Mario Arvelo in the Forestry Committee
Mario Arvelo delivers the keynote address at the opening session of the 24th United Nations Committee on Forestry, on July 6, 2018. In his speech, he stated that when forests are mentioned in the context of food and nutrition security it is almost always in a negative sense, where forests are seen as a territory condemned to be exploited to facilitate the expansion of crops; we can make a positive reading: forests and trees make direct and abundant contributions to the food supply while creating rural employment, generating income, providing habitat for eighty percent of animal species, protecting the biodiversity on which we all depend, protecting soils from erosion, supplying wood for bioenergy and construction, sustaining ecosystem services both locally and globally —including pest control and pollination— locking up carbon, minimizing floods and landslides, collecting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, supporting the resilience of farmers, and recycling and purifying the water we drink and the air we breathe. [Photo ©FAO/Giuseppe Carotenuto]
Other links to Mario Arvelo’s work in the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
- Mario Arvelo at FAO
- With the Director-General
- In Council
- In the Committee on World Food Security
- In the Committee on Agriculture
- In the Global Soils Partnership
- In the Commission on Finance, Budget, and Reform
- In the Programme Committee
- In the Appeals Committee
- In the Regional Conferences
- In the Committee on Forestry
- In field inspection visits
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