The reasons for International Cooperation

ICEA has always been characterized for its strong International vocation collaborating and interacting with the Organic Agriculture movement worldwide.

The work done with small producers in Italy, gave ICEA the necessary competencies to offer adequate service to the small and medium enterprises and allowed ICEA to acquire the consciousness that - very often - the issues are very similar for small producers in the North and in the South of the World.

For this reason ICEA decided to use its experience for the small producers in the South of the World, collaborating with several international cooperation projects, believing that the OA techniques and principles can represent a powerful instrument to reach sustainable results.

The international cooperation area in ICEA is working to develop and implement projects focused on the promotion of OA, in partnership with National and International organization, Governmental and Non-Governmental organizations and working in various Regions and Countries.

 

The objectives

The objectives of the international cooperation projects carried out by ICEA can be summarized as follows:

• Promotion of the OA certification - in the most appropriate form to the project stakeholders (e.g. group certification; PGS) - and possibly to combine it with other types of certification (e.g. Fairtrade; responsible tourism; corporate social responsibility, etc.).

• Use of certification as tool to facilitate the access to international markets (e.g. fairtrade), promoting simultaneously the growth of local and regional markets, particularly in their most innovative forms (e.g. public catering; direct sales).

• Strengthen the linkage between organic agriculture and biodiversity conservation, also supporting responsible tourism initiatives and other sustainable income generator services.

• Enhance the relation between organic agriculture techniques and activities aiming at improving mitigation and adaption to the climate change effects.

• Facilitate the knowledge sharing of best practices and the exchange of experiences among project stakeholders (e.g. South-South and North-South exchanges; information and capacity building activities).

• Collaborate with institutions and organizations working in defining the political and normative framework for organic agriculture and other related issues (e.g. food security and sovereignty; etc.).

 

ICEA’s projects

AFRICA:

MADAGASCAR

EGYPT

TUNISIA

 

LATIN AMERICA and CENTRAL AMERICA:

ECUADOR

BRASIL

ARGENTINA

 

ASIA and MIDDLE EAST:

SRI LANKA

PALESTINE

 

OCEANIA:

South Pacific Islands

 

IFOAM KOREA 2011 

 

The ICEA international cooperation sector has an office in Buenos Aires, to facilitate the relations with Latin America and maintains direct relations with various stakeholders in Countries in which new projects are in the pipeline.

 

The EQUOBIO network

Since 2004 ICEA hosts and coordinate the “Tavolo EQUOBIO”, an informal network of about 30 national organizations working on international cooperation projects focused on organic agriculture and Fairtrade. The EQUOBIO network is a catalyser of information, experiences and project proposals aiming at promoting organic agriculture worldwide.

 

For further informations:

Website: www.equobio.info.

Email: info@equobio.info