Third regional dialogue on biodiversity mainstreaming across agricultural sectors in Europe and Central Asia: Enhancing policy coherence and institutional capacity

Ongoing crises are among the biggest short- and long-term risks the world is expected to face in the coming decade. Sustainable agrifood systems offer a vital pathway to address biodiversity loss while ensuring food security, nutrition and climate resilience, building on the outcomes of the 2021 First Regional Dialogue to foster a complex ecosystem approach, integrate biodiversity for food and agriculture into a broader context, and align policies. 

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), offers a road map for harmonious co-existence with nature and emphasizes the importance of meeting human needs through the sustainable use of biodiversity. Agrifood systems are crucial to the framework’s implementation, and over half of the 23 global targets directly depend on them. Realizing at least half of these targets by 2030 demands direct action from the food and agricultural sectors.

Parties to the CBD were invited to submit their national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs) in alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and are invited to submit their national reports3 by 28 February 2026. It is against this critical backdrop that the Second Regional Dialogue in 2023 strengthened regional awareness of these targets and shared knowledge on tools for raising the profile and integrating biodiversity for food and agriculture into NBSAPs. To date in the Europe and Central Asia region, 19 parties to the CBD (35 percent of FAO Member Countries in Europe and Central Asia) have submitted their revised NBSAPs. 

Engaging in the CBD process encourages countries to better define the transformative role of their agrifood sectors while ensuring coherence with national priorities and commitments – including as reflected in their NBSAPs, nationally determined contributions and land degradation neutrality targets – and leveraging synergies across all levels for more effective action. 

Governments play a crucial role in driving transformative change – major shifts in how societies are organized, regulated and governed – to achieve global goals for living in harmony with nature, as emphasized in the Transformative Change Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.4 However, the effectiveness of current government actions is often hindered by a disconnect between the scale of biodiversity challenges and the fragmented jurisdiction of individual institutions, as well as by insufficient financial and other resources. This fragmentation reinforces the earlier recommendation from the dialogues to encourage coordination and cooperation across agricultural and other economic sectors. 

Given the greater effectiveness of initiatives that address more indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, involve diverse collaboration and foster multilevel transformative change, the Transformative Change Report highlights the importance for mainstreaming biodiversity in agrifood sectors; integrating biodiversity into sectorial policies and decision-making; transforming economic systems by internalizing environmental costs and reforming harmful incentives; and engaging a wider range of actors and coalitions. These actions directly address the key recommendation from the previous regional dialogues to follow the inclusivity principle and engage stakeholders with multiple interests. 

These efforts aim to ensure food security while safeguarding biodiversity, reducing emissions and strengthening adaptation and resilience, in line with the FAO Strategic Framework 2022–31 and its Priority Programme Areas, the FAO Strategy and Action Plan for Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors, and the Agri-NBSAPs Support Initiative. 

Building on this background, the outcomes of the first and second regional dialogues and the subsequent review of the Regional Action Plan on Mainstreaming Biodiversity (2022–2023) in the Second Dialogue – and as a preparatory step towards the Seventeenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (COP 17) – the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia is organizing a third regional dialogue on biodiversity mainstreaming across agricultural sectors in Europe and Central Asia. 

OBJECTIVE 

This dialogue aims to strengthen countries’ capacities to accelerate the integration of biodiversity into agrifood systems, enabling them to fulfill their commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and to prepare countries to champion biodiversity mainstreaming in the upcoming COP 17 negotiations. 

EXPECTED RESULTS 

TARGET AUDIENCE 

• Representatives from the Ministries of Agriculture and the CBD focal points of Member Countries in the Europe and Central Asia region. 
• Representatives of farmers, smallholders, small-scale producers, rural and local communities, researchers, civil society, the private sector and technical experts, including representatives of youth and women. 
• Representatives from United Nations agencies and other partners. 

LANGUAGE 

The event will be held in Armenian, English and Russian. Simultaneous interpretation will be available.  

VENUE and LOGISTICAL INFORMATION

The Dialogue will take place in Best Western Plus Congress Hotel, Yerevan, Armenia and online on the following dates:

3 December: 14:00 – 18:00 Yerevan Time (GMT+4)

4 December: 09:00 – 14:00 Yerevan Time (GMT+4)