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Seventeenth Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 17)
4 - 15 May 2009
UN Headquarters, New York, US
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Highlights from Wednesday, 13 May
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The High-Level Segment opened on Wednesday morning, followed by roundtable discussions on "Responding to the food crisis through sustainable development" in the afternoon. CSD 17 delegates also continued negotiating draft recommendations in multiple Working Groups and informal consultations throughout the day and into the night. Photo: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and CSD Chair Gerda Verburg during the opening of the High-Level Segment.
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| Opening of the High-Level Segment |
| A view of the dais during the opening of the High-Level Segment. |
| UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left photo) highlighted that sustainable agriculture can contribute to climate change mitigation, and urged CSD 17 to succeed and inspire the world to address the multiple daunting challenges faced. |
| Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana (left), called for reforming multilateral institutions in a way that meaningfully integrates sustainable development into global decisionmaking and taking bold action on climate change at the Copenhagen meeting. Homero Bibiloni, Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development, Argentina (right photo) stressed the need to implement measures to overcome existing crises. He stressed that agricultural subsidies and tariffs create an unequal playing field.
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| Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Minister of Environment and Tourism, Namibia (left) and Julia Marton-Lefevre, Director-General, IUCN (right). |
| Shoaib Sultan Khan, National Rural Support Programme of Pakistan (left) and Sylvie Lucas, Permanent Representative of Luxembourg to the UN and ECOSOC President (right photo). |
| Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, US (left) and Ismat Jahan, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN, speaking on behalf of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) (right). |
| Delegates from Belgium (left) and Brazil (right). |
| Delegates before the convening of the High-Level Segment (left) and and Argentina (right). |
| Sha Zukang, UN Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (left) and Jakub Sebesta, Minister of Agriculture, Czech Republic, speaking for the EU (center photo). |
Roundtable on responding to the food crisis through sustainable development |
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| Axumite Gebre-Egziabher, Director of UN-HABITAT’s NY office, UNEP Executive Directo Achim Steiner, David O'Connor, DSD, CSD Chair Gerda Verburg. Vivian Pliner, Secretariat, Rajul Pandya-Lorch, International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) and Alexander Julius Müller, FAO. |
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, David O'Connor, DSD, and CSD Chair Gerda Verburg. |
| Ministers during the roundtable. |
| Rajul Pandya-Lorch, Head, IFPRI's 2020 Vision Initiative, and
Alexander Julius Müller,
Assistant Director-General, Natural Resource Management and Environment Department, FAO (right photo). |
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner addresses the ministerial roundtable. |
| Delegates from Cote D'Ivoire and Cameroon (left photo) and Guatemala and Gabon (right photo). |
| Delegates from Norway and Nigeria. |
| Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Namibian Minister of Environment and Tourism, and Kathleen Merrigan, US Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, co-chaired one of the parallel roundtables. |
| Manfred Bötsch, Secretary of Agriculture, Switzerland, and Oliver Dulic, Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Serbia, co-chaired the other parallel roundtable. |
Working Groups continued with their negotiations |
| Working Groups continued their negotiations throughout the day. |
Special Event: The Crucial Role of Genetic Resources in Ensuring Food Security in a Changing Climate, organized by the Nordic Council of Ministers |
| This event focused on the conservation and sustainable utilization of genetic resources. The Nordic countries have a well-established regional cooperation for this purpose and have also actively assisted in developing similar solutions in other regions, for example in the SADC region in Africa. The event conveyed that these questions have become even more relevant due to climate change, and improved access to genetic resources is crucial for ensuring sufficient global food production. |
| Jessica Kathle, Director, Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen), moderated the event (left photo). Gunnar Palsson, Permanent Representative of Iceland to the UN, welcomed delegates (right photo). |
| Cary Fowler, Executive Director, Global Crop Diversity Trust (left) and Marjatta Rasi, Under-Secretary of State, Finland (right). |
| Paul Munyenyembe, SADC Plant Genetic Resources Center (right photo). |
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Links to CSD 17 information
Related IISD RS Coverage and Resources
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