Political, economic and social causes of Biodiversity loss and the role of local people in Biodiversity protection. (Without community participation, Biodiversity conservation is almost impossible)

The policies for enhancing the sustainable use and -above all- the conservation of natural resources, and for driving people to minimise the adverse impacts on Biodiversity are possible when people themselves are conscious and collaborate to reach these fundamental aims: this is an indisputable fact, confirmed by all the international experience from about 1980 onwards. Furthermore, in order to positively involve local people, it is essential to increase their knowledge of the mentioned issues and their awareness of the crucial importance of ecological defense and environmental conservation, of the necessity to reach and follow a social and economic sustainable development model, to rethink their daily behavior and farming habits that must aim at maintaining traditional practices (more respectful of nature), lightened by modern technology. Therefore, it is also essential to understand what is the level of knowledge and awareness of the society within which the work has to be performed. In the specific case of the Project DEBPAL2, the équipe leaded by F. Charlotte Orazie Vallino has found and designed a specific strategy in relation to the geopolitical characteristics (we can say unique in the world) of the investigated area: the West Bank, or the largest part of the 'Palestinian Territories'.1This Conference was related to the results of the European Project titled 'Reinforcing the Capacity Building for Defending the Biodiversity in the Palestinian Territories- West Bank': Grant Agreement n. 294936. The meeting's organisation was by the Not-For-Profit Org. Veltha (Brussels). Due to the impact of such results, the Regione Lazio Office in Brussels invited the Conference in its conference-space. The speeches were collected by the organisers and distributed in CD Rom support. Obviously, they have been sent to the European Commission