ECOSOC was established under the UN Charter to coordinate economic, social and related work across 14 UN agencies. It receives reports from 11 UN funds and programs. ECOSOC serves as a central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and formulating policy recommendations for member states and UN agencies. Its responsibilities include promoting higher living standards, employment, and economic/social progress as well as respect for human rights. ECOSOC has the power to initiate studies and reports on these issues and assist in organizing major international conferences. With oversight of 70% of UN resources, ECOSOC consults non-governmental organizations in carrying out its mandate.

1. Committee: ECOSOC
ECOSOC was established under the United Nations Charter as the principal
organ to coordinate economic, social, and related work of the 14 UN
specialized agencies, functional commissions and five regional
commissions. The Council also receives reports from 11 UN funds and
programs. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) serves as the
central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and
for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and
the United Nations system. It is responsible for:
• Promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic
and social progress;
• Identifying solutions to international economic, social and health
problems;
• Facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and
• Encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms.
It has the power to make or initiate studies and reports on these issues. It
also has the power to assist the preparations and organization of major
international conferences in the economic and social and related fields
and to facilitate a coordinated follow-up to these conferences. With its
broad mandate the Council's purview extends to over 70 per cent of the
human and financial resources of the entire UN system.
In carrying out its mandate, ECOSOC consults with academics, business
sector representatives and more than 3,200 registered non-governmental
organizations. The Council holds a four-week substantive session each July,
alternating between New York and Geneva . The session consists of the
High-level Segment, Coordination Segment, Operational Activities
Segment, Humanitarian Affairs Segment and the General Segment.

2. The High-level segment serves as a forum for Ministers and executive heads
of international institutions and high-ranking officials, as well as civil society
and private sector representatives to discuss key issues on the international
agenda in the area of economic, social and environmental development.
A new feature of the ECOSOC, mandated by the 2005 World Summit, are
the Annual Ministerial Review and the Development Cooperation Forum ,.
At the end of the High-level segment, a Ministerial declaration is adopted,
which provides policy guidance and recommendations for action.
Topic A) Utilizing and implementing sustainable agriculture
Discussions about sustainable agriculture are apt to be lively, emotional,
and sometimes controversial. Those who have sustainable agriculture as a
stated goal sometimes feel that those who don’t mention it directly are not
concerned about it. At the same time, those who don’t mention it directly
often claim they have it as an assumed goal or feel that short-run economic
necessity prevents giving it the attention it deserves. Indeed, a commonly
held view has been that increasing the productivity of agriculture was
compatible and largely synonymous with sustainable agriculture. However,
there is mounting evidence that one of the major ways of increasing farm
production, through use of chemicals on-farm, can accelerate ecological
problems. Unfortunately, many researchers still do not openly concern
themselves much with sustainability issues and have the common attitude
that "everything we do is sustainable." Many advocates of sustainable
agriculture would not agree and argue that success in moving toward
sustainable agriculture depends on using the limited nonrenewable
resources (e.g., fossil energy fuels, certain chemicals) as sparingly as
possible and getting maximum return from their application by using the
biological cycles that exist in nature and are largely ignored in present-day
agriculture.
A sustainable agriculture is one that, over the long term, enhances
environmental quality and the resource base on which agriculture
depends; provides for basic human food and fiber needs; is economically
viable; and enhances the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.
Development of sustainable agriculture not only depends on the potential
of technology to meet the objectives of farmers and its appropriateness for
the site-specific ecological and economic conditions. Other factors, like
farmers' capacity to adapt their farm systems to changing conditions, the
capacity of research and development organisations to support farmers,
policy makers' capacity to create favourable conditions for agricultural
development, the capacity of agribusiness to distribute products and inputs

3. efficiently and the capacity of educational institutes to transfer appropriate
knowledge and skills are important as well. There are many external and
internal forces that influence agricultural change. Ecological, economic,
social, cultural and political conditions differ widely. Therefore, there is a
clear need for different approaches to agricultural development. Before
discussing opportunities and constraints to development of sustainable
agriculture it is necessary to analyze this need for differentiation.
Some people believe that the terms organic and sustainable are the same.
In fact, the word organic refers to particular farming practices that have
been followed and certified by a third-party inspector. This organic
certification is found on the product in the marketplace, indicating to
consumers that it has been grown in a specific way. Briefly, organic
guidelines have been written in an attempt to be as sustainable as possible
(using the definitions above), while assuring the consumer that the amount
of pesticide residue on the food product is minimized.
Although ultimately the decision as to whether or not to practice
sustainable agriculture is the made by the farmers and their families, the
ease and practicality of doing so are affected heavily by a number of
factors, some of which they can influence, but some of which are
completely out of their control.
Topic B) The overpopulation´s repercussions and effects of on the
environment
Throughout history, the world’s population has expanded in an extremely
exponential fashion-- taking over three million years to achieve a one billion
person benchmark, it then only took 130, 30, 15, 12, and 11 years to reach
subsequent billions, respectively. (Southwick, 159) Such a massive and still
increasing population, combined with the environmentally detrimental
repercussions of industrialization (as a result of the need to sustain such a
large population), namely pollution from fossil fuels, has begun to take a
serious toll on our planet’s ecosystem. Moreover, “some scientists have
calculated that an optimal human population on earth in terms of
reasonable living standards is no more than 2 billion people.” (Southwick,
161) Already, we are well over this “optimal” population level at more than
6 billion people with projections of growing by another 2 to 4 billion in this

4. century. Still, with the advent of modern technologies, primarily in the areas
of medicine and agriculture, humans.
Incessant human population growth is viewed as the leading cause of most
of humanity’s scourges, such as poverty, war and starvation. While the
wildlife-conservation movement is valiantly attempting to save the world’s
remaining diversity of life, this effort is overwhelmed by the demands of
mounting numbers of people. The obvious solution of birth control and
family planning remains largely unknown or ignored -- a heritage of our
ancient customs and religious beliefs.
Under the onslaught of an ever-increasing human population, it has
become clear that humanity and the world’s environments and ecosystems
are under serious threat. In their landmark books, Ehrlich and Ehrlich (1970)
and Wilson (1992) demonstrated with overwhelming evidence that
reducing the human population, and hence lessening demands on natural
ecosystems, is the over-riding factor in the struggle to conserve the natural
world.
The current frenzy for exploiting natural resources and the escalating
environmental degradation by the world community are in stark contrast to
traditional beliefs of Aboriginal Peoples about Mother Earth. The spiritual
inter-relatedness of earth, water, plants, animals and people demanded
that great respect be shown to each part of this unity of life. They
appreciated (as few people do today) that their very survival depended on
caring for the natural world.
However, in past times and present, when people are in desperate need,
they have little choice but to exploit Nature to the fullest of their abilities
and technologies. Witness the rapid extinction of hundreds of species of
large animals in North America, Europe, Madagascar, Australia and New
Zealand, shortly after early people arrived and populated these land
masses. The American Great Plains region formerly supported a fauna of
large animals as rich as that found today in Africa. In the last 18,000 years,
rapid climatic changes, ecosystem dislocations, and particularly over-
hunting by early people, have left a decimated assemblage of large
animals. Over 73% of large mammals and large birds in North America were
wiped out (Martin and Klein 1984) before the arrival of Europeans and the
assault process has continued ever since -- witness the almost-complete
elimination of the Tall-grass Prairie Community, which formerly stretched
from Manitoba to Texas. Dedicated wildlife conservationists valiantly try to
manage ecosystems and wildlife populations by conducting research
projects, establishing large natural preserves, signing cooperative
agreements with landowners, maintaining genetically diverse captive-

5. breeding programs, developing education programs, and many other
activities. But increasingly, all these positive efforts are being overwhelmed
by the demands of an ever-growing human population. As a biologist and
educator, I find it disheartening how infrequently the critical topic of birth
control and family planning are stressed in society. We feel justified and safe
in discussing human overpopulation and the resulting habitat loss and
environmental degradation, but fear to tread further to the logical
conclusion. True, family planning is a taboo subject fraught with public-
relations risks, and it may challenge dearly held concepts about individual
rights and family, however, it is ultimately the most important message our
leaders and educational institutions can champion in saving the Earth’s
ecosystems, their treasury of wondrous life forms, and for our very survival.
The discovery of agriculture around 9,000 years ago changed everything,
generating a giant leap in human birth rate and survival. Starvation
lessened as an ever-looming factor in limiting population numbers, as it had
likely operated effectively over several million years of human evolution.
During the period of the Egyptian Pharaohs, the world’s population passed
100 million, 250 million at the time of Christ, 500 million by 1650, and 1 billion
by 1850 (Ehrlich and Ehrlich 1970). With improving technology for food
production and distribution, medical care, and social programs, numbers
climbed to 2.5 billion in 1950 and 6 billion in 1999. Over 78 million people are
currently added each year, and the population-doubling time continues to
drop dramatically. I find it appalling that the human race has more than
tripled (2 to 6.7 billion) in just my life time, and may quadruple before the
end of my life. Obviously this rate of growth cannot continue indefinitely
without severe repercussions, which are becoming more evident everyday
(e.g., acidification and pollution of the oceans, global warming).