Quick guides for:
Donors - Media - Scientists - Trainers/Trainees        Employment   Contacts    Subscribe   Home   Site map

    About us       Projects    News and Events    Up for Discussion                        Browse by

Plants and Animals

Regions

Themes

Publications

Information sources

Oman signs Bioversity establishment agreement

The Sultanate of Oman recently announced that it had signed Bioversity International's establishment agreement. This brings the number of signatories to 52. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Yousef Ben Alaoui Ben Abdallah, said that the Omani embassy in Rome will be depositing the signed document with Bioversity's hosts at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Countries continue to sign the agreement," said Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity, "which proves that today our work is more useful and relevant to them than ever."

Oman also announced that it had set up two national committees on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Both involve multiple stakeholders, including NGOs, and are intended to facilitate the implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and other aspects of the use and conservation of agricultural biodiversity. One of the committees will be headed by the Under Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and will implement general policies in this area. The other will be an executive committee, chaired by the Director of agricultural and animal research. It will develop research proposals, build information databases and review legislation and policies to ensure protection of biodiversity. This committee will also work to promote public awareness among Omani society of the importance of agricultural biodiversity.

"We look forward to even closer collaboration with our partners in Oman," said George Ayad, Director of Bioversity’s regional office for Central and Western Asia and North Africa.

For further information, contact Jeremy Cherfas.