"We have initiated a programme of support for access to seeds, fertilizers, animal feed etc," he said, and he added: "we are assisting the Gambia government in preparing a certain number of programmes and projects for the medium and long-term. And we are also working hard to ensure that the spirit of the South-South co-operation is realised", Dr Diouf stated.

The FAO director general further revealed that the FAO will continue to bring to the attention of the international community the commitment they made in June at the high level conference, which was confirmed by the commitment made in Japan during the G8 Summit, again re-confirmed during the UN General Assembly in September, in New York and still, during the World Bank, IMF committee meeting in Washington.

"We have to make sure that these commitments are sustained; we need the media to raise awareness on the fact that we still have the food crisis despite the fact that prices went down from July 2008.

They are still 50% above the level of 2008," Dr Diouf observed.

"Developed countries, in response to high prices, saw their cereal production increased by 9.9%. During the same period, for the developing countries, we saw an increase of only 0.9%.

And if we exclude China, India, Brazil and South Africa from the group of developing countries, the other ones show a decrease in production of 1.5%. So we are in crisis. We need 30 billion dollars to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth," the FAO director general highlighted.

He revealed further that in 2007, the number of hungry people increased by 75 million instead of decreasing by 41 million in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Dr Diouf expressed delight at meeting President Jammeh, saying that their discussion was fruitful. He described the Gambian leader as an experienced agriculturist whose aim is to ensure that The Gambia becomes food self-sufficient in the shortest possible time.

"President Jammeh was able to plan to make sure that stocks of rice are available before the food crisis started and that is why The Gambia was able to manage the situation.

President Jammeh is committed to agriculture and he has leadership commitment which is a fundamental element at the FAO. We are happy to discuss with such an experienced man," he remarked.

Prior to his audience with President Jammeh, Dr Diouf also paid courtesy call on Aja Dr Isatou Njie-saidy, vice-president and secretary of state for women's affairs.

He told reporters that his discussion with the vice president was centred on the agricultural situation in The Gambia as well strategies that could be taken to assist Gambian farmers.

"We saw that the share of agriculture in overseas development assistance go down from 17% to 13% in 1998 and then to 3% only in 2006, which means that the resources that should go to agriculture has decreased," he said.

Dr Diouf finally called on all countries across the world to give special attention and support to agriculture.

The FAO director-general was later seen off at the Banjul International Airport by senior government officials, staff of the department of state for Agriculture, FAO officials in The Gambia, among others.

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The predictions of sea-level rise, earthquakes and floods are a particular threat in the nations of Bangladesh, Tuvalu, Vietnam and Tajikistan.

"All indicators show that we are dealing with a major emerging global problem," said Janos Bogardi, director of UNU's Institute on the Environment and Human Security.

The issue of migration, he points out, represents the most profound expression of the inter-linkage between the environment and human security.

Unlike the traditional economically motivated migrants of today, the environmentally motivated migration is expected to feature poorer people, more women, children and elderly, from more-desperate environmental situations, and possibly less able to move far.

A group of experts who did a two-year research study points out that existing human trafficking networks would gain strength and new ones could emerge as environmental deterioration, climate change and disaster uproot millions of people.

In Bangladesh, women with children, whose husbands either died at sea during cyclone Sidr or are away as temporary labor migrants, are easy prey for traffickers and end up in prostitution networks or in forced labor in India.

Bangladesh is also often considered "the country that could be most affected by climate change" due to projected sea-level rise and flooding from melting Himalayan glaciers. It is also heavily affected by sudden disasters, such as cyclones.

According to preliminary findings, Bangladesh may lose up to one-fifth of its surface area due to rising sea level. And this scenario is likely to occur, if the sea level rises by about 3 feet and no dyke enforcement measures are taken.

Asked if there should be an international treaty to protect the new breed of environmental migrants, Bogardi said: "Yes, there should be a convention or set of treaties and formal recognition of people displaced or migrating due to environmental causes."

However, he said, such a treaty should be independent of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

The new refugees will also come from countries such as the Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Palau: small islands in danger of being wiped off the face of the Earth due to sea level rise triggered by climate change.

"An entirely different question is how to deal with the disappearance of a state? This is a legal question, and international lawyers have already been contemplating 'solutions' like governments [in permanent] exile or the model of the Sovereign Order of Malta," Bogardi said.

"While the submergence of an entire state is unique, we expect that the humanitarian [and economic] challenge [measured by the number of people affected] will be much greater in the deltas of Bangladesh, the Nile River, Mekong River or even the Rhine and Mississippi Rivers, than in small island states," he added.

A three-day conference on environmental migrants, described as the largest-ever conference on this issue, is expected to conclude next weekend in Bonn, Germany.

Hosted by UNU, the conference, which is being attended by officials and experts from about 80 countries, also serves as a platform to introduce the fledgling Climate Change Environment and Migration Alliance.

Meanwhile, addressing the high-level segment of the General Assembly sessions last month, the vice president of Palau, Elias Camsek Chin, told member states they must be guided by a single consideration: "Saving those small island states that today live in danger of disappearance."

Palau and members of the Pacific Islands Forum, including Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Micronesia, "are deeply concerned about the growing threat which climate change poses not only to our sustainable development but also to our future survival," Chin said.

"This is a security matter which has gone un-addressed," he warned the General Assembly.

James Michel, the president of Seychelles, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, said: "It is not right that small island states have to run the risk of being submerged by rising sea levels, whilst some nations refuse to even acknowledge their responsibility for the high levels of environmental pollution which are now threatening the planet's resources."

Kiribati's President Anote Tong told the General Assembly his country has only several decades before its islands become uninhabitable. The 100,000 people in his country must one day move elsewhere, he said.

Asked if any of the countries neighboring these small island states have expressed their willingness to accommodate the new migrants, Bogardi said: "There is no recognition [yet] of environmentally [forced] migrants, hence there is no specific expression of obligation to let in migrants who migrate due to sea level rise, frequent storm surges or other such environmental events.

"It is one of our main goals to establish and have accepted three categories of environmental migrants [namely, environmentally motivated migrants, environmentally forced migrants and environmental emergency migrants]," Bogardi said.

The latter category of environmental emergency migrants would account for those displaced by natural hazard events like earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc.

Bogardi said the frequently reported Tuvalu-New Zealand deal on migrants does not refer to accepting migrants for environmental reasons but rather New Zealand providing a labor migration quota for people from Tuvalu through its Pacific Access Category migration program.

Asked about the possible extinction of some of the low-lying small island states, Bogardi said some small island states could face "disappearance" in the case of more extreme sea level rise than expected in benchmark reports such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report.

Even if sea level rise exceeds expectations, he pointed out, the process is likely to be gradual over decades.

"Increasing sea level would threaten coastal aquifers, thus feasible life and economic activities would diminish much before the islands would disappear," he said. Consequently, he added, "we expect migratory trends to emerge" or be stronger than at present in the years and decades to come.

"In summary, we expect depopulation as an ultimate coping measure to be implemented gradually before the physical disappearance of those islands. Time scale is decades, if not centuries."

The announcement that the territories of the George River and the National Parks Reserves Monts-Pyramides, Collines-Ondulées and Baie-aux-Feuilles will be protected represents important news for our natural capital. The groups salute the sustained efforts of the Ministère du Développement durable, de l'Environnement et des Parcs (MDDEP) at a time when pressure is high and resources are limited. They nevertheless admit that there remains a lot to be done to protect our natural resources for the benefit of future generations.

Conserving such abundant ecosystems as the majestic George River, Québec will ensure the preservation of Aborginal ancestral heritage and culture and protection of one of the world's largest herds of caribou. "The Government is taking the first step to protect barren-ground caribou which, we hope, will lead to the protection of woodland caribou in the Boreal region, a species that is vulnerable in Québec and threatened in Canada," explains Christian Simard, executive director of Nature Québec.

When the next goal of 8% (as promised three years ago) is attained, the groups urge the adoption of a complementary vision aimed at protecting our wilderness for the future. This includes conducting a gap analysis to determine what is missing to create a conservation network rather than isolated parcels of protected lands, in particular in the southern part of the province where logging is underway. "As for the northern part of the province, beyond the northern tree cutting limit, we must absolutely implement an approach based on the realities of the 21st Century, that is conservation-based sustainable development on at least half of the territory and ensuring Aboriginal leadership," adds Marie-Ève Marchand of SNAP Québec.

Culture and nature are intrinsically linked

"We would like to congratulate the Government of Québec as well as the First Nations and Inuit people who have taken the important decision to protect these lands. It represents good progress in the conservation of natural and cultural values, and we look forward to a continuing the conversation about a balanced approach to conservation and sustainable development in Québec," said Harvey Locke, spokesperson for the CBI.

To conclude, SNAP Québec, Nature Québec and the CBI remind all Quebeckers that it is important to act while we still have the opportunity and abundance to do so. As part of the World Conservation Congress currently underway in Barcelona, yesterday the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) unveiled the results of its updated Red List of species, which confirm the extinction crisis: one species out of four is at risk of disappearing from the face of the Earth. This is a real crisis, and doing nothing to prevent it would prove costly. The time has come to undertake wide-scale action, and Québec has the opportunity to play an important role in protecting biodiversity and fighting climate change at the world level.

Nature Québec

Nature Québec (www.naturequebec.org) is a national non-profit organization that brings together more than 5000 individuals and 100 affiliated groups working in the environment and sustainable development. Founded in 1981, the organization has spoken out over the years about a number of environmental issues, including protected areas, agriculture, forestry exploitation and energy.

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - CPAWS/SNAP Quebec

Named a top ten charity organization in 2007 by Tides Canada, CPAWS/SNAP is a non-profit, wilderness protection organization founded in 1963. With 13 chapters across Canada, staffed with over 50 people, and hundreds of committed volunteers, CPAWS/SNAP creates consensus for wilderness conservation by engaging citizens, government and industry at the community level through a 10 year vision of preserving at least half of Canada's wilderness.

CPAWS/SNAP-Quebec (www.snapqc.org) came into existence in 2001. It mainly focuses on establishing a true network of protected areas throughout the province's public lands, the protection and management of the Boreal forest and the existing parks and protected areas.

Canadian Boreal Initiative

Established in 2003, the Canadian Boreal Initiative (CBI) (www.borealcanada.ca) works with a wide range of conservation organizations, First Nations, industry and other interested parties to link science, policy and conservation activities in Canada's Boreal Forest. Based in Ottawa, the CBI brings together diverse partners to create new solutions for Boreal conservation and acts as a catalyst for on-the-ground efforts across the Boreal by governments, industry, First Nations, conservation groups, major retailers, financial institutions and scientists.

SOURCE: CANADIAN BOREAL INITIATIVE

SOURCE: Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society

SOURCE: Nature Québec

Mylène Bergeron, Communications coordinator, Nature Québec, (418) 648-2104
x 2074, (418) 933-2031; Sophie Paradis, Communications coordinator, SNAP Québec,
(514) 278-7627 x 221; www.snapqc.org