Lahore, Pakistan – WWF – Pakistan organized the second “Regional Working Group” meeting of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) in Lahore, in collaboration with the European Commission (EC) on 3rd & 4th March at Hotel Sunfort, Lahore. The two - day meeting was headed by Dr. Qadir Bux Baloch, Agricultural Development Commissioner, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MinFAL). Delegations from BCI, UNICEF, IKEA, MinFAL, FAP, SAFWCO, ILO, APTMA and other renowned NGOs and CBOs also participated the meeting.

WWF and BCI have agreed to work together on Better Cotton System in 2009 in order to produce Better Cotton in Pakistan in 2010, said Hammad Naqi Khan, Director Freshwater and Toxics Programme, WWF – Pakistan.

The Better Cotton Initiative aims to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future. The BCI includes representatives from across cotton supply and beyond.

Even though a global definition of ‘Better Cotton is sought, BCI includes a regional approach with strong participatory, multi-stakeholder involvement to also define Better Cotton at the regional level said Allan Williams – Technical Environment Coordinator (BCI). BCI is initially working in Pakistan, West & Central Africa, Brazil and India, as these countries/regions provide a cross section of different cotton farming systems.

The results from this consultation process will be used to both inform and help design the global definition of Better Cotton. Furthermore, as the focus of BCI is the farm, it is fundamentally important that BCI seeks to define Better Cotton in collaboration with local cotton farmers and their communities, as well as a series of experts to ensure that local needs and conditions can be accommodated within the BCI framework.

The main objectives of the meeting were to review the changes to the definition of Better Cotton taking into account local conditions and circumstances, to integrate the discussion on relevant socio-economic and labour issues associated with its growing with the production and environmental issues, to provide an overview of the components of the “Better Cotton System”, such as the options for assessing progress towards its growing, appropriate indicators to use to measure this progress, and the Supply Chain System that will be used to identify “Better Cotton”.

Mahira Afzal
Coordinator Communications & Awareness
WWF - Pakistan
Email: mafzal@wwf.org.pk
Tel: +92 042-111-993-725