Biodiversity is an asset for Italy and must be protected, said Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry Minister. The minister is attending a meeting of G20 agriculture ministers in Hyderabad, India.
Italy’s biodiversity is an asset, Minister Lollobrigida said on Friday in Hyderabad, India.
“Italy has invested €135million through the Strategic Plan (on biodiversity) in support of activities to recover, characterise, and conserve animal breeds and genetic resources of agricultural and food interest,” Lollobrigida said.
In addition, he said, “over €217million have been allocated for pollinator protection”. Furthermore, “we have radically decreased antibiotics to avoid antimicrobial resistance in animal species”, he continued.
Italy has also seen “a significant increase in forests”. Last year, the FAO said deforestation needed to stop in the country.
However, the minister said it is necessary “to combine environmental sustainability and the protection of biodiversity with the potential direct and indirect economic benefits deriving from this sector”.
Biodiversity could create jobs
The protection of biodiversity could generate over 150,000 direct and indirect jobs according to estimates, Lollobrigida added.
“The G20 is a strategic opportunity to discuss and promote all those activities aimed at supporting farmers, animal breeders and fishermen, who are the number one environmentalists”.
These issues are to be explored in detail at the UN Food Systems Conference in Rome in July.
