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TERMS
OF REFERENCE
Activity Title: Technical Support Services by FAO-SDRN in the framework of MiPAF-UCEA CLIMAGRI Project (Climatic Changes and Italian Agriculture)
FAO Regular Program Entity: SDRN/RA251A1142001 - Activity 2
Estimated starting date: November 2001
Total Expected Duration: Three years
National Implementing Agency: Ufficio Centrale di Ecologia Agraria (UCEA) of the Italian Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies (MiPAF)
FAO Technical Implementing
Service: Environment and Natural Resources Service (SDRN) of Research, Training and Extension Division
Total Estimated Budget: Euro 116.202,80 (ITL 225.000.000)
Link
: http://www.fao.org/sd/2002/EN0501a_en.htm
CLIMAGRImed
: http://www.fao.org/sd/climagrimed/
BACKGROUND
Placed within the Research,
Extension and Training Division (SDR)
of FAO, the Environment and Natural Resources Service (SDRN) is the
integrative focal point for providing geo-spatial environmental
information infrastructure and service capability. This refers to
the availability of real (static or dynamic) geo-referenced data and
information that describes the environmental and natural resources.
Remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS),
agrometeorological and other environmental observations to support
the operational and developmental users, both at FAO and in its
Member States, in a wide variety of programme areas related to early
warning for food security, agricultural production forecasting,
natural resources management and disaster preparedness, impact
assessment and response, coastal zone monitoring, desertification,
biological diversity, energy and climate change.
The Ufficio Centrale
di Ecologia Agraria (UCEA)
operates at national level in the field of agrometeorology in
collaboration with various national and regional agencies interested
in the subject or active in the field of meteorology in general.
Agrometeorology, as an institutional responsibility of UCEA,
supports the development of agriculture and the protection of the
agricultural environment. To that end, UCEA provides technical
services, manages the national agrometeorological database and
carries out research activities to maintain an adequate position to
the level of the requests coming from the agrometeorological
interests.
CLIMAGRI
CLIMAGRI project is an agrometeorological research having the
main goal to constitute the first operational step of a national
program of safeguard of the atmosphere. The project is co-ordinated
by UCEA, under the Italian Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry
Policies (MiPAF). Its
most important objective is to obtain a climatic analysis of the
national territory, evidencing climatic anomalies and changes in
action or hypothesis with a specific impact on italian agricultural
sector. Climatic changes might also have an impact on other
socio-economic sectors and, in particular, on the control of water
resources. Therefore CLIMAGRI takes in consideration, beyond the
agricultural sector in a generalized manner, also some problems of
water use and management which are strongly related to climatic
variations. Finally, CLIMAGRI project must be considered as a
scientific program but with an operational component. It means that
it will propose methodologies in order to disseminate, with
appropriate modalities, the information and the result in an
effective way to various users in the agricultural sector.
Research activities carried out within CLIMAGRI project will
create the optimal frame to acquire important knowledge of the
physical phenomena which are linked to the climate variability and
change and that have a direct influence qualitatively and
quantitatively on the agricultural productions and therefore on the
emissions of greenhouse gases. The knowledge has a great role to
play in the safeguard of the atmosphere and in attaining sustainable
development.
In 1999, informal discussions between the two parties have
led to the identification of technical support services to be
provided by FAO-SDRN in the framework of the Project "CLIMAGRI
- Climatic Changes and Italian Agriculture" co-ordinated by
UCEA.
OBJECTIVE
The technical and organizational structure of the FAO, the
experience achieved in the field of the sustainable development in
developing countries and its world-wide center in Rome are the
fundamental elements for the transfer of methodologies developed in
the framework of CLIMAGRI to the developing countries of the
Mediterranean area.
The final objective of the technical support services
provided by FAO is to obtain an ideal synergy between UCEA, the
Italian research institutes and FAO for the application of the
methodologies developed in the framework of CLIMAGRI in order to be
adapted and applied in some developing countries in the
Mediterranean area. FAO will use its own competence in order to
promote collaboration between Italian scientists and their
counterparts in northern African countries.
The FAO computer network and the various datasets on magnetic
support will allow the creation of a multilingual computer node and
the dissemination of the results in real-time through Internet. The
most important documents will be translated into English and French.
Finally, a training program for the national scientists is an
essential component of the FAO technical assistance.
Signed by
Henri
Carsalade (Assistant Director-General Technical Cooperation
Department) on the 22nd of November 2001 and
Vincenzo
Pilo (Direttore Generale per le Politiche Strutturali e lo Sviluppo
Rurale Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali) on the 8th
of February
2002
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