor-intensive patterns of food production will improve the resilience of family farmers, most importantly in LDCs where hunger is concentrated. The solutions brought about by an agroecological model are:

- Social: potential reduction of conflicts over resources (increasing complementarities)

- Environmental: rehabilitation and management of natural resources, maximization of ecological balance, resilience to climate impacts (complementarity of crops).

- Health & nutrition: diversification of production (increase in food and nutritional diversity).

- Economic: economic profitability (maximized use of available resources), financial stability (reduction of dependence on external inputs, limiting the risk of total crop losses, and stabilization of livelihoods through crop diversification ), source of employment (less mechanized, agroecological agriculture requires more labor on farms and in local value chains).

To develop a healthy population and to mitigate the impact of climate change, we need participation from responsible producers, responsible distributors, responsible consumers, responsible finance, and responsible government, among others.

This is precisely what the crocus allows because it is at the crossroads of many conventions and is THE governance tool that is needed to help countries and the international community meet their fundamental commitments:

- to apply the Paris Agreement reached by the UNFCCC COP 21 by implementing the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs);

- to slow global biodiversity loss with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that entered into force in 1993;

- to achieve the UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality target that specifically addresses the regeneration of the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found;

- to achieve the 17 goals of Agenda 2030 (Transforming Our World: 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development) which provides the world with a roadmap towards prosperity for all citizens on a regenerated Earth.

- to live in Harmony with Nature as expressed in the eponymous UN General Assembly Declaration.

The LMF-crocus scheme will foster synergy between mitigation and adaptation since there will be positive feedback of mitigation on adaptation and vice-versa.

Feedback of adaptation on mitigation: Innovative practices for soil fertility management lead to increased soil organic carbon and a reduction in N2O emissions resulting from less use of fertilizers.

Feedback of mitigation on adaptation: Soil carbon sequestration leads to benefits in terms of soil properties and greater resilience to climatic stress, resulting in improved livelihood for farmers.

Soil carbon sequestration should make both sides of the mitigation vs. adaptation debate happy. Efforts to capitalize on this win-win solution need to be stepped up—and now. The implementation of the crocus currency will be crucial to help achieve this goal.


Costs/Challenges


What are the proposal’s projected costs?

The LMF-crocus scheme is ingenious because it is designed as simply complementary to the current financial system and will not interfere with it.

Assessing the cost of such an ambitious instrument requires a preliminary study, but it can already be said that the sum is small compared to the benefits brought on Earth.

Currrently, the world loses 24 billion tons of fertile soil, and dryland degradation reduces national domestic product in developing countries by up to 8% annually.

The success stories of land restoration and conservation offer hope that change is possible when traditional knowledge, technology, and faith communities come together creatively.

This is where we must focus our efforts over the next two decades. The implementation of a global governance tool such as the crocus can help.

The LMF-crocus instrument is itself a measure of its own effectiveness, as the number of crocuses issued will be:

- a faithful reflection of the growth of living matter, thus of the gradual reorientation of agriculture;

- a real-time measure of our ability to allow Mother Nature help us draw down a significant part of the carbon released in the atmosphere as a result of our “energy-related inebriation,” which has considerably increased the entropy of the Earth system and caused the climate to go out of control;

- a good indicator of the increase in dynamism and wealth of local communities;

- the measure of our ability to work intelligently with the forces of Nature, understanding and using the power that it spontaneously and generously provides;

- the proof of humans’ capacity to act in harmony with nature and all living beings in a mutually enriching way.

The crocus currency can be traced from one end of the chain to the other and cannot give rise to corruption. It is not an energy chasm like the bitcoin cryptocurrency because it doesn’t require the use of energy-intensive blockchain technology. It is “THE” Anti-Bitcoin par excellence as it will foster enormous progress for humanity, while the bitcoin does no more than reflect a few individuals’ opportunism, degrades the social bond, and is ultimately a parasite dangerously drifting towards the annihilation of human civilization.

From the purists' point of view, the crocus is more like an incentive than actual currency. The “currency” designation should however be used because it will make it more desirable.

The crocus allows Nature to buy money instead of being bought by money. In other words, ecological vitality, not the commodification of nature, is what generates money here.

This tool is therefore a means of giving nature added value without destroying it. It is synonymous with growth and abundance because living biomass is spontaneously inflationary. It strives towards real social and environmental sustainability.

It is a new paradigm, a “TRUE” Green Revolution acting from the global to the local (“Think globally, act locally”). It is humanity's next great step towards peace and wisdom. Finally!


Timeline

Reducing GHG emissions is so difficult that to limit climate runaway we now need "negative emissions", that is to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Technological solutions are too polluting and consume non-renewable resources.

Geoengineering could create more problems than it solves, as it is not controllable. Atmosphere is complex: when a balance is disturbed locally, a series of chain reactions can occur and have consequences elsewhere or globally.

Drawing down carbon from the air is precisely what plants and soil do. Hence the importance of agroforestry and permaculture, which increase soil fertility, hence food security.

Imagine a global ecological currency that would reflect vital processes and be directly linked to local complementary currencies. Its immediate effect would be a drastic increase in living matter everywhere on Earth.

The key feature of life is to multiply, and nature is spontaneously exuberant. The free energy of the sun is enough if plants and animals are part of a resilient ecosystem with multiple and complex interactions. A currency whose volume would augment in proportion to the increase in living matter that is grown ecologically will spontaneously be inflationary, and the more people cultivate the land in this way, the more they will be rewarded this currency.

This is how we will initiate a virtuous circle. Every effort must be made to ensure that this measure produces its first effects as soon as possible.

It's urgent because unbridled monetary creation throughout the world makes the economic and financial sphere exert unbearable pressure on natural environments. Our civilizations will collapse if we do not urgently invent a new narrative, a pact between humans and nature.

The implementation of the crocus is not excessively long or complicated. In addition, humans are an intelligent and inventive species, with the necessary communication skills to act quickly and in a coordinated manner.

Good news: reviving dying lands and the livelihoods of people affected by desertification, land degradation, and drought can be possible by 2030, according to the intergovernmental committee CRIC17, the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification held in January 2019.

“We have seen a sea-change and huge progress” since the Convention was negotiated in 1994, said Monique Barbut, the UNCCD Executive Secretary.

“With a tiny budget we have LDN projects taking shape in more than a hundred countries. A project preparation facility with the other Rio conventions is in the pipeline. Drought plans are being developed in nearly 50 countries. Land degradation and drought are recognized in the Global Compact on migration as key areas of concern,” Barbut said.

“The potential of this convention has only just started to be realized,” she said. She urged countries to use their creativity and imagination to help amplify UNCCD and help it reach its full potential and stressed that “it is not an impossible ambition.”


About the author(s)

Hélène Nivoix, biographical elements

Born January 19, 1961, native of Besançon in France, the Franche-Comté region near Switzerland. Still lives there.

Ecologist since the age of 11 (following the Club of Rome’s warning in 1972)!

Holds a degree in natural sciences.

Civil servant currently retired for reasons of disability.

Two children. Sensitive to the future of every child in the world.

Member of Friends of the Earth in her youth, then member of the Green Party from its beginning in 1984 (and employed by the party for a while).

Passionate about environmental issues, particularly agriculture.

Donor to multiple movements including Greenpeace, and supporter of a number of media organizations that campaign for the ecology.

My favorite quotes about Regeneration:

"With the right support and incentives, land-dependent communities could help turn degraded land into a productive asset in as little as two years. The approach is the essence of sustainable development. It offers millions of people real opportunity. It delivers the basis for food, energy and water security. It helps build resilience in the face of climate change. It reduces carbon emissions AND sequesters carbon in the soil.

And worldwide, there are huge opportunities. There are 2 billion hectares of degraded land worldwide with the potential for restoration. 75% of that is in working landscapes. The restoration of just 500 million hectares could store up to 30% of global carbon emissions, buying us valuable time for energy transition. And with the costs of restoration in the range of 150 dollars a hectare, it is cost-effective. It makes policy and business sense." (Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary, UNCCD)

"Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple." (Bill Mollison 1928-2016, co-founder of permaculture with David Holmgren)

"You sow one grain, you harvest a hundred. What could be better than that?" (Claude Bourguignon, French agronomist, soil specialist)


Related Proposals

Planting trees to increase food security? The case study of the groundnut basin of Senegal

Intensification in cocoa cropping systems : is agroforestry a solution for sustainability? The case of Manso Amenfi, Western region, Ghana

Ecosystem services from agriculture and agroforestry : measurement and payment

CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry leaflet (2018)

Permacultural Organic Market Gardening and Economic Performance Bec-Hellouin Farm, France


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