Resolution on Food Security in the Asia-Pacific Region

19th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum
23-27 January 2011

Resolution on Food Security in the Asia-Pacific Region

APPF19/RES/09

(Sponsored by Chile, Mexico and Mongolia)

THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM:

Considering that notwithstanding a economic growth in the Asia-Pacific, poverty reduction and food security are high priorities on the regional agenda;

Recognizing the importance of implementing policies and strategies on developing food security, agriculture, forestry, fishery, food production and multilateral cooperation;

Considering that development of legal structure for food inspection and favorable legal environment is important for protecting human health, avoiding non-standard food products and promoting safe food production and its trade;

Concerned over the global climate change and natural disasters affecting crops and livestock production as well as decreasing food supply;

Bearing in mind a worldwide spread of food borne diseases due to non-standard sanitary conditions and chemical residue in food;

Considering that, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the food crisis of recent years had an impact on 925 million human beings, who suffered hunger and malnutrition, and that many more are threatened to suffer from them if their access to food and resources for producing food is not rapidly improved;

Remembering that from 2006 to 2008, world famine levels grew, up to include more of one hundred million of poor people, while at the same time the production of cereals grew; the prices of rice, corn, wheat and soy doubled during the same period. The result was, therefore, that while access to food was reduced among the poorest sector of the world population, multi-national businesses increased their profits in an exorbitant way;

Making a statement that an increase in world temperature by 3º C will bring about the loss of 30% of all Earth’s wetlands, the extinction of species in the same proportion and a severe drop in food production;

Admitting that these impacts jeopardize food security and force populations to migrate, thereby having a negative effect on equality and governability in the Asia-Pacific region and in other countries in the planet;

Considering that most cultivation lands irrigated by rain are in possession of the low-income, poor peasants and that climate changes will have a major impact on their lives and development, bringing about greater poverty and governability problems;

Concerned because droughts and other meteorological phenomena associated with climate change in producing countries have affected crops and will continue to have an impact on the production of food;

Taking into account that, due to the loss of cultivation lands, countries that were previously self-sufficient have become food-importing nations;

Recognizing the sustained increase in food prices in the international market and that total billings for the importation of food may be greater than one billion dollars in 2010, a level not seen since 2008;

Recognizing that, in accordance with article 25 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights “Every person has the right to an adequate quality of life that ensures him/her and his/her family health and well being and especially access to all necessary food, dress, housing, medical assistance and social services”;

Concerned also for the lack of investment in the countryside, in agricultural research, in the formation of agriculturalists and in rural development, both by governments and by development agencies and international financial institutions, a lack which has exposed especially small-scale agriculturalists to disloyal competition and have reduced their capacity to produce food in sufficient amounts;

Considering that the current food situation is affected by the growth of speculation with basic agricultural and food products, given the competition between the generation of biofuels and the production of food and given the increase in world demand for food, due to diet changes in emerging economies;

Concerned because, if these trends continue, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, by 2017 the figure of hungry individuals could surpass 1.2 billion, and because each day 25,000 people die because of hunger and malnutrition, of whom at least 11,000 are children.

RESOLVES TO:

Appeal to develop Action Plan on “Food Security Strategy in the Asia-Pacific region for the years 2011-2015”.
Strengthen risk-based-food-inspection structure, improve food safety and healthy food production, financial capacity and regulatory management.
Exhort APPF members to promote among the region’s countries the urgent implementation of strategies to fight and mitigate climate change, in accordance with the objectives to eradicate famine and achieve long-term food security in the Asia-Pacific region and in the world.
Call on parliamentarians to establish a sustainable balance between the production of energy and that of food, assigning priority to achieving food security.
Make progress in all needed regulatory changes to limit financial speculation with commodities, which is the result of transactions using speculative capital.
Promote inside the countries of the region the dissemination of practical knowledge and the access to resources and technologies as per the commitments established in different international instruments, such as the Declaration of Rome and the Millennium Declaration, that evidence the will of the Asia-Pacific parliamentarians to achieve the eradication of hunger.
Improve the regulation of markets, guaranteeing a greater transparency and the establishment of an adequate level of emergency reserves.
Promote technical, scientific and technological cooperation, in order to increase the production of food in the region, as well as to promote better practices and forms to ensure fluid and efficient international trade in food products.
Promote productive investment in the agricultural sector in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, so as to enable them to produce the supplementary food needed by the world population.
Establish a jurisdictional framework to be applied by governments, international organizations and by all sectors of civil society in order to make constant progress towards universal food security.
Notes with concern the overexploited status of some fish stocks in the Pacific, and encourages coastal States, and States fishing in the area, to adopt effective conservation and management measures, increase scientific advice when formulating and adopting these measures, and commit to total compliance, aiming at the conservation of fishing resources and food security in States of the Pacific Rim.
Contribute to world stability and peace through attainment of a greater food security.
Commit to improving the efficiency of vehicles and reduce their use, to reduce polluting emissions from buildings and household appliances, to encourage the use of natural gas and the solar and nuclear generation of electrical power; to increase reforestation and stop deforestation: to promote conservation-friendly agricultural practices; to increase wind production of electrical power.
Promote development of food security and the reduction of poverty as part of a sustainable mechanism for ensuring the regional growth.