2. 2
Agriculture poses threats to biodiversity
2
Agriculture is associated with all five primary threats to biodiversity:
• climate change,
• habitat change,
• invasive alien species,
• nutrient loading and pollution,
• and unsustainable overexploitation of natural resources.
3. 3
Agriculture poses threats to biodiversity
3
Farming is also a major driver of agrobiodiversity loss, narrowing the
genetic diversity of the plants and animals on which we rely for food
and nutrition
4. 4
Policies hindering biodiversity mainstreaming
v Subsidies on chemical fertilizers or synthetic pesticides (still
very common)
v Subsidies encouraging large scale, high yielding
monocultures.
v Agricultural research oriented towards management of
high input monocultures
v Unfavorable regulations on farm-made and organic
fertilizers, plant protection products and farmers seeds
v Allowance of GMO crops
5. 5
Farming and biodiversity are not inevitably
incompatible – we need solutions!
5
• policy
• practice
• behaviours
• knowledge
Solutions rely on major shifts in
8. 8
Organic agriculture working for biodiversity
8
Organic certification and standards are based on a holistic
approach. They sustain ecosystems by:
• providing food and shelter for wild species and thus increasing
them in number and variety,
• supporting agro-biodiversity,
• maintaining healthy soils and soil fauna.
9. 9
Organic agriculture working for biodiversity
9
Organic certification and standards are based on a holistic
approach. They sustain ecosystems by:
• reducing the risk of water pollution,
• cutting the demand for synthetic inputs, thereby reducing land-
use pressure on natural habitats by the energy industry, and
• nourishing ecosystems and ensuring that they are not cleared to
further extend the agricultural frontier
11. 11
Policies can fasten the uptake of organic
agriculture
11
Policy matters – a lot!
Start of generalized
policy support for
organic farming in the EU
12. 12
Some forms of policy support that encourage
biodiversity protection
12
Many possibilities for policy makers, e.g.:
• Favor agricultural research and extension on organic methods,
agro-forestry, etc.
• Support the development and use of organic inputs (e.g. on-farm
plant preparations, vermicompost, etc.).
• Subsidize certification to biodiversity-friendly standards
• Area payment subsidies for organic production
• Subsidies for agri-environmental practices
• Organic management in public areas and publicly-owned land
• Prohibition of agro-chemical use in biodiverse sensitive areas
13. 13
Support to organic research & extension
(e.g. Tunisia)
13
Organic farmer field schools in 2006
Experimental station from the
CTAB (Technical center for
organic agriculture)
14. 14
Support organic input development and
use (e.g. The Philippines)
Between 2011 and 2016, the government:
v established, maintained and upgraded 746 organic input product
facilities.
v distributed more than 1.1 MT of organic fertilizers and other inputs
and 4.4 million pcs of Bio Control Agents.
v Worms given to thousands of households to start on-farm
vermicompost.
14
Vermicompost facility built by one of the
Local Government Units in The Philippines
15. 15
Subsidies for agri-environmental practices
Many biodiversity-friendly practices can be encouraged, e.g.:
- Preserving extensively managed grasslands
- Agroforestry
- Preserving hedges, woodlands, ponds, etc. on the farm
- Non-use of chemical pesticides, no/low-use of chemical fertilizers
- Permanent ground cover under perennial crops
15
18. 18
Organic guarantee systems
Markets can reward farmers for their good practices through
standards and certification schemes. They grant access to an
organic label that consumers trust. Options available:
- Third party organic certification (needed for international
trade in organic)
- Participatory Guarantee Systems (only for domestic sales)
19. 19
PGS Definition
Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are locally focused
quality assurance systems.
They certify producers based on active participation of
stakeholders and are built on a foundation of trust, social
networks and knowledge exchange.
-- Official IFOAM PGS Definition --
20. 20
How PGS contributes to sustainable
and fair food systems
Participatory Guarantee Systems
... ensure that the smallest farmers can have
access to organic markets
... ensure the integrity of organic products in a
cost effective, transparent way
… facilitate local production and
consumption of organic food
Therefore a perfect fit for producers in the
Global South.
22. 22
PGS: more than a guarantee system
• Brings people together
• Group organization brings opportunities for cooperation and
other social process
• Learning and improvement process for farmers and consumers
These benefits may even be perceived as bigger benefit of the
PGS than the certification itself
23. 23
The Basic PGS elements
1. Shared vision
2. Participation
3. Transparency
4. Learning process
5. Horizontality
6. Trust – “integrity based
approach”
24. 24
PGS Recognition in OA Regulation
• Brazil (2007)
• Costa Rica (2008)
• Uruguay (2008)
• Paraguay (2008)
• Mexico (2010)
• Bolivia (2012),
• New Caledonia (2017)
• Chile (2017)
• India (2017)
• French Polynesia (2011)
• Lack of legal recognition of PGS in organic regulations is a
bottleneck.
• Countries that include PGS in their organic regulation:
25. 25
Leading on and searching for
solutions that work biodiversity
in farming
27. 27
Farming for Biodiversity
Achievements:
• 338 proven solutions that work for agriculture and biodiversity
surfaced
• 500 million global media impressions – coverage by BBC, Reuters,
Deutsche Welle and nationally important outlets
• Scaling successful solutions in eight countries throughout 2018:
Kenya, Mexico, Ecuador, Nepal, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Benin, Peru
• Reaching 100.000s in rural communities worldwide through
locally led campaigns
28. 28
Certification-based Solutions
Audience Prize Winner, Apis Agriculture from Ethiopia,
has used certified organic wild honey to create
employment opportunities and provide training for
hundreds of landless, unemployed youth
In Nepal, Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research
and Development has developed a “landscape
label” that markets local agricultural products based
on the tourism appeal of the local area
29. 29
Certification-based Solutions
The community-based Kenya Organic
Oil Farmer’s Association – which has a
mixed membership that includes
women and youth – has a contractual
agreement with Earth Oil Extracts to
produce Organic and “Fair for Life” (a
Fair-Trade standard and certification
system) tea trees for essential oil
extraction.
They work with The Body Shop, among
others.
30. 30
PANORAMA – Sharing what works
• PANORAMA is a collaborative effort by IUCN, GIZ, UNEP,
Grid-Arendal, Rare and IFOAM – Organics International to
share proven solutions and make them accessible to
practitioners
• To date, the web platform features around 380 solutions from
over 330 individual solution providers, and has been visited
around 28,000 times by users from over 70 countries.
• PANORAMA also offers webinars, trainings, solution fairs and
much more
• Rare, GIZ and IFOAM - OI have teamed up to lead the
platform’s new Agriculture and Biodiversity Portal – visit us at:
www.panorama.solutions