Tony Rinaudo reporting from the UNCCD Conference in Namibia

September 23, 2013

Today was my first day at the conference.

The sheer size of this event is quite staggering. Special gigantic tents have been erected to cater for the very large crowds. Being a UN conference all the nations of the world are participating, and many UN agencies and organizations are represented. It has been good to join different sessions and interesting to listen to many country representatives give their comments on several proposals of the convention.

From Niger alone, where FMNR started, there were ten delegates. I was very happy to meet the Niger Minister of Environment and the Director General for the Environment Department. They seemed to be very proud that the Niger reforestation story was mentioned so often.

A success story worth replicating.

Tony Rinaudo is Natural Resources Advisor for the Food Security and Climate Change Team at World Vision Australia. Tony’s FMNR techniques have already been adopted by farmers in different parts of the world. He is currently attending the UNCCD 11th Conference of the Parties in Namibia.

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