Food Security and Climate Change in Dry Areas Conference: A Consultation on the Carrying Capacity of Natural and Human Resources is a Must

His Royal Highness Prince of Jordan El Hassan bin Talal, on February, 1, 2010, said that unless the West Asia and North Africa region moves towards a consultation on the carrying capacity of natural and human resources, this region will be subjected to fragmentation.

Addressing the participants in the conference on "Food Security and Climate Change in Dry Areas", in Amman, HRH added that it is important not to separate the physical changes from human changes, stressing the importance of free thinking in facing pressing humanitarian issues.

At the conference which is organized by the National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE) in cooperation with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), HRH called for finding comprehensive solutions to the problems and issues facing the poor areas, including the food, water, energy and legal empowerment of the poor.

Prince El Hassan focused on food security and climate change in dry areas, through their relationship to human security, calling for regional cooperation in this context and for establishing comprehensive projects to combat poverty and hunger, which threaten many of the peoples in the world.

HRH said that the challenges of climate change require concerted efforts on the global and regional levels and that they pose a significant threat to the world. HRH stressed that economic inequality and intellectual imprisonment have pushed communities to the edge and the world needs a resurgence of creative energy.

We, in the West Asia and North Africa region, need an economic council as well as a social council to address the various pressing issues and to push for the representation of the region as a region at the international level, particularly with respect to existential issues and the basics of human security, Prince El Hassan emphasized.

HRH also called for networking of the various initiatives that aim to promote humanitarian status in West Asia and North Africa in order for regional commons to meet global commons.

HRH pointed out that since the Madrid and Oslo processes the cost of lost opportunities in the region from 1991 until today is $12 trillion. HRH asked how we can talk about oil and climate change when climate change has been induced by war.

Prince El Hassan called for addressing the basic humanitarian issues in the region rather than continuing to complain. He stressed the need for various development projects to fit into concepts that will serve the people. This could lead to a consultation concept of the third sphere (governments, private sector and civil society) in order to serve the public good.

HRH also underlined the importance of the diplomacy of citizens, in addition to humanizing and Arabizing globalization so that people will be more aware of what we are talking about. This will enable everyone to participate in building a prosperous future based on the enhancement of human dignity.