The fifth observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste will highlight the critical need for financing to bolster efforts to reduce food loss and waste, contribute to achieving climate goals, and advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

On land as in water, there can be no food security without biodiversity: it allows plants and animals to reproduce and grow, adapt to natural and human-induced impacts, resist diseases and parasites, and continue to evolve. Aquatic biodiversity is the basis on which aquaculture can exist and grow sustainably.

FAO’s work aligns with Colombia’s priority for COP16 on Biodiversity to Make peace with nature. 

Indonesia and Sao Tome and Principe receive their first designations from FAO along with Austria’s second system.

The open-ended workshop will be held in collaboration with the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Please join us at the launch of AquaGRIS, the world’s first public online database of farmed aquatic species and their wild relatives, developed by FAO in collaboration with countries, scientific experts and stakeholders through a consultative process spanning five years.  Watch the webcast 

Africa's culinary landscape is a rich tapestry of biodiversity and tradition, holding beneath its vibrant surface a treasure trove of forgotten foods.

Besta Pulum cannot contain his excitement about the tablet computer he is holding in his hands. “When I was young, I never saw that kind of computer. Now I’m seeing it; I didn’t sleep [from excitement],” says the community chief, who reckons his age at around 60. 

The First Session of the Ad Hoc Expert Team on Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture opened on 2 July 2024. The Expert Team was established by the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in 2023 to review issues related to biodiversity for food and agriculture (BFA) and advise and make recommendations to the Commission on these matters.

The revised – unedited – draft of the Second Report on Forest Genetic Resources is now out for review. The Second Report builds on the first global assessment, published by FAO in 2014, and analyses the progress made in the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation, Sustainable Use and Development of Forest Genetic Resources, adopted by the FAO Conference in 2013.

Land holds the past, present and future of humanity. Everything from nutritious food and thriving ecosystems to agricultural heritage and livelihoods rely on healthy and productive land. Yet every year, an average of 100 million hectares of land are degraded through unsustainable agriculture, urbanization and more frequent and prolonged droughts.

In the tapestry of our ecosystem, pollinators play a critical role in sustaining agricultural productivity and enhancing human health. Recognizing the importance of pollinators, FAO just launched its newly redesigned platform dedicated to the Global Action on Pollination Services for Sustainable Agriculture.

Regional consultations on the review of the Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture were held in Cali, Colombia from 21 to 23 May 2024. FAO National Focal Points for Plant Genetic Resources and National Focal Points to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture from more than 20 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean gathered at the premises of the Alliance Biodiversity International & the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to discuss priorities for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources.

FAO celebrates the International Day of Potato 2024 with a special and an high-level event

Reviving and marketing ancestral agricultural food production practices.

The theme of this year’s International Day for Biodiversity is “Be Part of the Plan” - a rallying call to the public and diverse actors to support the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, endorsed in December 2022, and also known as The Biodiversity Plan. FAO is an integral part of this plan, as agrifood systems are a powerful channel for readily available and scalable solutions to conserving, restoring and sustainably using biodiversity.

Biodiversity and agriculture are inseparable. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, or ‘The Biodiversity Plan’, adopted by countries in 2022, fully recognizes this close interdependence. The Biodiversity Plan sets out a pathway to a world living in harmony with nature by 2050, with more than half of its 23 targets relating to agrifood systems. FAO is playing an active role in supporting countries to implement these ambitious targets and its four Goals. In reality, FAO’s projects and initiatives relate to most of the Biodiversity Plan targets, with five topping the list.

The United Nations World Restoration Flagships are the most ambitious, promising or successful examples of large-scale ecosystem restoration, recognized in the context of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. At least ten new flagships will be selected and announced in 2025. Apply before 31 May 2024 to join the #GenerationRestoration! 

Join us for a pivotal side event during SBSTTA 26, focused on delivering restoration outcomes crucial for biodiversity and human wellbeing. This event will shed light on the Resource Guide to Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and its implications.

The International Symposium Agriculture, Biodiversity and Food Security: From Commitments to Actions was held at the Quebec City Convention Centre, Canada, from April 30 to May 2, 2024. Jointly organized by Université Laval's École supérieure d'études internationales, the Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie (MRIF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the event brought together over 250 key players from the agricultural and agrifood sectors in 39 countries.