Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems are essential to food security
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Presentation by René Castro, FAO Assistant Director-General, Climate, Biodiversity, Land and Water, during the special event “Mainstreaming biodiversity into agriculture, forestry fisheries and aquaculture”. FAO Headquarters, 22nd May 2017, International Day for Biological Diversity.
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Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems are essential to food security
- 1. Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems are essential to food security
- 2. Successful mainstreaming depends on policies and management practices
- 4. Mainstreaming also depends on the best available information There is much more dryland forest than originally estimated Bastin et al. Science 2017;356:635-638
Notas do Editor
- It’s no surprise to anyone here at FAO that biodiversity and healthy ecosystems form the basis of resilient food systems. Soils, for instance, likely contain a quarter of all species on the planet, and soil biodiversity is essential to sustainable crop production and nutritious food. Soils, by the way, also store more carbon than the atmosphere and forests combined.
- At FAO, we work with farmers and national stakeholders in an comprehensive fashion to develop integrated, on-farm practices which support production while conserving natural resources. At the same time, we work closely with our government partners in policy development that supports effective land use choices, based on the best available science. Genetic diversity is also critical to food security, and the work of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture along with the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture are essential mechanisms to managing and conserving these precious resources. The GIAHS Programme is to identify and safeguard Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems and their associated landscapes, agricultural biodiversity, knowledge systems and culture.
- We are all focused on delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, and here at FAO we are particularly focused on the goal of Zero Hunger. But we also know that we cannot attain our Zero Hunger commitment central to our Mission without healthy ecosystems on land and in the oceans.
- You can’t manage what you don’t know. Effective policy and management practices depend on the best available information. For example, a recently published forest assessment in Science, based on new sampling techniques pioneered here in FAO, have quantified that there is over 40% more dryland forest that we had estimated from all previous global assessments. This is great news for the state of biodiversity in the drylands, which occupy two fifths of the surface area of the planet. Equally as importantly, the health of ecosystems which support food production in these important landscapes are in better condition than we previously thought. Information needs to be exchanged among governments, communities of practices and other stakeholders to mainstream biodiversity across agricultural sectors. FAO, acting as a biodiversity mainstreaming platform, is committed to facilitate dialogue and sharing of information.