Predictions for the year 2025 include a global population of some 8.5 billion. Among the notable consequences will be greater demands on the natural resources employed in the production of food, feed, fiber and forests. The last decades witnessed widespread increases in the productivity of natural resources and in production, based upon the knowledge embodied in people, technologies and institutions. More recently there is a sense that further expansion in production is threatened by a diminution in the quality of natural resources and that these same quality changes frequently affect the productivity of non-agricultural activities as well. Moreover, there is concern that the capacity of natural resources to play their broader environmental role might be threatened. These circumstances argue for more attention to natural resources and for the development of sustainable patterns of resource use that can both increase productivity to meet the mounting demands for products and at the same time limit further threats to natural resources and to the environment.
Since the mid-1980s the CGIAR has reflected its interests in productivity-increasing, resource-conserving technologies and has allocated an increasing portion of its research resources to furthering their development and use. This paper describes some considerations important to setting priorities for CGIAR natural resources conservation and management research, along with TAC's understanding of the Group's views on the topic.
