The Rio Conventions Pavilion was held between 17-27 November, 2018 in CBD COP14, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. On the 25th of November, on the Agriculture Day, nitrogen was also represented by the chair of INI, Prof. N. Raghuram in the session “Soil in the nexus: UNCBD, UNFCCC, UNCCD”.
The opening session was addressed by David Cooper from CBD, followed by a key note speech by Kelly Ramirez (Netherlands Institute of Ecology) on "Biodiversity mainstreaming: From Cancun to Beijing". Then, the above mentioned panel session took place, moderated by Ronald Vargas (FAO). The panellists were:
- Edda Fernandez Luiselli, Government of Mexico
- Karin Zaunberger, European Commission
- Glenn Litsios, FOEN, Switzerland
- N. Raghuram, Chair, International Nitrogen Initiative
The panelists
Prof. Raghuram, in his presentation titled "Nutrient pollution, agriculture and biodiversity", stressed how nutrients are at the heart of all 3 Rio conventions and yet, how little attention nutrients get in CBD meetings. Then, he gave an overview of the European Nitrogen Assessment, the report Our Nutrient World, the Indian Nitrogen Assessment and INMS.
Prof. Raghuram on the podium
During the discussion, participants highlighted the unbalanced and geographically uneven use of nutrients e.g. in Africa, the need for fine tuning the best practices in accordance with the agro-ecological conditions, as well as the need for better synergy between agriculture and environment ministries in national governments for better results.
