ABC @ Work Conference 2012 in Thailand
Initiated by Oxfam Novib and Hivos and hosted by Greennet, Thailand, more then 40 people from 21 countries pitched their camp at the Wongsanit Ashram on the 4th of july, some 80 miles east of Bangkok. They were farmers, scientists and civil service workers from NGO’s rangng from Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Philipines, Thailand, Holland to Bhutan and many more countries. They came together to join forces on their knowledge and best practices to break through what they identified a year earlier in Thika, Kenya as their ‘Glass House’. Their symbol of the limitations one runs into when stuggling as a single entity trying to get the well deserved seat at the ‘World Dinner Table’. For, in all honesty, this way of producing food proofs to be very effective, delivering high yields and at the same time serving wellbeing for humanity and planet. The outcome is a strong comprehensive view on the future and a set of agreed upon tangible strategies with matching plans and actions to put this vision on the ground. Key working topics that will make the ‘Glass House’ look like a thing of the past are: ‘policy and governance’, ‘seed and technology’, ‘market and trading’, ‘informational networks’ and ’community based bio-diverse food production models’. The 21 nations are working in a sophisticated networked community platform with no time/space limitations. Their next meeting is set for the spring of 2013.
First cracks in the glass house-Wangsanit Ashram, Thailand, July 04-08, 2012
forty four people from all over the world met in Thailand in July 2012 for a three-and-a-half day conference as part of the Agribiodiversity@Knowledged Programme. The meeting was facilitated by the Embassy of the Earth and the Groene Aap using the search conference methodology. The conference builds on the meeting in Thika, Kenya, in october 2011, with a number of organisations active in the field of agricultural biodiversity.
Conference video report
ABC @ Work Conference 2011 in Thika
The first agricultural biodiversity meeting in Thika in October 2011 established the state of knowledge around agricultural biodiversity and identified knowledge gaps, common ground and support for the development of the abc.