The Mesoamerican Peoples and Forests Alliance is participating for the first time in the VI World Conference on Family Farming in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain.
In the framework of the United Nations Decade for Family Farming, the World Rural Forum (WRF) organized the VI World Conference on Family Farming entitled "A Decade to Improve the Lives of Family Farmers".
The event began on March 25 and will end on March 29, 2019 in the municipality of Derio (district of Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain). Representatives of farmers' organizations and other civil society organizations, governments, international organizations, research centers and cooperatives from five continents are participating.

"Indigenous peoples and local communities also do family farming, we have similar challenges and challenges and we must establish alliances among ourselves," said Gustavo Sanchez, president of the MOCAF network and member of the AMPB.

 
The Conference has become a forum for exchanging information on the identification of experiences, challenges and priorities for strengthening the capacities of producers' organizations and improving services for their members. For Sánchez, "the decade of family farming can help to promote legal and public policy environments in all countries to recognize the importance of family farming (including indigenous peoples and local communities) and implement measures to support it," he said.

This event is very important because in the next 10 years we will meet the objectives to achieve better practices for agriculture as well as for the use of natural resources of forests. A lot of importance has been placed on family nutrition and from our territories we are committed to our families," said Mayra Morales, member of the Association of Forest Communities of Petén (ACOFOP) and member of the Gender Commission of the AMPB.

The World Rural Forum (WRF) is a plural network that promotes family farming and sustainable rural development, made up of federations and organizations of family farming operators such as the Confederation of Family Farmers' Organizations of MERCOSUR (COPROFAM), the Regional Platform of Peasant Organizations of Central Africa (PROPAC), the Pacific Islands Farmers' Organizations Network (PIFON), the Regional Rural Dialogue Program (PDRR) and the Asian Farmers' Association (AFA), rural development organizations such as INADES, cooperatives and agricultural research centers such as CIRAD.