GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP ON NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT (GPNM)


THE GPNM HAS TO BEEN LAUNCHED DURING THE 17TH SESSION OF THE UN COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (UN CSD) IN NEW YORK ON 6TH MAY.


Nutrients, such as nitrogen, are a key part of delivering food security and sustainable development. But excess use and inefficient practices leads to nutrient over-enrichment, causing soil acidification, groundwater pollution, and the undermining of marine and coastal ecosystems and the services and livelihoods they support.

Nutrient creation by human activities is projected to expand due to increases in population, food production, urbanization, not least in coastal areas, changes in diets and globalization of agricultural trade. On a business as usual scenario, problems associated with nutrient over-enrichment will accelerate as demand for food doubles over the next 25-50 years and growing coastal populations produce more wastewater.

Our challenge is to optimize the use of nutrients to realize food security while minimizing negative impacts on the environment and human health. The complexity of nutrients related issues requires special attention in the political domain: policy integration that deals with air, water, soil agriculture and commerce is the key. It will also require sound and efficient means for exchange of information between the scientific community and policy makers from local to national and international scales.

The Global Partnership of Nutrient Management (a coalition of various stakeholders - scientists, policy makers, private sector etc) aims to raise awareness of these issues, build political and stakeholder interest and impetus, and to assist countries through exchange of knowledge and good practices to overcome a lack of initial capacity to take action.

For further details on the launch of GPNM

GPNM Launch  Report

Keynote presentation by Dr. Colien Hefferan Presentation

GPNM Brochure

PARTNERS: Government of the United States of America, Government of the Netherlands, Government of Italy, European Union, IOC/UNESCO, FAO, UN Habitat, International Fertilizer Association (IFA) and International Nitrogen Initiative (INI). A range of other countries and bodies have already indicated that they wish to join and assist and that will be added to this list shortly.

The First Meeting of the Partners: October 22-23, 2009 in The Hague, The Netherlands hosted by the Ministry of Environment (VROM), Government of The Netherlands. Participants discussed the landscape of nutrient issues, practices and research across the world’s regions, agreed on a draft Action Plan for the Partnership and identified a number of initiatives for the Partnership to foster in the short term. A steering committee was established to give structure and guidance, and opportunities identified for regional partnership meetings on the way to a full meeting of partners in Delhi in December 2010. The meeting also discussed how to share information and best practices through the newly designed web-based platform. Full Report

The United Nations Environment Programme, Global Programme of Action will provide the Secretariat of the GPNM.

For further information on the partnership, please contact Dr. Anjan Datta at anjan.datta@unep.org