Biodiversity for food and agriculture
Biodiversity – at genetic, species and ecosystem levels – is the basis of food and agriculture. It allows a wide variety of products to be harvested from the world’s farms, pasturelands, forests, fisheries and fish farms. It includes the diversity of domesticated crops, livestock and farmed fish and aquatic invertebrates, forest trees and wild-harvested aquatic species, as well as the diversity of all non-domesticated species that support production and all wild species gathered or hunted for food and other purposes.In addition to supplying food and non-food products, biodiversity provides services such as pollination, pest control, regulation of water supplies and protection from extreme weather events. It allows production systems to adapt over time in response to changing conditions and changing human needs.
Many important components of biodiversity for food and agriculture are in decline, driven in part by unsustainable practices in agrifood systems.
This has led to the adoption of global policy responses targeting its conservation and sustainable use, notably the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Commission’s Framework for Action on Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture, the latter specifically focused on the biodiversity that underpins the world’s agrifood systems.
The Framework for Action contains a globally agreed set of priorities and actions aimed at addressing the loss of biodiversity of relevance to food and agriculture and ensuring its sustainable use. It was negotiated by the Members of the Commission as a response to the findings of the country-driven report on The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture.
Main outcomes CGRFA-20:
- Recommendation that FAO circulate a questionnaire on the implementation of the Framework for Action on Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture
- Recommendation that FAO prepare a simplified country reporting questionnaire for the preparation of The Second Report on the State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture
Key publications
Biodiversity is the variety of life at genetic, species and ecosystem levels. It is the range and variety of Earth’s plants, animals and micro-organisms and is vital to food security.
34% of fish stocks are estimated to have been overfished in 2017, 60 maximally sustainably fished and 6 percent underfished.
As of 2021, 7 092 extant local breeds of livestock reported globally, 29 percent are classified as at risk.
The global area covered by seagrass is estimated to have declined by 29 percent between 1879 and 2006.
Crop diversity in farmers’ fields has declined and threats are increasing.
