CBD COP16.2 Side Event: “Meeting people’s needs through sustainable use of biodiversity within agrifood systems" Opening Remarks

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Partners and Colleagues,

I am pleased to welcome you to FAO Headquarters for the resumed meeting of the CBD COP16. FAO is your Organization and this is your home.

This is an important continuation of the discussion on biodiversity and agrifood systems.

Our focus on biodiversity and agriculture is based on science. I always ask what is the real meaning of biodiversity for the consumers and the farmers – it is about food diversity.

Biodiversity provides the foundation for food production, providing essential ecosystem services such as soil fertility, pest control, and climate adaptation.

Biodiversity is the backbone of resilient and diverse agrifood systems.

Any collapse in biodiversity brings high costs to people and social economies.

We need to produce more with less: more quantity, with more diversity, with less impact on the environment. Producing more with less – it’s a simple slogan which is already popular in Ministries of Agriculture, and I hope it can also be taken up by Ministries of Environment.

We need science and innovation, enabling policies and investments to minimize impact, and maximize output, ensuring everyone profits.

Continuing land degradation could put some three billion lives at risk, with the poor hardest hit. Biodiversity is also in the soil and in the water, yet we only speak about biodiversity on the surface. We need to discuss biodiversity in the context of all three spaces.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted at COP15, provides common ground to work together. Over half of the Framework’s 23 targets are directly related to agriculture.

The Framework promotes integrated land and water management practices that preserve critical habitats and biodiversity, while mitigating climate change effects. 

For this reason, we established the Rome Water Dialogue after the UN Water Conference because we need to look at biodiversity from a holistic, three-dimensional perspective.

That is why it is so important to integrate agrifood systems in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, as well as in rural development.

It is critical to get the farmers on board, for them to take ownership and be part of the partnership. Without the farmers, it is only political policy without implementation.

We need to make sure that countries have the necessary support to develop the comprehensive policies needed for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

I have visited Colombia about seven times over the past years and have seen the great potential for biodiversity. For example, the dragon fruit produced there has more colours than just white – this is the result of science and technology; of how science and technology can improve output and livelihoods.

Dear Friends,

At COP16 in Cali, Colombia, FAO together with the CBD Secretariat and the COP16 Presidency, launched the Agri Support Initiative to accelerate the implementation of the Biodiversity Framework.

The initiative provides us with a collective mechanism to help governments build capacity, identify and implement strategic levers across agrifood systems to achieve their national biodiversity targets.

But we also need to increase the availability and affordability of financial services for biodiversity and agrifood systems. We need the political commitment for biodiversity as it is a public good. For example, we need political investment in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which are the cradles of biodiversity, but there is no political recognition of this value and the need to invest in these countries.

Including agrifood systems in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans can unlock funding opportunities through international mechanisms, public-private partnerships, and national budgets.

We need an integrated approach across government sectors, across Ministries, to ensure the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life – leaving no one behind.

This is the common philosophy we need to produce staple, nutritious, healthy and functional foods – the four levels of foods.

So let us continue to work together for people and the planet.

Thank you.