FAO/Prayoon Amaree
On behalf of the Director-General of FAO Jacques Diouf, and on my own behalf, I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific for the commemoration of World Food Day 2004 which marks the 59th birthday of FAO.
This year’s World Food Day theme, Biodiversity for food security highlights the role of biodiversity in ensuring that people have sustainable access to enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives. To achieve a food secure world is one of the most important goals on the development agenda for the coming decades. Although food is a human being’s most elementary basic need, still over 800 million people suffer from malnutrition and hunger, 505 million of them living in Asia-Pacific.
Achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present number no later than 2015 will be especially challenging considering the increasing population, limited availability of land and water resources. To reach this target, poverty reduction needs to be accelerated to 26 million per year, more than 12 times the pace of 2.1 million per year achieved to date.
In recent decades, more people have escaped from hunger and poverty in Asia and the Pacific than in any other part of the world, and more than in any previous time.
FAO/G. Bizzarri
USDA
USDA
These gains have impressed the whole world. We must cherish, and carefully nurture them. Above all, we must not let them be reversed. The solutions that will increase productivity, improve food quality and help poor people break out of poverty, hunger and disease, can only be achieved through working together. The World Food Day is here to remind us that real progress has to be achieved urgently without ploughing under natural habitats, further degrading natural resources and biodiversity.
Biodiversity is the basis for survival and progress of present and future humankind and is fundamental to agriculture and food production. Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture are the biological basis of world food security and - directly or indirectly - support the livelihood of every person on earth. Conservation of bio-resources has been part of the culture and ethos of past civilizations. This is why centers of biodiversity often overlap with centers of great civilizations. Biological diversity was the foundation for the beginning of domestication of economic plants about 12 000 years ago through selection and conservation. Without variability inherent in living things there would be no question of selecting for particular valued traits, such as plants that survive drought and livestock that produce in harsh conditions. However, due to urbanization, deforestation, pollution and adaptation of inappropriate farming practices, biodiversity is at serious risk. FAO estimates that about threequarters of the genetic diversity found in agricultural crops have been lost over the last century. Over 8 percent out of the known 250 000 species of flowering plants are likely to disappear before 2025. Each year, over 15 million hectares of tropical forests containing the largest pool of biodiversity are lost.
Today, only 150 crops feed most of the world’s population, and just 12 crops provide 80 percent of dietary energy from plants, with rice, wheat, maize and potato alone providing 60 percent.
More than 40 percent of the land’s surface is used for agriculture, placing a large responsibility on farmers to protect biodiversity. Selection of appropriate techniques, such as minimum or zero tillage, reduced use of pesticides and crop rotations plays an important role in maintaining the fragile balance with the surrounding ecosystems. Preserved ecosystems facilitate a range of natural processes vital for productive agriculture. For example, fungi and micro-organisms decompose organic matter, recycle nutrients and add to soil fertility; swamps and marshes filter out pollutants; trees manage water flows and limit erosion; bees, butterflies and birds pollinate fruit trees; and natural predators keep the growth of any one species in check. Biodiversity’s indirect provision of these ecological and environmental services is no less important than the direct contribution of selected management practices to enhance agricultural production.
As genetic diversity erodes, our capacity to maintain and enhance crop, fish, forest, and livestock productivity decreases along with the ability to respond to changing conditions. We know however that the loss of biodiversity is far more than a crisis in ecosystem management. It is a threat to social and economic development as a whole. That is why global efforts to improve the management of biodiversity are essential. Sustainable ecosystem and agricultural practices need to be identified that can both feed people and protect the oceans, forests, prairies and other ecosystems that harbour biological diversity.
Conserving biodiversity for food security will require efforts on many fronts including measures to preserve the environment, better education, increased research and government support. Education will be one of the key factors in protecting biodiversity. Greater efforts should be made to work with local people for better understanding the contributions that biodiversity can make in increasing productivity and enhancing food security. A new approach to agricultural research and development is needed to support the wider use of agricultural biodiversity to promote development and improve food security. The new approach is more complex, based on strategies aimed at farming systems rather than particular crops, and less dependent on external inputs. It requires greater appreciation of the multiple goods and services provided by biological diversity in agricultural ecosystems. This will require greater involvement of farmers, institutions and communities. In addition to technical considerations, there are a number of socio-economic factors and policy issues that need to be taken into consideration because they will ultimately determine adoption and use of technologies by the farmers.
Policies supporting more resources for research and development of promising technologies for improved management of biological resources should be developed and implemented.
As already explained, the loss of crop diversity has serious implications on global food security and, therefore, FAO has played a key role in initiating a number of international agreements to conserve crop diversity. Among them are the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), and a Global Plan of Action (1996) that lays out the critical steps for conservation and use of crop diversity. Another important treaty which entered into force last June is the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This treaty brings governments, farmers and plant breeders together and offers multilateral frameworks for accessing genetic resources and sharing their benefits. The agreement recognizes that farmers around the world, particularly those in the South, have developed and conserved plant genetic resources over the millennia. The multilateral system covers a list of 35 food crops and 29 forage crops. This system will greatly reduce transaction costs for the exchange of plant genetic material between countries. The treaty will also enable developing countries to build their capacity to conserve and use genetic resources. Benefit sharing will include exchange of information, access and transfer of technology and capacity building. An important element of the Treaty’s funding strategy is the Global Crop Diversity Trust. It aims to match the long term nature of conservation needs with secure and sustainable funding. Support for gene bank conservation and capacity building for developing countries are some of its major objectives. The endowment fund has a target of $ 260 million, of which around $ 45 million has already been pledged.
USDA
The Royal Hill-Tribe Development Programme - initiated by His Majesty the King - is an example of a hugely successful project to introduce environment friendly sustainable farming practices. Protection of forests, harvesting of rain water, farming practices to reduce the degradation of soil and water resources are some key elements of this programme which directly contribute to the preservation of biodiversity in a crucially important albeit fragile environment and socio-economic setting.
Jitraporn Kijpuempoon
The FAO regional office in Bangkok is privileged and honoured to joint the people of Thailand in this year’s celebration of Her Majesty the Queen’s sixth cycle birthday. An FAO-funded technical cooperation project for integrated watershed management by highland agricultural communities aims to support Her Majesty’s efforts to improve the livelihood of hill tribes in the northern mountain regions of Thailand.
We are honoured today by the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. We extend our profound gratitude to Your Royal Highness, our Guest of Honour, for providing inspiration in her commitment to and leadership in ecosystem management, and the preservation of the environment and biodiversity, in particular with youth and in schools.
Biodiversity is a key ally in the sheer survival of our world, sustenance and maintenance of cultural diversity, in fighting malnutrition and ensuring food security for all. Its protection is something that we cannot afford to overlook.
The response to this complex challenge must engage every part of society - government, business, civil society, and specifically those people - farmers - who daily manage and conserve the natural resources of mother earth. And let us be clear: how we address this challenge will impact the very future of the region.
The FAO regional office continues to work its members and count on the collaboration of its partners, other international organizations, research, trade and policy institutes, grassroots community groups, consumers and the public at large. I know that many of you present here today are showing impressive leadership in this mission. That is the kind of commitment that is needed from all the leaders and stakeholders of the region. And it is a vital responsibility, which requires all our energy and imagination.
FAO/Peyton Johnson
FAO Biodiversity dvd
FAO/G. Bizzarri
