A Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Development, and Land stakeholder discussion is scheduled for Wednesday, December 5, 2001 from 3:00-6:00 p.m. in Rooms 10 and 11 at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel, located at 999 Ninth Street, NW in Washington DC. Gallery Place-Chinatown (red line) is the closest metro station to the hotel. The agenda for the meeting follows.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is hosting an open briefing and listening session to assist the U.S. Government in its preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). This session is open to all stakeholders and will focus on receiving citizen ideas on important on sustainable agriculture, rural development and land issues for WSSD.

Agenda:

3:00  Welcome and Introductions  

3:05  Briefing on WSSD 

• International preparaions 
• Domestic preparations 
• How you can get involved

3:30  Citizen Comment Period - 3 minutes each, sign up at door

What are your views on:

• Assessment of progress on Agenda 21, particularly chapters 10 (Land Resources) and 14 (Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD)) 
• Accomplishments, lessons learned, and constraints to implementation of sustainable agriculture, land, and rural development issues 
• Ideas for new implementation initiatives on sustainable agriculture, land, and rural development issues

(Categories based on discussion agenda for WSSD PrepCom II, January 2002)

4:15  Discussion Groups

• Assessment of progress on Agenda 21, particularly chapters 10 and 14 
• Accomplishments, lessons learned and constraints to implementation of sustainable agriculture, land, and rural development issues 
• Ideas for new implementation initiatives on sustainable agriculture, land, and rural development issues

5:20  Summaries from Discussion Groups

5:50  Summary and closing  

6:00  Adjourn

For general background information on WSSD and sustainable development, please visit the official WSSD website at http://www.johannesburgsummit.org and the United Nations Sustainable Development website at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev.  For background information on SARD and land issues, please see the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-8) Decisions on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development and Integrated Approach to the Planning and Management of Land Resources at http://www.un.org/documents/ecosoc/docs/2000/e2000- 29.htm#Decision 8/4.

If you have any questions concerning the logistics of this meeting, please contact Adela Backiel, USDA, Director, Sustainable Development (adela.backiel@usda.gov) or Jennie O'Connor, USDA-Forest Service (jmoconnor@fs.fed.us).

Questions? conference@NCSEonline.org