28 May each year, World Hunger Day, is a poignant reminder of the high degree of food insecurity in many parts of the world exacerbated by the consequences of climate change. At the level of the individual, the community, the State, and the world society, there is a need to take firm action to formulate effective responses to this food insecurity such as we see these days in the Gaza Strip.
The first step is to develop a strong awareness of the need to care for the earth's natural environment. We have every reason to believe that it is possible to achieve a stable, sustainable and fulfilling mode of life if we make the necessary efforts to manage better our natural resources and the rich diversity of life.
In many parts of the world, the basic rural biological systems - forests, grasslands, croplands, and rivers - are deteriorating due to a variety of factors: armed conflicts, population pressure, pollution, and excessive production for export. The causes for this deterioration will vary from one micro-region to anopther. Therefore, it is individuals and organizations that are closest to the micro-region which can play the most active role in analysing the environment, in indicating the causes for the strains on the biological systems, and in working to reverse negative trends.
We need to look at the divisions of labor between man and woman in the agricultural process. As an Indian woman sociologist Bina Agarwal wrote "The typical rural woman works twelve to fifteen hours a day - gathering firewood and water, growing food, collecting fodder and tending domestic animals, cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the sick or elderly. In severely deforested areas, it may take her four or five hours just to gather enough wood to cook the evening meal."
Thus women's role as sustainable managers of their environment and providers for their families must be fully recognized, valued, and supported. Increasing women's access to income, credit, land titles, and other resources is essential to eradicating poverty and hunger. Everyone wins when women and men of good will work together to improve the conditions of women.
A chief ecological need is to protect diversity and to restore diversity when it has been weakened. The biodiversity we have today is the fruit of natural processes and the influence of humans. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we depend. Growing concern about biodiversity comes from the realization that some of the damage that persons are doing to the environment can be put right. However, restoration may take a decade, so there is a need to act now.
On this World Hunger Day, we dedicate ourselves to positive action for better food production and soil protection.
René Wadlow, Association of World Citizens
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