Global challenges for agriculture (including aquaculture, fisheries and forestry)

Recommendation 1350 (1997)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

SeeDoc. 7845, report of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, rapporteur: Mr Scheer. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 7 November 1997.

Thesaurus

1. The Assembly refers to its Recommendations 1048 (1987) on the consequences for agriculture of current soil degradation, 1142 (1991) on labelling of quality food products, 1213 (1993) on developments in biotechnology and the consequences for agriculture, 1232 (1994) on the management of water resources in relation to agriculture, and 1244 (1994) on food and health, as well as its Resolution 979 (1992) on agriculture's contribution to enhancing energy security and saving the global environment.

2. It also refers to the Council of Europe Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention), the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and Agenda 21, adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and the Pan-European Strategy on Biological and Landscape Diversity of the Council of Europe.

3. In spite of these conventions and other agreements, the destruction of biotopes and biodiversity continues throughout the world.

4. Soil erosion and water pollution may threaten food security and have severe environmental consequences.

5. Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture interact in a particular manner with nature.

6. Non-sustainable exploitation practices in these four sectors, combined with an increasing world population, have caused damage to the environment, but these sectors could also contribute positively to re-establishing the natural balance of the Earth's ecosystem and assure universal food security if sustainable management policies and production systems were adopted.

7. Consequently, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:

7.1 review the European Water Charter and the European Soil Charter, with the purpose of updating them and consider strengthening their legal force;

7.2 continue and intensify its work on the protection of biotopes and on the conservation of biological and landscape diversity, in particular with a view to identifying the role and contributions of agriculture, aquaculture, forestry and fisheries to sustainable development.