New global initiative launched push to agriculture, conservation agenda
Sixteen global agricultural and conservation leaders have launched an initiative aimed at bridging the agriculture and conservation agenda to reaffirm the critical importance of sustainable agriculture.
The initiative, also seeks to expand dialogue, build scientific evidence base and chart a clear path for collaboration in reaching the post-2015 sustainable development goals set in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.
These were contained in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency and signed by Mr David Ainsworth, Information Officer of the Convention on Biological Diversity from Montreal, Canada.
The statement said as food and nutrition security was of paramount importance to all and with agriculture being the dominant user of land and water, on-going discussions of the post-2015 sustainable development goals have revitalized the long-standing debate about the most appropriate agriculture development model and the potential conflicts, or synergies, between agriculture and conservation.
Bridging Agriculture and Conservation Initiative, which is led by Diversity International, is aimed at building and leveraging existing science, including sound economics to underpin critical progress based on evidence of practical, synergistic approaches that work at all levels, with a particular emphasis on small scale producers, and to raise awareness among decision makers, including farmers, policy makers, the private sector and funders of agriculture and conservation programmes.
Mr Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), welcomed the new initiative as a pledge towards the Biodiversity Champions initiative.
“Bringing the agriculture and conservation sectors together to manage and sustain agricultural biodiversity is potentially the most effective way to implement the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets,” he said.
Accordingly, sixteen global leaders drafted a declaration agreeing on the need for a new agricultural development paradigm that addresses society’s current and future needs for more sustainable, socially equitable, resilient, nutritious and adaptable productive food and farming systems.
He said agriculture and food security depended not only on the biodiversity of crops and livestock but also in the broader landscape highlights and that the way to sustainably intensify production was to respect the ability of landscapes to regenerate and provide multiple goods and services.
Mr Dias said, “This new paradigm arises from the convergence of interests of the agriculture and conservation communities through working together at the landscape level, thereby avoiding the pitfalls of unilateral, sector-based approaches that over-emphasize ‘productivity’ alone or on an over-reliance on protected areas as the only means to conserve biodiversity.”
Ms Ann Tutwiler, Director General of Biodiversity International, said the initiative would provide evidence to help reach the goals of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and to make biodiversity more visible.
She said the initiative represents an important effort of the agriculture and conservation sectors to come together to provide concrete, evidence-based solutions to feed a growing global population to ensure long-term conservation of biodiversity.
The initiative is an important complement to the CBD programme of work on agricultural biodiversity and efforts of partners in this field such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, including its “Save and grow” approach.
Source: GNA