Webinar 3: Biodiversity in agriculture for people and planet

Key actions to achieve climate security, food security, nutrition security and environmental security include avoiding further conversion of intact ecosystems and restoring ecosystems where they are in deficit; reducing the impacts of food production and consumption on the environment and biodiversity; diversifying production practices to regenerate ecosystem services to and from agriculture; and transforming food system objectives to harness food’s full potential to contribute to these goals. Major investments are needed, notably in LMICs, to support the development and improvement of diversification practices. Investment should not only target technologies and practices but also provide the necessary enabling environment that ensures that farmers and farming communities thrive when contributing to the global goals.

Global conventions on the environment and food systems recognize that biodiversity reaches far beyond conserving species in protected areas—it is a critical means to securing healthy, diverse diets and sustaining ecosystem services such as the carbon and water cycle as well as pollination and natural pest control. This session will review the current evidence for the links between biodiversity and agriculture. We argue that it is possible to achieve food and nutrition security while retaining biodiversity within planetary boundaries. This can be done via a diversified agricultural system that also contributes to climate and hydrological security. However, this requires a significant transformation in how we produce food, which depends on a rethinking and recentering of biodiversity as part of our food systems.