“Preserving our biodiversity is really an insurance policy for humanity”
The exhibition Mundia Mediterra opened on Sunday as part of the first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development to illustrate the vital importance of the region as a bridge between Africa and Europe and a crucible of biodiversity which requires a high level of international scientific cooperation in order to preserve and sustain this heritage for future generations.
Sponsored by GFAR and Agreenium and produced by research and training organizations in the Mediterranean, CGIAR, intergovernmental organizations, the exhibition illustrates the way in which cooperation among stakeholders on research can be leveraged to address the main challenges – economic, environmental and demographic – facing the region.
The exhibition also focuses on the importance of preserving biodiversity in the Mediterranean in 2010, the UN’s Year of Biodiversity. It is one of the world’s biodiversity ‘hot spots’ as it contains more than 5% of the Earth’s species and suffers from a critical loss of original habitat, at least 70%.
It features lavish illustrations of the major challenges facing the region, and scientific research programs currently underway by organizations both south and north of the Mediterranean to addresss issues ranging from salinity and desertification to nutrition and agro-ecology.
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