A new report, launched today – Boosting Biodiversity Action through Agroecology – underscores the importance of scaling out agroecological approaches in food systems to accomplish goals towards the protection and restoration of biodiversity.
The report and accompanying website are co-produced by leading organisations, who collectively bring decades of experience working on food systems and biodiversity: the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Biovision Foundation, WWF, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and Agroecology Coalition.
Agroecology – the practice, science, and movement for a food system aligned with nature and people -offers a comprehensive pathway for countries to fulfil their commitments under the Global Biodiversity Framework.
With the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity underway in Cali and 85 per cent of countries still due to submit their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), this report calls on governments to seize this opportunity to put food systems, specifically agroecological approaches, at the centre of national biodiversity plans and action.
Agroecology can protect and restore biodiversity while contributing to climate change mitigation, food security, and more resilient livelihoods.
Anna Lappé, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, said, “By its very definition agroecology is a movement, science, and practice for a food system aligned with people and nature. This report offers policymakers comprehensive recommendations on how to scale out agroecology through the Global Biodiversity Framework to not only meet national nature targets, but derive the cascading benefits of food sovereignty, resilient livelihoods, and positive health outcomes.”
The new report offers detailed recommendations on how countries can include agroecological interventions, from production to consumption, including supply chains, processing, and market incentives.
Using case studies, it unpacks how decision-makers can implement strong policies, financing mechanisms, monitoring schemes and governance rules, while strengthening institutional capacity to ensure the NBSAPs deliver on their goals.
Industrial food systems are a primary driver of biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and soil and freshwater pollution. They threaten 86 per cent of the 28,000 endangered wildlife species worldwide, and have decreased crops and animal genetic diversity to a low point, with only 12 plants and 5 animals making up 75 per cent of the world’s consumption.
Martina Fleckenstein, Global Head of Policy, Food & Agriculture at WWF, said, “Agroecological principles can be applied in different ways in different parts of the world, to ensure that farming supports rather than exploits nature.”
Oliver Oliveros, Coordinator of the Agroecology Coalition, said, “Agroecology is biodiverse. As a pathway towards food systems transformation, it nurtures people and nature.” He said that the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework gives the ‘Why’, while agroecology gives us the ‘How’.
Read the report, Boosting Biodiversity Action through Agroecology