Mainstreaming Biodiversity-Sensitive Agriculture for Sustainable Food Systems

30 September 2021 - In a high-level webinar co-hosted by FAO North America and the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment of France (INRAE), expert panelists discussed challenges and opportunities for promoting more sustainable agricultural practices and approaches to reverse biodiversity loss across the globe.

The timely session, moderated by Tom Pesek, Senior Liaison Officer at FAO North America reiterated how business as usual is no longer an option. “Recent reports have found that food systems are contributing up to one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, up to 80 percent of biodiversity loss, and up to 70 percent of freshwater usage,” said Jocelyn Brown Hall, Director of FAO North America, in her welcoming remarks. Jean-François Soussana, Vice President for International Affairs at INRAE, reflected upon those concerning statistics in his welcoming remarks underlining that “when you have diversified landscapes, you can reduce the use of pesticides and other inputs because you get natural crop protection services.”

“The combination of planned and unplanned biodiversity conservation is the basis for many ecosystems services that provide benefits for people and nature itself,” said Thierry Caquet, Scientific Director for the Environment at INRAE, highlighting the benefits of natural pest control, pollination, as well as soil, water, and air quality. He discussed the various approaches to biodiversity conservation and concluded that all are necessary, and none are sufficient on their own. Caquet also emphasized the importance of traditional farming and knowledge on biodiversity preservation, stating, “It is important to keep alive best practices from cultures that support the sustainable use of biological resources.”

Eduardo Mansur, Director of FAO’s Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity, and the Environment discussed FAO’s strategy to support member countries to enhance their capacity to mainstream biodiversity. “We have to look at the role of biodiversity on ecosystems services for food and nutrition and also the possibility of linking this with the agenda of climate change,” he said. Mansur also discussed the importance of tools that can measure progress and highlighted FAO’s work on Agroecology performance evaluation with the ‘Tools for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE) report,’ and the ‘Global Biodiversity Framework’ that will be showcased at the upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15). 

During the panel discussion, Marc Deconchat, Research Director and Director of the BIOSEFAIR Meta-Program at INRAE, set the scene stating, “It is not a matter of biodiversity within agriculture, but agriculture within biodiversity,” highlighting that we need to change the way we see nature. Saswati Bora, Director of Regenerative Food Systems at The Nature Conservancy, added, “food production does not have to be in conflict with nature,” underscoring the work that The Nature Conservancy is doing to address market failures that do not prioritize biodiversity. “Agriculture sectors have the potential to contribute to the protection of biodiversity,” added Frederic Castell, Senior Technical Advisor at FAO, urging the scaling up of agroecology.

“By transforming our food systems, we could solve so many problems at once,” said Soussana, indicating that nutrition would increase with diversified diets, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by storing carbon in the soil, and agricultural production would be more stable with less devastating impacts from climate change. The event concluded with further remarks from panelists, most of whom called for mobilizing all actors, including consumers, and collaboration across sectors.

Useful Resources

Watch the webinar recording: https://bit.ly/9-30-Recording
Speaker bios: https://bit.ly/3FqJeD5
Twitter thread: https://bit.ly/2WCqJKk

Speaker Presentations:

Thierry Caquet, INRAE https://bit.ly/3uslTvM
Eduardo Mansur, FAO https://bit.ly/3iuWQ6G
Saswati Bora, TNC https://bit.ly/3FgV6HJ