Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay reaffirm commitment to environmental sustainability

The ministers and secretaries of agriculture of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, meeting within the framework of the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS), noted that the production systems of their countries adopt practices to protect natural resources and produce “more with less”.

They called on developed nations to fulfill their responsibility, recognized in 2015 in the Paris Agreement, to provide financial resources for mitigation and adaptation to climate change in developing countries.

The CAS is the ministerial forum for consultation and coordination of regional actions, made up of the ministers and secretaries of agriculture of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Its purpose is to define the priorities of the agricultural plan and adopt common positions on issues of regional interest.

The Council met in Montevideo within the framework of Expo Prado 2022, one of the most important agricultural exhibitions in the world, for the first time in person since the circulation restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Participants included:

• Paraguay’s Minister of Agriculture, Santiago Bertoni;
• Chile’s Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela;
• Uruguay’s Minister of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries, Fernando Mattos;
• Argentina’s Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, Juan José Bahillo;
• Brazil’s Secretary of Trade and International Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply, Jean Marcel Fernández;
• and Bolivia’s official of the Ministry of Rural Development and Land, Dedy González.

The Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero, was also present. IICA is the Executive Secretariat of the CAS.

In that capacity, IICA proposed to the ministers that the CAS be strengthened and appointed Gabriel Delgado, the Institute’s Representative in Brazil and Coordinator of the Southern Cone Region, to head it up technically.

The IICA Representative in Uruguay, Rodrigo Saldías, will be in charge of the administration of the Council, which will remain at its headquarters in Montevideo. The ministers endorsed the decision during the meeting.

Alejandra Sarquis, who has served as CAS technical secretary with recognized responsibility and efficiency since the organization’s creation in 2003, was also recognized at the meeting.

Also, during the meeting, the Paraguayan minister, Santiago Bertoni, transferred the pro tempore presidency of CAS to his Uruguayan counterpart, Fernando Mattos.

“We had a difficult time when the pandemic meant that we had to create conditions to ensure that the flow of trade between our countries did not stop,” said Bertoni.

He highlighted as milestones during 2021 the Declaration of Principles and Values of the Region for food production within the framework of sustainable development (XLII Regular Meeting of the CAS – 04/05/21) and the document with 16 messages from agriculture in the Americas, prepared with the coordination of IICA for the UN Food Systems Summit.

Mattos also praised IICA’s work and rejected that “they want to put us in the dock as if agricultural production were the leading cause of climate change.

A REGION VULNERABLE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

In a consensus statement adopted at the meeting, the ministers noted that the agricultural sector in Latin America and the Caribbean is one of the world’s leading food producers and is highly vulnerable to climate change.

They added that they view with concern “certain arbitrary and unjustified initiatives and proposals put forward by some countries or blocs, which, far from resolving the problems we face, will exacerbate the vulnerability of the poorest people to climate change, reducing production and international trade in raw materials and healthy, safe, nutritious, and sustainable food.

The ministers also expressed the need to deepen a shared vision of the agricultural sector of the Americas on the issue of mitigation and adaptation to climate change, with a view to the UN conference (COP27), which will occur in November in Egypt.

The statement reads, “despite not being primarily responsible for climate change, the CAS countries make an essential contribution to global food security.

“It has been possible thanks to the progress in building an agricultural sector that has developed the necessary state and private institutions for innovation and development of technologies applied to the sector and human capital in line with the new challenges imposed by climate change.

“To continue providing the world with healthy, safe, nutritious, and sustainable food, we ratify our priority commitment to sustainable production and adaptation as key work areas.”

The ministers also stressed that there is no single production model and that solutions must be adapted to local realities.

They also reiterated their commitment to the continuous improvement of production systems, based on not affecting food security, and that any transition must be fair, leaving no one behind.

Regarding the global discussion that will take place at COP 27, they recalled that the Paris Agreement recognizes the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

“CAS Member Countries, as developing countries, we urge increased funding to support national efforts on climate action, always respecting the priorities and needs of the country taking action,” they stated.

“We urge developed countries to make substantive and operational commitments to finance, primarily for adaptation investments in agriculture and rural infrastructure, as well as research, technology transfer, and capacity building,” they concluded.

With information from América Retail

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