Geneva UN Biodiversity Meetings: Interview with the FAO team

Geneva UN Biodiversity Meetings - Interview with Frédéric Castell who is leading FAO’s work on biodiversity mainstreaming

The Geneva UN Biodiversity Meetings resumed in-person negotiations on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework which will be concluded at the conference in Kunming, China later this year. To learn more about the importance of the new biodiversity framework for the agricultural sectors and the role of FAO, we spoke with Frédéric Castell who is leading FAO’s work on biodiversity mainstreaming. 

1. FAO has developed a Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors (The Strategy) and an Action Plan for its implementation. Why is biodiversity important for agricultural sectors?

Biodiversity is key to food security and nutrition. It provides an essential basis to sustainably produce enough nutritious food for a growing world population, in the face of global challenges, including the climate crisis. In agricultural ecosystems, maintenance of biological diversity is important both for food production and to conserve the ecological foundations necessary to sustain life and rural livelihoods. If managed sustainably, the agricultural sectors can help safeguard important ecosystem functions, such as pollination, nutrient and water cycling, and climate regulation. However, the agricultural sectors are too often among the leading drivers of biodiversity loss. Given this dependence on biodiversity, the Strategy has been developed to reduce the negative impacts of unsustainable agricultural practices on biodiversity, to promote a transition to sustainable agricultural practices, and to conserve, enhance, preserve and restore biodiversity as a whole. The Action Plan developed to implement the Strategy includes more than 100 activities. An important focus is providing technical and policy support to Member countries to develop and implement their own normative and standard-setting instruments related to biodiversity and to increase knowledge sharing and the uptake of biodiversity friendly practices.

2. The international community is currently negotiating a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (the Framework) to be adopted at COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to be held later this year in China. How is this Framework related to FAO’s work?

The draft Framework comprises 21 action-oriented targets, grouped into three clusters on: reducing threats to biodiversity; meeting people’s needs through the sustainable use of biodiversity; and ensuring that tools and solutions are in place to support biodiversity mainstreaming. Most of these targets are directly related to the agricultural sectors. For example, prominent targets address restoring ecosystems (target 2), reducing nutrient, pesticide and plastic pollution from agriculture and other sources (target 7), the sustainable use of wild species (target 9), sustainable use of biodiversity across agriculture, forestry and aquaculture (target 10) and the access and sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of biodiversity (target 13). These targets, in particular, have been subject to long discussions at the Geneva meeting of the CBD’s Open-ended Working Group that is tasked with advancing negotiations of the Framework in preparation for COP15. Arguably, one of the shortcomings of the previous set of Aichi biodiversity targets was the failure to fully integrate the agricultural sectors in the design and delivery of the CBD’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Therefore, for the success of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, FAO’s work is of major importance.

3. What role will FAO play to implement the Framework once adopted?

FAO is well positioned to support its Members (almost all of whom are Parties to the CBD) to implement the Framework. FAO will be ready to fast-track implementation of the Framework targets that focus on agrifood systems at the request of Members. FAO is already providing technical support to Members through concrete actions to support the development of sustainable, biodiversity-friendly and diversified practices. On agroecology, for instance, FAO is supporting countries to design and assess transition pathways through the application of the Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation (TAPE). Nevertheless, achieving sustainability at scale requires more than just technical solutions, it relies on key policy decisions and collaboration between different sectors and stakeholders, including small-scale farmers and local communities as they have been the guardians of biodiversity for food and agriculture for millennia. The successful implementation of the Framework demands also systemic change across public policy, including the policies that govern agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries. Thefore, FAO will act as a neutral and open forum to discuss biodiversity-related policies, negotiate agreements and develop guidelines and indicators that could support the implementation of the Framework and its monitoring.

Related Links:

Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment (OCB)

A waiting game – crucial decisions needed in final days of the UN Biodiversity meeting