15 March 2012: The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released the report of a workshop held on the “Potentials of a joint marketing of organic products from UNESCO Biosphere Reserves,” which explored the contribution to environmental conservation and sustainable development of the production and marketing of organically produced food.

The workshop, which took place from 4-7 October 2011, in the biosphere reserve Niedersächsische Elbtalaue near Hamburg, Germany, was organized by the Institute for Rural Development Research (IfLS) in Frankfurt/Main (Germany) through support of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Division of International Nature Conservation (BfN). It focused on the potential of joint marketing strategies for organic products from biosphere reserves in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets.

The report compiles the discussions and results of the workshop, which noted that organic agriculture (OA) is the most sustainable modern agricultural system, as it requires less inputs of energy, industrial fertilizers and chemical pesticides, and has a smaller climate and material footprint. [UNESCO Press Release] [Publication: Bio International!? – Marketing Potentials of Organic Products from UNESCO Biosphere Reserves]